Symposia Submissions

Submissions to convene a symposium at ESA2024 are now closed.

Information and Guidelines

We welcome submissions for symposia from across the breadth of ecology throughout Australia and Oceania and the common ecosystems that connect us across the globe. Proponents should provide a short rationale for a theme, noting its potential interest to ecologists and/or conservation biologists as outlined in the Guidelines for Submission below.

Symposia Overview

Symposia will run in parallel sessions within the Scientific Program.

Most symposia will be of 2 hours duration, at the discretion of the Scientific Committee (potentially 8 x 15 minute blocks but please also see the information below).

Each symposium will include both invited speakers and contributed presentations; we suggest organisers secure invitees to make up approximately two-thirds of the speakers in the symposium and the remainder will be selected from proffered abstracts.

Organisers may think laterally about the structure of their symposium. We encourage a mixture of approaches beyond the traditional 8 x 15 minute presentations within symposia. However, we request that alternative formats use multiples or fractions of 15 minute blocks to ensure that attendees are able to move between parallel sessions if they wish. For example a panel led discussion may begin with a series of 5 minute speed talks (in multiples of three) by panel members followed by a longer period for discussion, and finish with a 15 minute structured synthesis.

Organisers of symposia that are accepted will be asked to review abstracts that have been proffered under their symposium, and are responsible for chairing their symposium.

Final allocation of presentations to each symposium will be at the discretion of the Scientific Committee.

Please note that all symposia organisers and presenters (including invited presenters) are required to register and pay to attend ESA2024. Symposium proposals MUST be submitted online by Monday 11 March 2024.

All presenters in a symposium (including invited speakers) will be required to submit their abstract online during the Call for Abstracts to ensure that the abstract is in the correct format and accompanying information is supplied.

The conference policy of one presentation per person applies to Symposia, Plenaries and all sessions. This applies to the presenter. Co-authoring multiple abstracts is fine.

Australian and international presenters should be able to attend symposia in-person. We strongly encourage symposium submissions from international presenters and provide the assurance that on-line options for presenting will be available should attendance in person not be possible.

Guidelines for Submission

  • You must complete your submission to convene a symposium by Monday 11 March 2024 when the call will close. 
  • You are not required to submit individual abstracts at this stage.

Your proposal (not exceeding 500 words) should include the following:

Symposium Summary

Please provide a rationale for the theme and structure of the session in addition to background information, goals, objectives, importance and interest to attendees at ESA 2024. 

Symposium Justification

How does the proposal meet the following: 

Scientific Strength

  • Does your proposal offer significant contributions to ecological understanding or conservation of biodiversity?
  • Does your proposal present innovative or interdisciplinary approaches across sub-disciplines of ecology or conservation biology or with other related disciplines?
  • Does your proposal have sufficiently broad appeal to generate an audience of approximately 100 people?

Structure and Organisation

  • Does your proposal structure provide overall synthesis or overview?
  • Does your proposal build a well-integrated whole, with each talk having clear relevance to the overall synthesis provided by the symposium?

Speakers

  • Do your proposed speakers bring new contributions to the session, not simply reviews of previous work?
  • Provide a list of intended presenters. Indicate which speakers are confirmed and which are tentative.

If you have any questions regarding the submission process please contact the Conference Secretariat by phone: +61 2 6198 3218 or by email: esa@kaigi.com.au.