Instructions for Presenters in Concurrent Sessions

Time allotment for papers; presentation tips. Oral Paper Presentations that have been assigned by the Conference Committee to a concurrent session are allotted 25 minutes: the opening 2 minutes to allow the session chair to introduce the presenter and for the presenter to prepare his/her PowerPoint (if any), 18 minutes for the presentation itself, and 5 minutes for Q&A. There are five papers per two-hour session. (For sessions of Invited Papers, the session organizer has the discretion to schedule a longer or shorter amount of time for each paper.)

Presenters are discouraged from reading papers word-for-word (it’s usually less engaging), but if you do choose to read your paper, experience has shown that it is impossible to intelligibly present a single double-spaced page (reading word-for-word) in less than 2 1/2 minutes. This means that, in general, the reading version of your presentation should run no more than 7 double-spaced pages.

Room set-up. The meeting rooms generally are set up theater-style and seat anywhere from 140-500 persons. Click here for a room diagram and seating capacities.

Punctuality. Every conference we get more complaints about sessions running late than anything else. People want to jump between sessions, but all it takes is one overlong presentation to throw the whole schedule off. In our instructions to session chairs, we emphasize the importance of keeping things on schedule, but when all is said and done, the only way to ensure punctuality is through a cooperative effort. Please run through your presentation beforehand and time it.

Technical Information and Instructions for Presenters of Posters, Computer Demos, and Exhibits

Poster presentations are best-suited for highly graphical communications or for giving status reports/overviews of unfinished projects, planning processes, and other work-in-progress. Technical details: Each poster presentation will be allotted a vertical space 44 inches high x 44 inches wide (i.e., half of one side of a standard exhibit panel, thus allowing four presentations per panel — two on each side). See the picture of a poster board, below. This 44x44 space is the MAXIMUM you have — remember, you are sharing your side of the panel with another presenter. We highly recommend that you allot space for a title (using 4-inch high letters) running across the top of your poster; this will make it much easier for people strolling through the posters to immediately grasp your subject. (IMPORTANT NOTE, posted 9/22/04: We have been informed by our exhibit contractor that either push pins or thumb tacks MUST be used with their poster boards — you CANNOT use sticky-back Velcro tape, as this damages the fabric covering the boards. This is a change from our original instructions, which stated that Velcro tape could be used.) Masking or duct tape cannot be used to secure display materials to the panels. Each panel will have a 2x6 table placed directly underneath it (in front of it, in the case of computer demos) to use for any handouts or display copies of publications. You are responsible for bringing all materials needed to display your poster. Set-up begins Sunday evening, March 13, at 6 PM. All posters should be in place by 9 PM that evening. If your travel schedule does not permit setting up on Sunday, plan to do so first thing on Monday. Refreshment breaks during the day on Monday and Tuesday will be served in the foyer immediately outside of the Poster Session Room, and people will be actively encouraged to circulate through the posters and demos, so if at all possible plan to stand by your poster during the refreshment breaks. Take-down begins at 8:00 PM on Tuesday, March 15. All posters must be removed by 8:30 PM that day so that the vendor can remove its panels and tables. The posters will be available for continuous viewing during the two-day period between set-up and take-down.

There will be a diagram of the poster session layout at the conference so presenters can find their assigned locations.

Computer demonstrations (e.g., databases, GIS, Web sites, etc.) are welcome, but you must provide all necessary hardware (including extension cords and duct tape to secure cords to floor) and take responsibility for securing that hardware during periods when you are not present. The conference organizers and the hotel can assume no responsibility for your laptop or any other equipment. Computer demos will be given the exact same set-up as the poster presentations (details above), and we strongly urge you to prepare a title bar for your demo as above. In fact, it would be helpful to attendees to prepare a full poster (as above) describing your demo and telling what times you will be personally available to give the demo. If you are proposing a Web-based demo, you will have to pay for the line connecting to the Internet. You must request an Internet connection on your abstract submission form. The GWS will put you in touch with the hotel’s A-V contractor to make the necessary payment arrangements.

Floor-standing and table-top exhibits are also welcome; submit an abstract just as any poster/demo presenter would do. Please indicate whether the exhibit is either a floor-standing or table-top display; in either case, give the exact dimensions of its “footprint” (length x width x height) on the abstract submission form. Unlike posters and computer demos, exhibits may be left up the entire week.

Commercial exhibitors: in general, the organizers will consider exhibits only from a few kinds of companies whose products directly contribute to the mission of the conference (e.g., book publishers, GIS dealers, manufacturers of scientific equipment, historic preservation specialties, etc.); please contact the GWS office for information and prices.

Finally, please note that presenters of posters and computer demos may prepare a paper describing their presentation for possible inclusion in the conference proceedings (see next section).

Instructions for Authors

A conference proceedings will be published by the George Wright Society as a record of the conference. We strive to publish in the same year as the conference, i.e., by December 2005. As part of their registration fee, all full-week and two-day (but not single-day) registrants will receive the proceedings on CD automatically upon publication. For an additional fee, conferees may also order the proceedings as a paperback book. For more on how to submit a paper for the proceedings, see below.

In addition, participants in the conference may also submit papers for consideration by CRM: The Journal of Heritage Stewardship. It is published twice each year by the National Park Service to address the history and development of and trends and emerging issues in cultural resource management in the United States and abroad. Its purpose is to broaden the intellectual foundation of the management of cultural resources. For more information, consult the journal’s website: http://www.cr.nps.gov/CRMJournal and click “guidance for authors,” or contact the CRM Journal editor.

Conference Proceedings: Format

As noted above, the proceedings will be published in two formats: as a CD with all the papers in Adobe Acrobat PDF format, and as a paperback book. The PDF format allows any computer to read and/or print out files that look exactly like the printed page, while at the same time you can zoom in and out on-screen to any magnification you choose. The CD will contain all the material in the printed book, with the same layout and pagination, thus allowing CD users to cite the proceedings just as they would a book. A major added benefit is that you can search any PDF file for a word or string of words, and the CD will include a single PDF file containing the entire contents of the book to allow whole-book searches. All that is required is Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is free software downloadable from Adobe.

The proceedings are not refereed, and we will try to publish as many papers as possible as long as they meet general quality standards, subject to space limits. All papers meeting the criteria below will be considered for inclusion. Following the guidelines enables us to copyedit and format the proceedings quickly and efficiently. Papers that do not follow the guidelines may be returned or rejected.

DEADLINE

• To be considered for possible publication, papers must be submitted to the GWS office by 8 April 2005. Late submissions will not be considered.

FORM OF SUBMISSION

• To save paper and disks, we encourage authors to submit papers via e-mail, but only if the paper does not contain graphics. Because we require e-graphics to be high-resolution (see below), the file size of attached graphics — even if the files are Zipped — can overwhelm our e-mail capacity, especially if several papers are coming through at the same time. If your paper is text-only, attach the word processing document to an e-mail message that indicates the version of the software you are using. Submit to:

dharmon@georgewright.org

• If your paper contains graphics, submit it on CD. Do not embed the graphics in the text file; each one should be in a separate file. (For more on e-graphics, see below.) An accompanying hard copy manuscript is not necessary. Mail to: The George Wright Society, ATTN: 2005 Proceedings, P.O. Box 65, Hancock, MI 49930-0065 USA.

LENGTH

• To enable us to include as many submissions as possible, papers can be no more than 2,500 words, exclusive of endnotes and reference lists. This is a strict limit.
• Please limit the number of citations / endnotes to no more than 25.

FORMATTING; CITATIONS AND REFERENCES

• Use a minimum of formatting. We re-format all papers, so do not use tabs, hyphenation, cover sheets, page numbering, fancy typefaces, justification, etc. All of that has to be stripped out. Start each new paragraph flush left and double-space between paragraphs. Please remember to run your spell-checker before you submit!
• Give the full mailing address and e-mail of each author.
• Do not use agency abbreviations or jargon in your paper (for example, do not use “GRSM” for “Great Smoky Mountains National Park”). Keep in mind that the proceedings will have an international readership that may not understand your agency’s lingo. Briefly explain any potentially unclear references to internal agency workings, documents, etc. Give the location of all protected areas you mention.
• You may use either the author–date system or endnotes (NOT footnotes) for citations. If you use endnotes, please keep discursive material within them to a minimum — they should primarily be used to give references.
• Format for author–date citations:
  • Zube, E.H. 1996. Management in national parks: from scenery to science. In Science and Ecosystem Management in the National Parks. W.L. Halvorson and G.E. Davis, eds. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 11–22.
  • Hitchcock, A. 2003. Through the fog of war in Iraq: lessons learned in heritage preservation. The George Wright Forum 20:4, 28–40.
• Format for endnotes:
  • Ervin H. Zube, “Management in national parks: from scenery to science.” In Science and Ecosystem Management in the National Parks,William L. Halvorson and Gary E. Davis, eds. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1996), 11–22.
  • Ann Hitchcock, “Through the fog of war in Iraq: lessons learned in heritage preservation.” The George Wright Forum 20:4 (2003), 28–40.

TABLES, GRAPHICS, PHOTOS

Submit tables, graphics (e.g., graphs, line art, screenshots), and photos in electronic (digital) format. Because of space limitations, no more than 4 tables, graphics, and photos (in total) may be submitted.

• Put each table, graphic, or photo in its own file. Submit captions in a separate file too.
• VERY IMPORTANT: submit the graphic in TIFF, JPG, or EPS format with at least a 300 dpi resolution. You can submit graphics at 600-dpi or even 1200-dpi resolution if you wish — higher resolutions do not necessarily make photos print better, but sometimes they sharpen line art — but under no circumstances are resolutions of less than 300 dpi acceptable.
• Do not embed figure captions in the graphics file. Figures are re-numbered sequentially in the proceedings. List the captions in a separate text file.
• For photos, provide a credit line (and of course make sure you have the photographer’s permission) after the caption.

All tables, graphics, and photos will be published in black and white, not color. Therefore, do not make references in the text to certain colors being in graphics — all those colors will get grayscaled for the printed version of the proceedings.

If you have any questions, contact The George Wright Society.