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 35–500 persons.

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 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 typical poster board, below. This 44x44 space is the maximum you have — remember, you are sharing your side of the panel with another presenter. Today, almost all posters are generated on a color plotter; this makes for the best presentation and also makes it easy to control the final size of the poster.

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. Bring push pins or thumb tacks to secure your poster to the poster board. Tape cannot be used to secure display materials to the panels. Each panel will have a 2.5x6-foot table placed directly underneath it 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, April 15 (exact time TBA). All posters should be in place by 10 pm that day. Refreshment breaks during the day will be served adjacent to the Posters, 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 late Thursday afternoon, April 19 (exact time TBA). All posters must be removed shortly after the take-down time so that the vendor can remove its panels and tables. Any materials remaining after that time will be discarded or recycled (please take responsibility for your poster and take it home with you).

There will be a Reception early Tuesday evening, April 17, from 6:30 to 7:30 pm, in a space immediately adjacent to the Posters. The first hour of this reception will be an opportunity for attendees to circulate among the posters. You should plan to staff your poster during this time. (The second hour of the reception will wrap up the Silent Auction in benefit of the George Melendez Wright Student Travel Scholarships.)

There will be a diagram of the poster session layout at the conference so presenters can find their assigned locations. The posters will be available for continuous viewing during the period between set-up and take-down.

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 4-inch-high 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 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 other 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 depth x height) on the abstract submission form, and indicate whether or not electricity is needed. 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 Submitting Papers to the Conference Proceedings

A conference proceedings will be published by the George Wright Society as a record of the conference. 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. The proceedings will also be published as a paperback book; conferees will be able to order it for an additional fee. For more on how to submit a paper for the proceedings, see below.

FORMAT

As noted above, the proceedings will be published on CD with all the papers in Adobe Acrobat PDF format, and as a paperback book. Both CD and book will be identical in terms of pagination so that either may be cited in reference lists. On the CD version you will be able to 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.

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 May 4, 2007. 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. 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: GWS2007 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.
• Keep citations / endnotes to no more than 15.

FORMATTING, CITATIONS

• 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 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.
• Do not embed figure captions in the graphics file. Figures are re-numbered sequentially in the proceedings. Put all captions together in a separate file.
• 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.
• 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.

Instructions for Shipping Materials to the Conference Hotel

From the Crowne Plaza management: "Please have your attendees ship their boxes to the hotel with their name on the box and the address of the hotel. When they check in, the front desk typically will have some kind of notice that a box is in house for that guest. They can request the box at that time."

Address shipments like this:

John Smith
HOLD FOR GUEST, Arriving on [INSERT YOUR ARRIVAL DATE HERE]
Crowne Plaza – St. Paul Riverfront
11 East Kellogg Blvd.
St Paul, MN 55101

NOTE: Try to time your shipment so it arrives no more than 2 or 3 days in advance of when you will arrive. Hotels have limited storage space and storage fees may apply to shipments that have to be held for a long time.