Annual Conference Session FAQs

The Annual Conference Committee will notify all session proposal submitters via e-mail in mid- to late November regarding the status of the proposal.

• Confirm with copresenters and review terms of acceptance in the acceptance letter sent via e-mail and the online agreement form.
• Agree to present using the online form by December 15. The link was provided in the acceptance e-mail.
• Start outlining your presentation and have a conference call with copresenters to plan who will do what.
• Update NAFSA (sessions[at]nafsa.org) of any presenter changes by March 1, 2012. Changes after that date must still be reported to NAFSA but will not be reflected in the printed conference program.
• Register for the conference and reserve housing, available online beginning March 1, 2012 at 12:00 p.m. (EST).
• E-mail your handout(s) to sessions[at]nafsa.org by April 30, 2012, so they may be posted online prior to the conference.
• In May, have one more conference call with copresenters to prepare for your presentation.

Please refer to the e-mail you received notifying you of your proposal's acceptance, or contact sessions[at]nafsa.org or locate your session by searching online in Conference Connection.

You may present in no more than two general sessions regardless of your role.

The Annual Conference Committee limits the number of session presenters to four people, including the chair or moderator. The only exception is for sessions designed in the roundtable discussion format.

The majority of sessions will be held at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, though some may take place at a hotel. The location and room number of your session will be uploaded to Conference Connection in May prior to the conference and will be listed in the conference program provided to you at the registration desk on site.

A podium, LCD projector and screen, and microphones are available in every room. NAFSA does not provide laptop computers for PowerPoint presentations. Refer to the copy of your confirmation form to review any additional requests you made. Note: We may not be able to accommodate requests made after the confirmation form is due on December 15.

Mac Users: The audiovisual company provides a VGA connection to the LCD projector. Please bring the proper adapter, if needed.

Most rooms are set up "theater-style," with chairs facing the front of the room towards the head table and podium. Some rooms will be set with round tables with 8-10 chairs. You will receive a separate e-mail from sessions[at]nafsa.org to confirm if your room will be set with round tables.

Concurrent sessions at the annual conference generally range from 25 to 1,000 attendees. Though we cannot know exactly how many people will attend your session, most sessions will take place in a room large enough for 100 people. Most regulatory sessions will be in rooms large enough for 400 people or more. If you would like to know what size room you have been placed in, contact sessions[at]nafsa.org after March 1.

Each session is listed in the conference program booklet that every attendee receives on site. Additionally, sessions are listed on the NAFSA Web site and in Conference Connection prior to the conference to help attendees plan their conference schedules.

All presenters are expected to register for the conference.

Yes, if you need a letter of invitation to obtain a U.S. visa, request your letter before April 30, 2012. Please check with your local U.S. Consulate to allow sufficient time for visa process. Your request for a letter of invitation to attend the NAFSA Annual Conference does not guarantee that you will receive a visa.

• Notify the session chair/organizer, other presenters, and NAFSA staff.
• Offer to work with the session chair/organizer to find a replacement presenter, if needed.

E-mail sessions[at]nafsa.org with the change of presenters so that the conference program is up-to-date and the new presenter receives important announcements. No changes can be made to the printed conference program after March 1, 2012. (However, changes should still be sent to sessions[at]nafsa.org, so that changes can be made to the online session listing.)

Additional tips for presenters and session organizers are posted in the Presenting and Training Guide. Session chairs will receive periodic e-mails in the months leading up to the conference with tips and suggestions for strengthening their sessions. Also check out these 41 Presentation Tips from the BeaconLive Blog.

There are many free conference call services. Note that NAFSA does not endorse use of one over another.

• www.freeconferencing.com
• www.freeconferencecall.com

If you'd like to collaborate on a document together on the Web, check out www.freesee.com.

Please refer to your confirmation form to review whether you agreed to have your session recorded. The permission of every presenter must be received in order to record a session. Should you wish to withdraw your permission to record the session, please e-mail sessions[at]nafsa.org.

Members of the press have been welcomed to attend sessions at the conference. Sessions are considered “on the record,” so presenters should bear in mind that their remarks may be quoted. Follow the “good sense” strategy you would use in any public speaking event.

The Annual Conference Committee is committed to making the NAFSA annual conference a more "green" event. Consequently, the committee is asking all presenters to submit their handouts by April 30, 2012, so that they can be posted to the NAFSA Web site prior to the conference. We will then encourage attendees to download handouts before or after the conference, instead of asking presenters to bring large quantities to their sessions. If your presentation is dependent on participants having handouts to work with, please print on both sides of the paper.

In general, if you use pictures, maps, graphs, tables, or other images that you or your institution/organization did not produce yourself, you need to provide NAFSA with written permission to use the material from the organization or individual who created it. Examples of materials that would require permission to use include:

• A world map copy and pasted from worldatlas.com
• A chart pulled from an Institute of International Education (IIE) publication (unless you or someone else presenting in your session works for IIE)
• A quote from a book, magazine, or newspaper article

Exceptions to this rule include images or quotes pulled from government sources.

Visit Stanford University's Copyright and Fair Use site for more information.

No, you maintain copyright of your work.

No. Please ship your materials and handouts to your hotel to pick up upon your arrival.