To help you submit a strong speaker proposal, make an individual impact and ultimately develop international partnerships, here are eight important questions for you to consider.
1. What is the global issue that you are addressing?
If your presentation focuses solely on your institution or a particular aspect of an issue, it will not score as highly. Going Global is all about bringing the international tertiary education sector together to discuss global issues.
2. Is the proposal globally relevant so that a global audience can understand it and engage with the subject matter?
It is worth considering that the Going Global audience is drawn from over 80 countries worldwide. So, proposals should be developed to consider how its discussion points are relevant or can be applied to institutions in different countries.
3. Is the proposal directly relevant to this year’s conference theme Knowledge Diplomacy and the Digital World: Does international tertiary education have a role?
Ensuring that your proposal fits into the theme Knowledge Diplomacy in a Digital World will put you in good stead to enable you to discuss critical issues that relate to the current climate.
4. Has the issue previously been discussed at Going Global?
Each annual conference should provide new and groundbreaking information for delegates. The previous years’ highlights may help you find out whether or not you have something new to bring to the table. Take a look.
5. Can people learn something from your proposal?
Try to focus on the learning points as opposed to describing in great detail the research methodologies, initiative, action or issue at hand. This will enable your audience to take away and apply important learnings immediately within their own contexts.
Also, keep in mind that each speaker presentation is limited to five minutes. So, you need to be succinct.
6. Can people debate the issue?
Even if your presentation isn't selected, you can still share and debate your ideas with other like-minded delegates.
7. If you are submitting a session proposal, are you bringing together different viewpoints from around the world and is it diverse in terms of gender, institutions, sectors and/or disciplines?
Reach out beyond your usual networks to put a session together that presents differing perspectives, enabling the audience to assess all views and perhaps walk away with a completely fresh outlook.
8. Which proposal format is going to help you make an impact?
Long presentations are not in the spirit of Going Global. To make your proposal more engaging, you could make use of the expertise of people in the room in a World Café session, get people moving around the room in a Marketplace style session, or have fast-paced discussions in a Fishbowl setting.