We are planning to curate our talks from open submissions and solicited contributions/scouting.
Option one: open submission
You don’t have to be an information architect. We want to hear diverse voices from other fields. Everyone is invited to propose a talk, lecture, or interactive session on their own.
Option two: scouting
The IA conference co-chairs will select and invite keynote speakers who best exemplify the vision of the event. The co-chairs may also reach out to speakers from other conferences, meetups, or events like World IA Day and ask them to submit their talks to participate in the program. All talks except keynotes will go through the same blind-review selection process.
Process of selection
Peer review
Every main conference submission is assigned randomly to peer review. These are volunteers from the IA community who have agreed to give their time to offer feedback on your proposal. What does it do well and where it could be improved? Peers are there to review only. They don’t determine who gets accepted or rejected. To aid their objectivity, we will remove your name, identifying details, and other potentially biasing language from your submission.
Curation
Our volunteer experts work in teams to identify the emerging themes amongst the submissions, and rank the submissions based on guidelines from the chairs. Using the first round of feedback as a guide, they complete their task from all available submissions, making their assessments through a structured rubric:
- Quality (is the talk thorough, accurate, valid, rigorous, well-sourced, etc.?)
- Clear and concise presentation of material
- Topic or angle feels new to the IAC
- Connection to the field of information architecture is clear
- Likely to engage audience by being challenging and/or entertaining
- Provides actionable takeaways for attendees with varying levels of experience
If a curator is unsure about a session, they can reach out to the submitter for clarification before making a final recommendation.
The final program is compiled from curators’ selections by the co-chairs. We take several factors into account when creating a compelling schedule. We want to promote new voices while ensuring topics are aligned with our theme. Please remember, everyone involved in putting the program together is volunteering their time, and we’re so grateful for their help. Most of all, we’re grateful to everyone who takes the time and expertise to prepare, submit, and deliver the sessions that make the IAC such an informative, educational, and inspiring event.
