Call for Proposals

Presenting at the Cybersecurity and Privacy Professionals Conference provides an opportunity to build your professional network and experience lifelong learning with lifelong friends. Presenting a content-rich session individually or as part of a team is a wonderful way to share knowledge, experiences, and ideas. The conference's community-generated program will showcase future directions, best practices, stories of successful collaborations, lessons learned, and solutions to community-wide issues within various program tracks. We welcome your submission! Please read this page carefully before you begin work on your proposal, and be sure to submit by the deadline: January 23, 2023.

If you or a co-presenter are a corporate member, you have two options:

  • You can go through the CFP process, in which case the Cybersecurity and Privacy Professionals Conference Program Committee will determine acceptance to the program. If accepted there is no fee to present, other than the conference registration fee to attend.
  • You can contact [email protected] to purchase an Industry and Campus Session, in which case you will receive specific instructions about how to submit your session details after the purchase is made. There is a fee with this option. Limited opportunities are available.

Ready to get started? Just follow these simple steps:

  1. Find out how to create an excellent proposal by reading this page and the helpful tips in the EDUCAUSE Presenter Concierge pages.
  2. Develop a proposal in one of the program theme/focus areas. For a sneak peek at the CFP submission form and to share for collaboration, you may download or copy and share this Sample CFP Submission Form.
  3. Choose a presentation format.
  4. Read the Guidelines and Requirements for Submission.
  5. Submit your proposal between January 9 and January 23. Submitters will be notified about decisions in mid-February.
  6. If accepted, attend and present at the Cybersecurity and Privacy Professionals Conference, May 1–3, 2023, in Bellevue, Washington. (Registration is required of all presenters.)

Please note: We are planning for and excited to welcome attendees to our in-person conference in May in Bellevue, WA, while acknowledging the complexities of planning a safe and effective in-person, indoor conference that meets new and emerging local, state, and federal regulations. We will continue to monitor developments that may impact attendees and will update safety precautions as appropriate.

Conference Program: Themes, Tracks, and Keywords

Conference Theme

Reach for the Sky: Developing Stellar Staff and Operations to Reach New Heights in Higher Education Cybersecurity and Privacy

Join us at the Cybersecurity and Privacy Professionals Conference, where our higher education cybersecurity and privacy community will come together and reach for the sky to solve today’s most pressing challenges. This is the only higher ed event that gives participants a chance to network and discuss information security and privacy trends and issues with peers and corporate partners. The conference will feature just-in-time content to help our community reach new heights.

Conference Tracks

The program committee has identified five suggested areas of focus (tracks/topics) for 2023. Each track/topic should be considered in the context of building, operating, and staffing information security, cybersecurity, and privacy functions. Preference will be given to the proposals that sufficiently reflect what you have done or are planning to do in regard these areas. Proposals will be selected to ensure that the conference program offers a comprehensive, noncommercial, objective, and diverse treatment of issues related to the theme and focus of this conference. You may be invited to present in a format or track other than the one you selected.

Policy that surrounds information security is becoming more complex as governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) issues are on the increase in higher education information technology. This track will provide examples for the leadership, organization, and operation of an institution's GRC programs now and in the future.

Data is the key to all research. But whose data is it? As information privacy concerns mount, this track will provide a better understanding of data privacy and its implication for our institutions.

Awareness, training, education, and communications are key components of successful information security and privacy programs. How do we build, staff, and operate (replicable) cybersecurity and privacy awareness programs that help educate faculty, staff, and students?

What best practices shape your privacy and cybersecurity operations? This track allows you to share what you are doing to prevent, detect, assess, monitor, and respond to cybersecurity threats, privacy violations, and incidents. Share the strategies for information security and privacy controls and safeguards that are being implemented at your institution to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of institutional data.

Today's information security and privacy workforce requires continuous learning and professional development at all levels. This track allows you to share ideas and best practices for shaping and developing the next generation of our workforce, as well as sustaining, training, and creating leadership opportunities for current employees.



Keywords

These are areas of specific interest and will help attendees fine-tune their personalized schedules. Optional: You will be asked to provide three keywords that relate to your presentation.

Delivery Choices

Please note that your proposal will be carefully evaluated and may be accepted for any of the formats below, depending on the scope of content and engagement strategies proposed. Review the session formats carefully and note that although the Cybersecurity and Privacy Professionals Conference will make every effort to honor your preference for format, we reserve the right to reassign the delivery format based on space and program balance.

Demonstrations—Institutions Only

This type of session works best if your primary objective is to offer a tour or provide an overview of an innovative product or service. Select this delivery format if you want to showcase a product or service you implemented, built, or created. This is a great way to tell your “it worked for us” story. These will be either 20-minute or 45-minute sessions. You may have a maximum of two presenters for this session type.

Facilitated Discussion

Discussion sessions are opportunities for event attendees to share campus challenges and solutions through conversational exchange. By actively engaging audience participants in dialogue about hot topics or broad issues, presenters of these sessions will rely on the collective community experience among session attendees. There is no room for "sage on the stage" in a facilitated discussion session; this is a chance to have organic, topically relevant, peer-to-peer learning experiences at the conference.These will be 45-minute sessions. You may have a maximum of two facilitators for this session type.

Presentation or Panel Session

These sessions are opportunities to share topics of interest, lessons learned, foresight, or evidence of impact related to a conference theme. Presenters, whether one person or a group, should include ways to actively engage the audience in the session, either digitally or in person. Panels should represent two or more opposing viewpoints for a lively group discussion. The best panels and group presentations have diversity in perspectives as well as diversity of panelists—organizationally and demographically speaking. These will be either 20-minute or 45-minute sessions. You may have a maximum of four presenters/panelists for this session type.

Selection Process

Proposals are selected to ensure the conference offers a comprehensive, nonpromotional/noncommercially biased, objective, and diverse program. Proposals that clearly describe innovative and creative work will receive the highest priority in the selection process. Attention will be given to diversity of institutions/organizations, presenters, and geographic location.

Note: You may be invited to present in formats other than the one you selected or those noted in the proposal submission form.

Proposals will be reviewed by the Program Committee and peer reviewers using the following criteria:

  • Relevance of Topic: Is the topic of relevance, importance, value, and/or interest to higher education?
  • Session Outcomes Achievability: Is there alignment between the stated session outcomes and the proposal description?
  • Quality of Submission: Does the proposal demonstrate quality, as measured by accuracy, clarity, comprehensiveness, and depth of demonstrated understanding of the topic?
  • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Does the proposal show how the session will reflect or address diversity, equity, and inclusion (including subject matter, individuals of all identities, and demographic characteristics)?

Guidelines for Submission

  • Profile Requirement: An EDUCAUSE Profile is required to submit a proposal, present, and register for the event. Please take some time before submitting a proposal to ensure all presenters have profiles and that all information is updated (title, profile picture, bio, etc.). You can search for members in the member directory; if presenters don't have a profile, they will need to create one so you're able to add them within the submission site. Note: Profile information will help reviewers and attendees understand a presenter's qualifications
  • Presenters and Registration: Presenters are responsible for registering in advance for the conference, paying the registration fee (unless otherwise communicated) and securing and paying for travel and lodging.
  • Presenter Commitment: Do not list co-presenters without their commitment that they will participate and that they agree to the terms and conditions for participation.
  • Acceptance notifications will be sent mid-February 2023.
  • All selected presenters must complete speaker agreement forms in order to be confirmed for a session.
  • Proposal submission topics cannot be changed after the review and selection process.
  • EDUCAUSE reserves the right to revise presentation titles and/or edit the session description for program publications.
  • Session Resources: Presenters will be required to upload their presentation slides and supporting materials and resources prior to the conference.

Diversity and New Voices

The EDUCAUSE Board and leadership have established diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as a critical priority for the association. Our program committee strives to develop a program that truly represents our diverse community. We encourage you to consider how your proposal reflects or addresses DEI (including subject matter, individuals of all identities, and demographic characteristics).

Similarly, we are eager to expand our community of presenters by encouraging and supporting new voices in higher education information security and privacy. We’d like first-time presenters to feel energized and inspired to submit a proposal and share their ideas and experiences.