Play an active part in this premier higher education information security and privacy event by submitting a proposal to present at the 2019 Security Professionals Conference taking place Monday, May 13 through Wednesday, May 15 in Chicago, Illinois.
Why Present?
Presenting at the Security Professionals Conference provides an opportunity to build your professional network, engage with your peers, and discuss experiences and ideas that are vital to helping our community succeed as we face the “Winds of Change” together. Submit a proposal as an individual or a team to share your future directions, best practices, stories of successful collaborations, or solutions to community-wide issues.
Diversity and New Voices
EDUCAUSE is committed to highlighting the diversity of perspective, opinion, and representation in our community. Our program committee therefore strives to develop a program that truly represents that diversity. We encourage you to consider how your proposal reflects or addresses diversity and inclusion.
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.
Tips to Prepare Your Proposal:
- Keep a broad focus for those interested in higher education IT, information security, and privacy. All are encouraged to submit proposals that are noncommercial in nature.
- All submissions should be designed to incorporate interactivity with the audience. Select the delivery format that engages participants in discussion about your content and makes it relevant to them.
- Clearly articulate intended learning outcomes—the specific knowledge to be acquired as a result of attending your session—within the defined focus areas.
Program Tracks/Focus Areas
The program committee has identified 10 tracks/major focus areas to help shape the program in 2019. During the proposal submission process, you will also be able to select several keywords related to your presentation topic.
- Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
- Cyber Threat Intelligence
- Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC)
- Identity and Access Management
- Incident Management and Response
- Privacy
- Security Architecture and Design
- Security Awareness, Communications, and Training
- Security Operations and Engineering
- Strategic Leadership, Professional and Organizational Development, and Personnel Management
Delivery Choices
The program committee encourages you to consider a presentation format that will engage your colleagues in discussion and learning beyond the simple dissemination of information. Sessions may follow one of these formats:
Preconference Workshop
(Half day or full day; Monday only)
Offered for full or half days, preconference workshops offer attendees a deeper examination of various topics, facilitated by leaders with extensive experience in those areas. Workshops are highly interactive and give participants the chance to discuss in-depth approaches to challenges they are facing on campus—to share solutions and learn strategies. Maximum of four presenters, including the moderator.
Panel Presentation
(60 minutes; Tuesday or Wednesday)
These sessions feature two to four dynamic presenters sharing campus challenges and solutions through conversational exchange. Presenters create an engaging moderated discussion with dialogue, storytelling, case studies, and lessons learned to help attendees apply concepts to their campus. Actively engaging the audience throughout the session is encouraged. Maximum of four presenters, including the moderator.
Interactive Presentation
(60 minutes; Tuesday or Wednesday)
These sessions are opportunities to share topics of community interest through an innovative, thought-provoking format that encourages audience participation and engagement. Examples might include point-counterpoint on controversial topics. Maximum of four presenters, including the moderator.
Lightning Talk Presentation
(10 minutes; Tuesday or Wednesday)
These micropresentations are designed to deliver information with focused speed. Propose with a colleague from your institution or another institution to share information on a common topic or propose your topic solo. A limited number of PowerPoint slides may be used, but must be shared with the program committee well in advance of the conference. Maximum of two presenters.
Important Reminders
Registration: All accepted presenters are responsible for registering for the conference by the early bird date, paying the conference registration fee, and securing and paying for travel and lodging. Please plan and budget accordingly before submitting your proposal. (Exceptions include accepted full and half day preconference workshop presenters who may receive modest compensation in the form of an honorarium or a complimentary conference registration. EDUCAUSE will not cover any additional costs such as travel and lodging expenses, online tools, assessments, books, or other presentation materials.)
Sharing Resources: Presenters will be asked to upload related resources (documents or links) prior to their presentation. These resources provide support for the presentation and then become a part of the conference proceedings so that your valuable information is accessible beyond your session. If selected, you will be provided with further instructions on uploading your presentation materials.
Selection Process
Proposals are selected to ensure the conference offers a comprehensive, nonpromotional, objective, and diverse program. Attention will be given to diversity of institutions, presenters, and geographic location. Note that 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 Security Professionals Conference Program Committee and Proposal Reviewers using the following criteria:
- Relevance of topic: Is the topic of relevance, importance, value, and/or interest to higher education?
- Proposed topic coverage: Does the proposal adequately cover content related to the proposers' learning objectives/key stated outcomes?
- Presenter knowledge: Does the presenter, or presenters, have sufficient knowledge, expertise, and authority to address this topic based on evidence provided in the proposal and/or prior experience with or knowledge of the presenter?
- Engagement strategies: Does the presenter include specific strategies relevant to event size, audience, and maturity of topic in which they will engage participants in the session content, and do those strategies align with the session's learning objectives/outcomes?