Drawing up a call for papers (CFP) for your conference can be a daunting task, more so trying to get your conference to attract speakers and experts to submit abstracts for your conference.
Speakers and experts in different fields often receive a lot of messages related to the conference call for papers; hence, you need to make yours outstanding to attract the right kind of people. This will make your conference attract better submissions from experts in the field, which will be beneficial to the attendees.
Here are the right tips to follow when drafting a call for papers for your conference.
Checklists for Launching Call for Papers
1. Decide on a Clear Conference Name and Themes
The first thing you need to do is decide on a clear conference name and theme. Having a conference name tailored to the topic or theme of your conference will make it more focused. It will help potential participants know what the conference is about, and the focused topics expected to be explored. This will give the speakers an idea of what is expected of them.
The conference themes should be relevant to a current issue and be catchy as well for it to attract suitable conference submissions.
2. Important Details about Your Conference
When you have decided on the conference theme, the next important thing to do is list out your conference's details. This should include the date, time, venue, conference sponsors, organizers, and the organizers' contact details.
3. Create a submission guideline
Your checklist should include submission guidelines so that potential delegates will have an idea of abstract and paper submission criteria. The guidelines should consist of the relevant topics/ theme, submission deadlines, fees (if any), paper format, word limit for the abstract, and other necessary guidelines you may want to include.
4. Use Abstract Management System
An easy-to-use abstract management system will be effective in managing abstract submission instead of having them send it directly to your email. Getting an effective abstract management system will make it easy to manage and monitor submissions properly.
5. Create a website for your conference
If you can, create a website for your conference where you can share all the details for the conference, including date, venue, call for papers details, submission guidelines, contact details, and the rest. Make your website professional to enhance credibility and attract the right speakers.
6. Craft Emails to Potential Delegates
Sending personalized emails to potential speakers or delegates is another important way of launching your call for papers. These emails will make them feel important because their research is being recognized in that field. The email should include a link to your website, conference details, and submission guidelines.
7. Use Social Media
Social media is an excellent medium for creating awareness for your call for papers. You can run a paid social media ad on Twitter and Facebook if possible on your social media page.
Twitter and Facebook both have a feature that lets you pin important information on your page so that anybody visiting it would see it first. It's crucial you make use of this feature to pin the conference information on these pages.
Also, it would help if you continue sharing details of the conference often by creating different content with appropriate visual images.
8. Send Your Call for Conference Details to an Online Conference Directory
So many speakers usually visit online conference directories to check out calls for papers relevant to their research so as to have a platform to share their research findings. Posting on these conference directories will get your CFP easily to the desk of these speakers.
9. Get in touch with Thought Leaders in the Industry
Getting a well-known thought leader in the industry will help promote your call for the conference and attract the right submissions. You can get them to talk about the conference on their social media pages or share your own posts.
In addition, invite them to be one of the speakers at your conference. This will be a big PR move as it will package it to look more authentic and worthy of attracting submissions from other experts you don't have access to.
Also, get in touch with academics in the field to share the conference information with their colleagues. Seek them out in their online community and social media groups.
10. Blog
These days, it is pretty easy to set up a blog. You can open one months before your call for papers. You can share content related to your conference theme or your industry. It will help in the promotion of your CFP.
When writing these articles, plug in the details of your call for papers. The blog post should have a link to your conference website. Each visitor coming to your blog to read about the articles in your industry will see this information.
11. Guest Post
As part of your call for paper promotion, you can get in touch with bloggers in your industry or bloggers with a shared interest in your field and ask for an opportunity to write a guest post. Then, organically write about the conference and the call for papers when writing the post. This will create a good awareness for the conference.
12. Make Use of Your Newsletter
If you already have newsletter subscribers, you are in luck because it will come in handy to promote your call for papers.
Your subscribers are already people interested in your field. Therefore, your newsletter should include the conference and call for paper information. It will also serve as an avenue to send in deadline reminders.
Adding these tips to your to-do list will help make your call for papers smooth. A low turn-out of abstract submissions is usually caused by inadequate planning and promotion. That is why these checklists are necessary. Also, if you cannot do this all alone, delegate some duties to the members of your conference committee or volunteers.