Dual-Component 2023 Annual Meeting to Offer New Opportunities for Attendees
Dual-Component 2023 Annual Meeting to Offer New Opportunities for Attendees
 
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September 2022

Over the coming weeks, AERA division and SIG program chairs are building their respective programs for the 2023 AERA Annual Meeting (with notices to submitters going out on November 10). Their hard work and the leadership of AERA President Rich Milner and the 2023 Presidential Program co-chairs in developing the Presidential sessions will dovetail effectively with innovations to the 2023 conference format. The collective effort of the AERA scholarly community will help ensure a high-quality, inclusive, engaging meeting for all participants.

“Building on the success of the 2022 April conference, which shifted to a blended model in October 2021 after the emergence of the Delta and Omicron COVID variants, the 2023 Annual Meeting will be the association’s first planned from the outset as dual-component,” said AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine. “We are excited to be creating this meeting in formats that meet the needs of our scholarly community and are accessible, flexible, and rewarding both on site in Chicago and on the virtual platform.”

The place-based component of the 2023 Annual Meeting will be held in Chicago from Thursday, April 13, through Sunday, April 16. The virtual component will be held on an online platform on Thursday, May 4, and Friday, May 5. While the place-based and online components will be offered at separate times and in different settings, both will offer a dynamic experience with opportunities to learn from major speakers, connect with the latest papers and research, engage in stimulating conversation, and develop and foster professional relationships.   

Participants who register for the place-based meeting in Chicago are also registered for and able to attend the virtual component. Those registered for the virtual component will experience Presidential sessions and major plenaries with cross-cutting content, as well as networking opportunities and a special closing event. They will have access to major livestreamed sessions from the place-based meeting in Chicago and recordings of placed-sessions in the online platform’s video library. All webstreamed sessions will also be “homed” on the platform.

The virtual component of the annual meeting will have its own allocation of sessions and not cut into the session allocation formula that has guided place-based meetings.  Paper and roundtable sessions will both be delivered in virtual “meeting” rooms, with the only difference between the two being that paper sessions allow for separate paper presentations followed by an optional discussion and Q&A.

Roundtables take the form of a discussion among authors and other attendees in a seminar-style format. Place-based roundtable sessions in Chicago will continue with the COVID-era distancing of tables initiated at the 2022 Annual Meeting, which has the benefit of supporting enhanced interaction.

All papers presented as posters will be created or uploaded in the AERA Interactive Presentation Gallery and, once “published,” will be available to all meeting registrants anywhere and anytime. Papers accepted for poster presentation in Chicago will additionally take place at a scheduled session time through large-screen, high-definition, touch-screen monitors (as was done in San Diego in 2022).

Authors of papers accepted for poster presentation on the virtual platform will include an overall pre-recorded author narration. This change to pre-recorded author presentations follows the industry standard for online conferences and allows the presentations to be accessible 24 hours a day. Presenters will have the opportunity to schedule one-on-one or group conversations in the platform.

A special new component of the AERA Annual Meeting for 2023 is an opportunity for graduate students not otherwise on the accepted program to submit to participate in featured Research-Work-in-Progress Roundtables on site in Chicago. The virtual platform will also include poster presentations of Research-Work-in-Progress as an identifiable segment in the i-Presentation Gallery.

Another important innovation for 2023 will allow all AERA members to attend the AERA-wide Business Meeting and their respective division and SIG business meetings, whether they attend in Chicago or online, or are registered for the annual meeting or not. All 2023 members will be invited to attend the business meetings of their units.

Registration rates for 2023 will not change from the place-based fees that have held steady since the 2018 Annual Meeting in New York. Those attending or presenting only on the virtual platform will enjoy the low fees offered since the first virtual annual meeting in 2021. Place-based registrants pay a higher fee, but they will be able to attend the online component at no additional cost.

As a cost-reduction measure for attendees, AERA will introduce for 2023 the long-awaited four-day annual meeting, which was to commence in 2020 before that year’s meeting was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The 2023 Annual Meeting promises to be a ‘can’t miss’ event, regardless of how or where you attend or present,” said Levine. “We are thrilled to continue providing the best of the traditional place-based meeting while striving to innovate to make the conference experience as flexible, accessible, and inclusive as possible.”