2018 Presenter Information
Congratulations on having a proposal accepted for the 2018 C.D. Wright Women Writers Conference. In preparation for the conference, which will occur November 9-10, 2018, please consider the following information.
Registration
All presenters must register for the conference and can do so by following the link on our “Conference” page on the website. We do not have a reduced presenter rate because we have already budgeted to make the conference as economical as possible, given that financial constraints often prevent women from attending writing events. The $100 registration fee covers both keynote speaker events, all breakout sessions, access to the book fair, and catering from Friday’s evening reception through Saturday evening.
This year, we are offering two different options for pre-conference workshops. Registration for the conference plus one of the workshops is $135. Comics 101 with Amy Letter and Diving into the Wreck: #MeToo and the Power of Telling with Monda Strange Fason are described on our "2018 Schedule" page.
Travel and Lodging
There are no hotels within walking distance of the campus. Our conference hotel is the Hilton Garden Inn (Conway, AR). The conference rate will be the Arkansas state per diem (last year $91 per night plus tax). At this time, you are welcome to book via the hotel directly or any of the popular hotel sites, which might offer a lower rate. Any official carpooling will happen at the Hilton Garden Inn, but there are several other hotels in the same vicinity (Country Inn, Home2 Suites by Hilton, Days Inn, & Best Western).
All conference events will take place at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, and the closest airport is the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock, which is 37 miles away. Taxi and Uber trips are quite expensive because they must be charged as round trip to/from Little Rock & Conway. Volunteer carpools will be arranged to transport attendees to and from the airport at set times on Friday (12:30pm and 3:30pm), Saturday evening only (6pm), and Sunday morning only (6:30am) at no charge. *If you plan a flight that departs before 8:30am on Sunday, please make arrangements to stay at the Holiday Inn or Holiday Inn Express at the Little Rock Airport for Saturday night. We can assure you a ride to any of the airport hotels on Saturday night, but we cannot guarantee a ride prior to 6:30am on Sunday morning, and it takes about an hour to get from Conway to the airport.
The C.D. Wright Women Writers Conference has created a shared Google Doc so that attendees may arrange ride sharing or room sharing. The document can be accessed by following this link. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1c1zqb8PHAy2TAw-wzxEAT6fGR4mgZLF7WdGaI4fGg5g/edit?usp=sharing
Technology
Please reply to this email and let us know your technology requests. If we do not receive a reply by 1 September, we cannot guarantee an accommodation. We would like to publish the conference schedule by 1 October and will need to take technology requests into consideration. Let us know if you will need a connection to an LCD projector (presenters must supply their own laptop and connectors), screen, sound speakers for video, or other specific technology. All rooms will have free access to the internet, a microphone, and a basic quality speaker.
Breakout Sessions
All breakout sessions are 75 minutes in length. Individuals in a group of 4 should prepare 15 minutes of material, unless the group re-negotiates the time together. Adjust the time length based on number of presenters. We plan for 5 minutes of introductions at the beginning and 10 minutes of Q & A at the end of each session.
Moderators
Whether a group was pre-formed or formed by conference organizers, presenters/readers should elect a moderator who will perform introductions and keep time. Moderators should take special care to insure that one member of a panel does not take time away from another member. When engaging in Q & A with the audience, the moderator should repeat questions or comments from the audience to make sure everyone can hear.
Presenter Guidelines
Accessibility Responsibilities
Book Fair
Because we recognize that small publishers, non-profits, and individual authors have limited budgets, we have created a sliding scale to reserve a place at the book fair on Saturday, 11/10/2018, from 8:00am (set-up) - 5:00pm (space must be clear). I've attached the Book Fair Reservation form with more details; individual authors may share table space as a group. The deadline to reserve an available space at the book fair is Friday, 9/14/18 (payment must be received by Friday, 9/21/18). This reservation includes a 6' x 1.5' table and two chairs at the book fair **We have very limited space and tables are likely to sell out before this deadline.
We also offer sponsorship packages that may be of interest. The sponsorship plan is included as an attachment, and our lowest sponsor commitment does include a waiver for one book fair table, different from last year. Anyone interested in becoming a sponsor of the conference should send an email to the director for more details ([email protected]).
Cancellation
In the rare event that you will not be able to attend, please contact me at this email address as soon as possible so we may adjust the schedule. Registration fees are non-refundable but may be transferred to another person’s name by emailing me with a request.
Again, congratulations on being included in the inaugural conference program. We are looking forward to a diverse, energetic event.
Registration
All presenters must register for the conference and can do so by following the link on our “Conference” page on the website. We do not have a reduced presenter rate because we have already budgeted to make the conference as economical as possible, given that financial constraints often prevent women from attending writing events. The $100 registration fee covers both keynote speaker events, all breakout sessions, access to the book fair, and catering from Friday’s evening reception through Saturday evening.
This year, we are offering two different options for pre-conference workshops. Registration for the conference plus one of the workshops is $135. Comics 101 with Amy Letter and Diving into the Wreck: #MeToo and the Power of Telling with Monda Strange Fason are described on our "2018 Schedule" page.
Travel and Lodging
There are no hotels within walking distance of the campus. Our conference hotel is the Hilton Garden Inn (Conway, AR). The conference rate will be the Arkansas state per diem (last year $91 per night plus tax). At this time, you are welcome to book via the hotel directly or any of the popular hotel sites, which might offer a lower rate. Any official carpooling will happen at the Hilton Garden Inn, but there are several other hotels in the same vicinity (Country Inn, Home2 Suites by Hilton, Days Inn, & Best Western).
All conference events will take place at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, and the closest airport is the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock, which is 37 miles away. Taxi and Uber trips are quite expensive because they must be charged as round trip to/from Little Rock & Conway. Volunteer carpools will be arranged to transport attendees to and from the airport at set times on Friday (12:30pm and 3:30pm), Saturday evening only (6pm), and Sunday morning only (6:30am) at no charge. *If you plan a flight that departs before 8:30am on Sunday, please make arrangements to stay at the Holiday Inn or Holiday Inn Express at the Little Rock Airport for Saturday night. We can assure you a ride to any of the airport hotels on Saturday night, but we cannot guarantee a ride prior to 6:30am on Sunday morning, and it takes about an hour to get from Conway to the airport.
The C.D. Wright Women Writers Conference has created a shared Google Doc so that attendees may arrange ride sharing or room sharing. The document can be accessed by following this link. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1c1zqb8PHAy2TAw-wzxEAT6fGR4mgZLF7WdGaI4fGg5g/edit?usp=sharing
Technology
Please reply to this email and let us know your technology requests. If we do not receive a reply by 1 September, we cannot guarantee an accommodation. We would like to publish the conference schedule by 1 October and will need to take technology requests into consideration. Let us know if you will need a connection to an LCD projector (presenters must supply their own laptop and connectors), screen, sound speakers for video, or other specific technology. All rooms will have free access to the internet, a microphone, and a basic quality speaker.
Breakout Sessions
All breakout sessions are 75 minutes in length. Individuals in a group of 4 should prepare 15 minutes of material, unless the group re-negotiates the time together. Adjust the time length based on number of presenters. We plan for 5 minutes of introductions at the beginning and 10 minutes of Q & A at the end of each session.
Moderators
Whether a group was pre-formed or formed by conference organizers, presenters/readers should elect a moderator who will perform introductions and keep time. Moderators should take special care to insure that one member of a panel does not take time away from another member. When engaging in Q & A with the audience, the moderator should repeat questions or comments from the audience to make sure everyone can hear.
Presenter Guidelines
- Prepare, prepare, prepare.
- The organizers of the conference appreciate presenters who come prepared with written notes. If working from a conference paper, please practice ahead of time to create an engaging experience for the audience.
- Begin and end your presentation on time. Please rehearse with a timer to be respectful of both the audience and your co-presenters.
- Speak clearly and at a normal pace, loud enough to carry the room.
- Reading from your own creative work should be limited to those proposals labeled as creative readings. If you plan to read from your work in other sessions as examples to make a point, please limit the amount of time you spend on your own work.
Accessibility Responsibilities
- Please keep aisles and doorways clear. There will be space reserved in each room for attendees who use wheelchairs, canes, crutches, or other mobility devices.
- If there is a sign language interpreter or live captioning recorder in your room, please help insure that any deaf or hard of hearing attendees have a clear line of sight to these aids.
- Each presenter should prepare 5 copies of their paper or notes to accommodate audience members who require a text. If preparing handouts for the audience at large, insure that you have 3 copies in large-print format (16-point font) and briefly describe or read handouts to the audience. When preparing on-screen presentations, make sure images and texts are large enough to be read easily from the back of room capable of holding 50 people.
- If showing video or playing audio, provide captioning.
Book Fair
Because we recognize that small publishers, non-profits, and individual authors have limited budgets, we have created a sliding scale to reserve a place at the book fair on Saturday, 11/10/2018, from 8:00am (set-up) - 5:00pm (space must be clear). I've attached the Book Fair Reservation form with more details; individual authors may share table space as a group. The deadline to reserve an available space at the book fair is Friday, 9/14/18 (payment must be received by Friday, 9/21/18). This reservation includes a 6' x 1.5' table and two chairs at the book fair **We have very limited space and tables are likely to sell out before this deadline.
We also offer sponsorship packages that may be of interest. The sponsorship plan is included as an attachment, and our lowest sponsor commitment does include a waiver for one book fair table, different from last year. Anyone interested in becoming a sponsor of the conference should send an email to the director for more details ([email protected]).
Cancellation
In the rare event that you will not be able to attend, please contact me at this email address as soon as possible so we may adjust the schedule. Registration fees are non-refundable but may be transferred to another person’s name by emailing me with a request.
Again, congratulations on being included in the inaugural conference program. We are looking forward to a diverse, energetic event.
