Call for Proposals

Leadership for Transformation

11th ILA Annual Global Conference
November 11-14, 2009
Prague, Czech Republic

CFP Deadline for full consideration:
March 1, 2009
All proposals must be submitted online.

The ILA seeks proposal submissions that represent the best contemporary thinking about leadership from a diverse range of leadership scholars, practitioners, educators, program directors, consultants, students, and other leaders and leadership professionals.  While the submission of all current work on leadership will be considered, primary consideration will be given to proposals that relate to the conference theme Leadership for Transformation.

Convening this year’s global conversation in Prague allows us to honor, study, and be inspired by the twentieth anniversary of the Velvet Revolution—a six-week series of non-violent demonstrations that overthrew the Communist government at the end of 1989. It was Albert Einstein who wisely observed, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” The Velvet Revolution, along with events like the end of Apartheid and the fall of the Berlin Wall, provide opportunities to explore the types of leadership that can lead to transformative change on a global scale.

Of course, transformative change does not occur as the result of any one action by any one person. It is the result of many acts, both large and small, carried out by many individuals in many locales, be they classrooms or boardrooms, town halls or the halls of government, the factory floor or the office cubicle, the street or the home. The theme Leadership for Transformation encompasses transformation at all levels be they individual, institutional, organizational, disciplinary, cultural, governmental, or global. This conference is an opportunity to share and learn about new research, effective leadership practices, and proven teaching methods that support any of the many faces of transformation.

Here are some questions to stimulate, but in no way restrict, your thinking as your team develops a proposal. Please consider them from your own perspective, whether a leadership scholar, educator, program director, business, foundation, or community leader, student, leadership consultant/coach.

• What forms of leadership best serve the transformation of communities?

• What does the development of global leadership mean and look like in the 21st century?

• What roles have youth and artists/cultural workers played in leading transformation?

• How can collaborations be constructed across institutions, disciplines and sectors toward leadership for transformation?

• Are their case studies—exemplary narratives—that can illuminate the gifts and challenges of leadership for transformation?

• What research has been done that provides applicable theories, frameworks, or assessments of historic cultural transformations?

• What teaching methods, curriculum, and approaches can be used to develop leadership processes and leaders that support transformation?
   

Proposals and Review Tracks

Proposals of particular interest will offer innovative information, provocative research, best practices, or useful skills to those in attendance. They will also involve presenters from multiple fields, organizations, disciplines, locations, and/or sectors.

Traditionally complete session submissions have been accepted at a higher rate than individual proposals which need to be grouped to form a session (refereed scholarly papers are an exception to this). We encourage potential presenters to engage in pre-submission networking to form complete sessions. Our online “Proposals in Progress” system is one way to share your ideas and seek additional presenters to form a complete session. Visit www.ila-net.org/conferences/cfp.htm to participate.

The ILA offers two different review tracks for submissions (see Web for detailed submission guidelines).

1. In track one, proposals are uniformly scored and ranked through a two-level Member Interest Group peer review process with recommendations being made to the program design team. ILA’s five member interest groups are: Business Leadership, Leadership Development, Leadership Education, Public Leadership, and Leadership Scholarship. Each proposal may be submitted to one or two Member Interest Groups for review.

2. Track two is Refereed Scholarly Papers: Complete papers are submitted to the ILA office which then works with the Leadership Scholarship MIG to distribute them to reviewers in a blind review process.

Before considering submission, please note that each presenter must register for the conference and pay their own costs . ILA does not pay presenters honoraria, reimburse expenses (e.g. travel, lodging, or copying), or waive conference registration fees, which range from $225 - $475 depending on student and membership status. All proposals must be submitted online by March 1st for full consideration.
 

Scoring Criteria for Track 1

ILA's peer review process is organized through the Member Interest Groups (MIG). You will be asked to assign your proposal to at least one, but no more than two, MIGs. Each MIG uses the following criteria to rank proposals:   

• Synergy: Does the proposal strengthen ties between those who practice, study, and teach leadership? 
• Usefulness: Does the proposal provide its target audience with useful new ideas, data, models, tools, theories, or resources? 
• Format/Interactive: Does the proposal appear to be dynamic, interactive, and creative in the content or format?
• Enlightening: Does the proposal add to our understanding of leadership? If the presentation involves original research or scholarship, will it build upon or challenge existing research and theory while also being accessible to those beyond a specialized area?
• Multiple Viewpoints: Do the presenters represent multiple disciplines, sectors, countries, or institutions?
• Theme: Does the proposal relate to the conference theme?
• Quality: What is the overall quality of the proposal?

Your short description and abstract are important!  Unless you are submitting a complete paper for peer review along track 2, the refereed scholarship track, the only way we can judge your proposal is by your short description and abstract. 

Submission Guidelines

Please note that each presenter must register for the conference. ILA does not pay presenters honoraria, reimburse expenses (e.g. travel, lodging or copying), or waive conference registration fees.  Last year's early-bird conference fee was $345 US for ILA members ($225 for fulltime student members who were not employed fulltime) and included one lunch, two receptions, coffee breaks, access to all conference sessions, keynotes, book fair, author signings, and post conference CD-ROM. The non-member rate was $475 and $355 respectively. 

In order to provide as many opportunities to include a wide range of presenters, ILA has instituted a rule of two guideline: No one can be part of more than two submissions. It is the responsibility of the primary contact person to check with their proposed co-presenters to assure this guideline is met. This does not apply to the roles of chair or commentator. In other words, an individual may present in two sessions and chair another one and comment on another one, etc.

ILA reserves the right to edit proposals to meet space constraints or to combine sessions and individual submissions on similar topics. This allows us to capture the broadest range of topics and ideas to include in the program. In the past, combined sessions have reported to us that they found the outcome to be fruitful. If sessions and/or proposals are combined, it is the responsibility of the primary contact people from the original submissions to coordinate a revised session title, etc. with each other.

ILA welcomes the submission of both pre-formed sessions (e.g. a submission for a single stand-alone workshop or a session containing multiple presentations grouped around a common theme) and proposal submissions intended to be grouped by ILA with other similar submissions (e.g. a 20 minute presentation of a paper). With the exception of scholarly, peer reviewed papers, we encourage the formulation of complete sessions prior to submission (see "Improve Your Odds of Acceptance" below).

The types of sessions are:

• Paper(s) Non-Refereed (All MIGs except Leadership Development)-- Presentation of written product(s) documenting research, presenting theories, or arguing a particular point of view.  Use online submission form to submit contact information, abstract, etc. by the March 1 submission deadline.  Complete papers are not due until the conference. 
• Paper(s) Refereed Track 2 (Leadership Scholarship MIG Only)-- Presentation of written product(s) documenting research, presenting theories, or arguing a particular point of view. Note: If your paper submission is along the refereed paper track of the Leadership Scholarship MIG, you must  complete the online submission form AND email the complete paper (4000 word max) to ILA: ila@ila-net.org. The paper should only have identifying information on the cover page, as it will be distributed for blind review.
• Panel Discussion -- Presentations and/or discussions by one or more people with contrasting or complementary points of view. Note: if you submit as an individual under this format, make sure you check the box requesting that ILA group you with other submissions to form a complete session.
• Conversation with Author -- Lecture or talk given by an author of a recently published book.
• Workshop -- An interactive demonstration or experiential session rooted in audience participation and active learning. Only select the workshop format if half or more of the time will be spent on experiential learning and active audience participation focused on learning a new skill or useful technique. (Note: listening or asking questions are not considered forms of participation.)
• Interactive Roundtable -- These roundtables are designed to facilitate high levels of interaction and engagement by utilizing dialogue between the roundtable discussant(s) and attendees. Attendees may visit several roundtables during the conference session devoted to roundtables.
• Case Study - the presentation of detailed information about a specific, actual, leadership challenge or problem. Individuals analyze the situation from different perspectives, presenting their opinions on how best to solve the problem.
• Poster -- A visual display of a program, paper, or project that is set up in an exhibit space throughout the conference and staffed by the creator(s) during a Poster reception during the conference.

Notes: 1. The Leadership Scholarship Member Interest Group (MIG) only accepts proposals within the following formats: Paper, Panel, Poster, or Conversation with Author. 2. The Leadership Development MIG does not accept paper presentations. In addition, it is strongly advised that submissions to Leadership Development have a strong practice oriented link that highlights a resource, approach, tool or methodology for leadership development.

Time Formats

• 20 minutes (individual submission)
• 40 minutes (individual submission)
• 60 minutes (complete session submission)
• 75 minutes (complete session submission)
• 90 minutes (complete session submission)

Number of Presenters

The maximum number of presenters for a complete session is four.  In addition to this number, complete session proposals are also allowed to include a session chair and a session commentator/discussant.

Notification

By the end of May, once the Program Committee has finalized the program, presenters will be notified via email as to whether your proposal has been accepted for presentation. All presenters for whom email addresses have been submitted will be notified directly and asked to immediately confirm their intent to present.

All presenters must then register for the conference (see submission guidelines above for expected registration costs) by July 20, 2009 or they will be DROPPED from the program. The program will be finalized shortly after this date and we will begin preparing it for print.

Note: Please streamline the communication process by providing valid email addresses for all co-presenters. Otherwise, you will be responsible for coordinating all communication between ILA and your co-presenters.

Hints for Successfully Submitting Your Proposal through Our Online Proposal Management System

Checklist of Materials

It helps to have all of your materials ready to enter into the online form before you start. The materials you must have on hand include:

• Contact information for you and any co-presenters, session chair or session commentator/discussant.  This includes affiliations, addresses, emails, and phone numbers;
• Short, one paragraph, narrative bios for you and any co-presenters, session chair, or session commentator. Please NO c.v./resume type bulleted lists.
• Time Requested for individual or session submission.
• Titles, short (50-word) descriptions, and abstracts (approx. 500-1000 words).  Individuals who need to be grouped should submit their individual title, description, and abstract.  Complete session submissions should submit a title, description, and abstract for the session as a whole as well as titles, descriptions, and abstracts for any individual components of the session.

Using the Forms

We recommend that you do not copy and paste descriptions from MS Word into the forms. Special characters and formatting may not come through on the form and will frequently appear as garbage characters. We recommend that you transfer any text into a text-only editor like Notepad prior to copying and pasting into the form. Notepad usually removes special characters and formatting from programs like MSWord.

When copying and pasting multi-paragraph items into the form (e.g. abstracts), make sure that all of your paragraphs paste into the form. Some users will have to paste each paragraph individually into the form.  To paste into the form, click in the appropriate box, and type CTRL-V.  Also, please make sure breaks between paragraphs are double-spaced.

Other Browser/Computer Hints

You must accept the cookies that the browser places on your computer. If you do not know what a cookie is, then you are most likely accepting them automatically and do not need to worry.

The link to the submission form opens up a popup box that contains the submission form.  If you click the link and the popup box does not appear, you need to re-enable pop-ups on your system.
 

Improve Your Odds of Acceptance by Submitting a Complete Session

The odds of acceptance of a complete session is historically much higher than for the acceptance of individual papers/ presentations, which not only need to pass the test of excellence, but also must fit with other individual papers/presentations to form a session with internal coherence. Pre-proposal submission networking toward the formation of complete sessions makes good sense.  This guideline does not apply to complete papers submitted along the refereed leadership scholarship track.  Those papers are judged solely on excellence.

If you wish to network prior to submitting your proposal, try our proposals in progress system. (NOW CLOSED)

Submission Form

Submit Your Proposal

Questions or help with the form may be directed to: ILA@ila-net.org  or 301.405.5218. Additional conference information will be posted to ILA's main conference page as it becomes available.