Call For Proposals
What to propose?
The MW23 program is built from the ground up, based on your suggestions for sessions, papers and presentations. MW conferences do not have pre-determined themes, and we welcome proposals on any topic related to innovation in galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAMs), applying technology or transformative practices through any means or platform. The program is selected by an international committee of cultural heritage professionals, and reflects the issues and ideas of greatest interest and urgency in the field each year.
Give a Lightning Talk in a 1.5-hour session that includes 10 or more lightning talks of 7 minutes each. Slides and recordings of the lightning talks will be published on the MW site, and presenters are invited to blog about their topics (up to 1,000 words) on the MW site.
Process and Timeline
Authors submitting proposals by September 30, 2022, are notified if their proposal has been accepted and the draft program is announced by December 1, 2020, when registration opens. We endeavor to contact and give feedback to authors whose proposals have not been accepted as well, but due to the volume of proposals received, we cannot guarantee we’ll be able to do this in all cases. All formal sessions require 5,000 words of paper by January 15, 2023. All wishes to present the sessions must be requested by December 31, 2022. Authors proposing demonstrations and lightning talks are notified by February 1, 2023, if their proposal has been accepted.
You can find the entire archive of past MW papers since the conference’s founding in 1997 freely available online.
Ways to Contribute
Offer a Pre-conference Workshop: Are you an expert in your field? Share your expertise by leading a half-day or full-day pre-conference workshop! Workshops are held the day before the conference begins and workshop leaders are compensated for their teaching. No written paper is required.
Present a Formal Paper: Share your leading work in the field through a written paper (required, up to 5,000 words) and an oral presentation in a conference session (approx. 20 min. plus discussion). All formal papers are published on the MW site, and selected papers are published in the printed proceedings of the conference. Formal papers should go beyond demonstrating a single project (“demonstrations” are the correct proposal type for single project presentations) and aim at distilling critical learnings that will be broadly applicable in the field (i.e. beyond the organization of origin). To avoid taking on an ‘advertorial’ or promotional tone, panels should include museum professionals or representatives of a cultural non-profit if the lead proposers are commercial partners.
Lead a Professional Forum: Convene a one-hour discussion or debate about timely and critical topics of interest to the museum community. No written paper is required.
Teach a How-to Session: You have one hour to demonstrate and teach a practical skill or best practices for a museum topic. A written version of your session (required, up to 2,500 words) will be published on the MW site to serve as an on-going reference both for attendees of your session and others.
Demonstrate your project and explain the designs and the decisions that went into it to colleagues in an exhibit-booth setting. Demonstrations are only open to museum professionals and projects created in a non-profit environment. (Commercial organizations are invited to demonstrate their products and projects in Exhibitor Briefings.)
Give a Lightning Talk in a 1.5 hour session that includes 10 lightning talks of 7 minutes each. [N.B. changed session format] Slides and recordings of the lightning talks will be published on the MW site, and presenters are invited to blog about their topics (up to 1,000 words) on the MW site.
Participate in a Crit Room: Panels of leaders in the museum field will provide a free assessment of your web or mobile project for accessibility and other best practices. Sign up before the conference for a critique on a first-come, first served basis (approximately four projects can be assessed in each 1.5 hour crit session).
Participate in a “Birds of a Feather” round-table: lead the discussion or dip into several while enjoying breakfast with colleagues. Topics are proposed by participants during the MW conference in the run-up to the breakfast.
Participate in the GLAMi Awards: propose your project or vote for your favorites! Help us share the best of museums’ digital work in a wide range of categories to inspire the global community. Nominations for the GLAMis open in February each year.
Exhibit your commercial products and services in the Exhibit Hall, and/or sponsor the conference proceedings, delegates’ bags, website and special events.
Sponsor and/or participate in a Community of Practice meeting around a question, problem, or platform of common interest in the field. Communities of Practice include suppliers of innovative products and services as well as cultural heritage professionals. Through focused conversations, shared research and pan-institutional collaborations, communities of practice aim to formulate, promulgate, and raise best practice in the field.
Propose a tour in your community. Submit the tour proposal for the pre-conference tour day (Tuesday) of the conference week.
Join the Local Committee and help showcase your cultural scene!
Performances? Hack-a-thons? Maker Faires? Other interactions or services? Propose any other format of participation + explain how it works. We’re open to new ideas. Please submit your idea and select “other” under the category.
