Join Us in San Francisco for SIOP’s First Ever 3-Day Annual Conference
Steven G. Rogelberg and Douglas Pugh
University of North Carolina Charlotte
By the time you read this article, the review process for the 2008 annual conference will be underway. We wanted to share a few of the conference highlights that are already in the works.
Theme tracks
Introduction of a Thursday and Saturday theme track. A theme track is almost a conference within a conference. It is a narrow actionable theme that appeals to individuals regardless of whether they work in an applied setting or academia and reflects a cutting edge topic or trend. For each theme there will be multiple integrated sessions (e.g., invited speakers; debates) scheduled back-to-back throughout the day. These themes will represent one track in addition to 18 other sessions of our standard, varied, and excellent peer-reviewed content. SIOP’s tradition of outstanding topic diversity will, of course, continue.
- Thursday Theme: Individual-Organizational Health. Industrial and organizational psychology has a long history of being concerned with individual well-being in terms of performance and attitudes toward the job and organization. However, we have only recently begun to broaden our perspectives on well-being to examine individual and organizational health. To highlight the importance and challenges of individual and organizational health, the Thursday Theme will focus on research and practice aimed at optimizing well-being for organizations and employees. The Thursday Theme committee has tentatively developed six unique sessions to address various cutting-edge topics such as the impact of mergers/acquisitions on individual-organizational health
- Saturday Theme: The State of I-O Education: A Candid Look in the Mirror. The inaugural Saturday Theme Track will be devoted to a vigorous examination of the current health and future prospects of I-O graduate education. A variety of opinion leaders and stakeholders representing both academia and practice will be assembled to deliberate the value of our current educational model and propose innovative and sometimes controversial ideas for shaping its future. An assortment of stimulating formats and accomplished presenters will be used to surface needed dialogue and focus on what it will take to meet emerging stakeholder needs, bring curricular innovation to life and recalibrate the nuts and bolts of high quality education.
Featured Posters
The featured poster session was a hit last year. We will once again showcase the top 20 rated posters at an evening all-conference reception. Come view some of the best submissions to the conference while sipping drinks in a relaxed atmosphere with the presenters.
Yet Another Super Set of Sunday Friday Seminars!
As Sunday is no longer part of our conference, the Sunday Seminars are now repackaged as Friday Seminars (this is our 9th year). Friday Seminars are invited sessions on cutting-edge topics that require advance registration and an additional fee. Please see Lisa Penny’s article TIP for a description of the great topics and speakers for this year.
Friday Invited Addresses
We will have two keynote speakers on Friday: Dr. Jac Fitz-enz who is known worldwide as the “father” of human capital strategic analysis and measurement; Dr. Paul Ekman, named by APA as one the most influential psychologists of the 20th century, is a foremost expert on universal emotions.
Great, But Less Concurrent, Sessions
We will have hundreds of peer-reviewed sessions addressing I-O psychology research, practice, theory, and teaching-oriented content. These will come in the form of symposia/forum; roundtable/conversation hours; panel discussions; posters; debates; and master tutorials. In addition we will have addresses from our SIOP award winners, key committee reports, and an update from the Fall Consortium conference on innovation. However, expect a small reduction in the number of concurrent sessions. This reduction, coupled with the additional half-day being added to the conference will result in roughly a net zero increase or decrease in total programming. A reduction in concurrent sessions allows us to maintain the current acceptance rate and uphold program quality. It also helps slightly mitigate against the inevitable content conflicts at any one point in time.
Communities of Interest (COI) sessions
We will have 12 Communities of Interest (COI) sessions. These are sessions designed to create new communities around common themes or interests. These sessions have no chair, presenters, or discussant. Instead, they are informally moderated by one or two facilitators. These are great sessions to attend if you would like to 1) meet potential collaborators, 2) generate new ideas, 3) have stimulating conversations, 4) meet some new friends with common interests, and 5) develop an informal network with other like-minded SIOP members.
Closing Address and Finale Reception
In addition to the conference opening with its traditional plenary address, the conference will close this year on Saturday afternoon with a special invited address (to be announced). Don’t miss this opportunity for all of us to come together in one place and hear an exciting talk that will close out the conference with a bang! After the address, we’ll head into a special evening reception with a California theme.
No more overheads!
Given that hardly anyone is using them anymore, we’re finally eliminating overhead projectors in the rooms. We’ll be reminding you of this in several places over the next few months, so make sure you come prepared.
Other notes about the San Francisco Conference
The Hilton San Francisco is located just 2 blocks from Union Square, and easy walking distance to fabulous dining, shopping, and theater. There’s easy access to cable cars near the hotel. See the SIOP Webpage for details on making your reservations.
Appreciation
Putting together our annual conference is a massive team effort involving hundreds of wonderful volunteers. Although there are just too many people to list by name here, we do want to recognize some very key individuals. This starts with the Past Program Chair, Tammy Allen, and the Program Chair-in-Training, John Scott, who comprise the Strategic Program Planning Subcommittee. They are essential to the design, planning and execution of the program. We would like to thank the subcommittee chairs: they are Peter Chen, James LeBreton, Lisa Penney, Mark Poteet, and Christiane Spitzmueller. We also would like to thank Julie Olson-Buchanan for her invaluable advice and counsel. And as always, none of this would be possible without the great work of SIOP Executive Director David Nershi and his Administrative Office staff in Bowling Green.