Overview from the Program Chair
The SIOP Annual Conference is the most important yearly event for the I-O community. It is where we all get together to connect with friends and colleagues to share our research and our experiences of the past year with each other. It is where we all take a short break from our daily work to learn, together. Last year marked our return to an in-person conference following the break caused by the global pandemic. The 2022 conference brought a blend of in-person content as well as virtual content that we leaned on heavily during 2020 and 2021. This year, we plan to continue this new format of hosting an in-person conference that also has a virtual option. Our virtual conference content allows for greater inclusion of members who are unable to travel to Boston in 2023 and allows in-person attendees who cannot make it to a session to still access meaningful content on the state of our science. The Program Committee is working hard to learn from lessons from the past to develop an enriching, fun, and engaging conference experience. I hope you will join us for the annual conference, and I hope you will submit a proposal so that we can learn from you just as we all learn from the broader I-O community.
Like last year, there will be some changes to the conference program experience. The first change involves virtual poster presentations. Based on feedback from last year, we will not be using Virtual Chair as part of the conference this year. Presenters who submit a virtual poster will have the opportunity to develop a brief video (5 minutes or less) to complement their virtual poster during the conference. This opportunity allows single-author submitters and research teams to provide a bit more information about their poster in the virtual conference. This is the only asynchronous content that will be delivered by presenters on the program. Like last year, the in-person content will be the “premiere” experience of the SIOP conference. As such, all other presentation types (e.g., symposia, panels) will be delivered live, either in-person or virtually.
We will ask In-person poster presenters to submit a pdf version of their posters to Whova to aid in inclusion for those attending virtually. However, In-person poster presenters will not be required to create a video for the virtual component of the conference (although you are more than welcome to do so). In-person poster presentations will be held on-site in the Exhibit Hall at the John B. Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA.
In-person attendees will have access to all virtual and in-person content, whereas virtual attendees will have access to all virtual content and a subset of the in-person content delivered through live streaming. Please be aware that we will not live stream the entire in-person conference. There will be no hybrid (i.e., some presenters are virtual and some presenters are in person at the same session) sessions at the conference.
When submitting, you will be required to select an In-Person or Virtual modality. Importantly, virtual attendance and virtual submission are not the same. In-person attendees may participate in both in-person and virtual submissions, whereas virtual attendees will only participate in virtual submissions. The intent of the virtual modality is to provide greater accessibility and increase diversity of presenters, not to support a stand-alone version of the conference. Virtual submissions are those in which at least one Speaker plans to only present at the conference virtually (i.e., they will not be at their session in-person; for additional details see Conference Programming Formats). Speakers who attend the in-person conference may participate in both in-person or virtual sessions as appropriate. Please note, that if one Speaker in your session is virtual, the entire session must be a virtual presentation. Logistical support, such as a quiet space for presenting, will be provided in Boston for those needing to present virtually midconference.
Another change you will see in the submission process focuses on Alternative Sessions. We want to strongly encourage those submitting alternative sessions to consider having a large part of the session focused on interactive engagement of attendees. As such, when submitting alternative sessions, you will be asked whether or not the proposal includes significant audience engagement beyond question and answer periods. Significant audience engagement is defined by at least 33% of the session involving active interaction from attendees. Active interaction is involvement of attendees that goes beyond Q&A periods. As in previous years, other alternative session types will still be accepted.
Many of the changes put in place last year for the submission process will continue. Namely, when submitting proposals, submitters will only need to designate who is a Speaker and who is a Non-speaking Contributor. A Speaker is someone who will be speaking during the session. This may include people who serve as discussant, chair, co-chair, panelist, presenter, facilitator, and so on. Non-speaking Contributors are all other credited authors who will not speak in the session. The number of sessions in which a person is designated Speaker will be used to evaluate compliance with the Rule of Three (see Eligibility) instead of author order. This means that you have a bit more flexibility than in past years; for example, you could specify the “third author” of a poster as the person responsible for presenting it. Additionally, all submissions except posters must have at least one Speaker who is not a Student, but that person does not need to be a session organizer. You will be asked to provide an APA-style citation to your session that will indicate author order and more specific roles, which will eventually appear in the Whova description of your session. SIOP will not track this information otherwise. Like last year, both 80-minute and 50-minute submissions are accepted, but please note that 50-minute submissions are much preferred.
As in all years prior, the SIOP Program Committee continues to welcome proposals aligned to SIOP’s vision, mission, values, and goals. All proposals must advance the scientific mission of SIOP, to translate scientific knowledge to tackle real-world problems in collaboration with organization leaders, communities, and policymakers, promoting individual and organizational health and effectiveness. We particularly encourage proposals reflecting a diverse and inclusive I-O in terms of the questions asked, the populations studied, the research teams investigating, and the Speakers presenting. Through this conference, we hope to energize those invested in understanding and improving work and workplace issues, to guide the learning of all attendees both during the conference and beyond. Please join us!
Finally, we are also asking for your patience during the continually evolving circumstances of the pandemic, especially as new variants emerge, and as vaccination continues to progress unevenly worldwide. I'm looking forward to the great sessions to come at the 2023 Annual Conference. Comments and suggestions are always welcome!
SIOP 2023 Program Committee
Enrica N. Ruggs, Chair (program@siop.org)