These guidelines are written with all presenters in mind, regardless of level of experience, formal academic qualification, or discipline or field. Bahá'í Studies calls for diverse participants and approaches.

Choosing Your Presentation Format
Simultaneous break-out sessions are usually scheduled for the afternoons of the second and third days of the conference. Most sessions are for one hour, to allow time for establishing background information for a diverse audience. Panel presentations can be organised and can be up to two hours in length, depending on the number of participants. New collaborations arranged with the help of the conference organisers will be scheduled for 90 minutes to two hours, depending on the number of collaborators. Presentations can be in lecture or discussion format, but all must allow substantial time for discussion. At least one third of the total time period is recommended as a suitable allotment for questions and discussion. Poster sessions are also possible (please read the Poster Presentation Guidelines).

Audiovisual equipment and screens can be provided. However, requests for equipment need to be made before the deadline so that arrangements can be made in advance. It is also recommended that presenters have a back up plan should technical problems arise with projectors during the session.

Writing Your Proposal
The content of the 200 word proposal is important since it will be the basis for the decision whether to accept your presentation for the conference, and where to best place it in the schedule. For more formal, academically-styled presentations, it is helpful to begin a proposal with identifying which specific question(s) the presentation will consider, explain why the question is important with respect to current thinking and/or practice, and what means will be used to address the question (related theory, methods of research, presentation style, etc). It can also briefly comment on known or anticipated results.

Presentations which vary from the above academic norm are welcome and encouraged. In an arts-based presentation, for example, the “results” may be a performance or visual work, which evokes an audience response. Other approaches to exploring ideas and knowledge are also welcome, and can be presented in the proposal with an explanation of their use.

Whatever the approach, the foremost goal of the Annual Conference of the Association for Bahá’í Studies, as distinct from the Bahá’í schools and other conferences, is to have new, “leading edge” work, presented to a group of peers working in similar areas and to others especially interested in new areas of research. Consequently, the requirements for presentation content are that 1) it represents new and original work, and that 2) it has not been presented elsewhere in a school, workshop, seminar or study-class format.

Identifying Appropriate Topics for the Annual Conference
It is important to realise that presentations at the Annual Conference are focussed on the exploration stage of research, or on the reporting of new results, or extensively reviewing research, analyses, or practice, or the application of new research, analysis, or practice. The Bahá’í schools and other conferences are more often directed toward educating people on better established ideas and principles, or about those applications which have resulted from previous, more established research on the Writings and the world’s problems. In other words, the ABS presentations should inspire people to look for and find new knowledge in new ways, or provide constructive feedback on work being done, or both. One conference goal is to identify new work for publication in the Journal of Bahá’í Studies. In this light, all presentations can be viewed as “works in progress,” with the greater purpose of furthering scholarship in general.

Pre and Post-conference Activities
In order to encourage learning at the conference to be part of an ongoing developmental process of capacity building, we especially welcome proposals that explain what the presenter(s) plans to do either before or after the conference to this end. It may be as simple as preparing for and then “introducing Baha’i ideas into everyday conversation” on a subject of social concern, or as involved as organizing a symposium on campus on a subject with a like-minded student organization. It could be proposing a session at a Bahá’í school, writing a letter to the editor of a local paper, submitting an article for the Journal of Bahá’í Studies, blogging on the topic, etc. It is hoped that presenters at the conference will take a variety of actions to advance the learning process beyond the conference venue.