ORAL SESSIONS
Oral presentations are expected to advance our state of knowledge by focusing on new findings, models, and syntheses of past and ongoing studies that are relevant to the management or scientific understanding of the Bay-Delta. Presentations should avoid focusing on project or program descriptions or summaries of planned studies. Because we anticipate that requests for oral presentations will exceed the available time slots, the Program Committee will assign oral presentations based on technical merits of the abstract, relevance of the topic, and importance of the findings. Abstracts should provide a clear description of the contribution, including their relevance to Bay-Delta management. Speakers will be limited to one oral presentation.
Special Oral Sessions
Proposals for special oral sessions devoted to topics of
particular interst to the Bay-Delta community are also
encouraged. Abstracts describing these sessions must be
submitted by the abstract submission deadline (June 3,
2024) and must include a session title, the name of the
session chair(s), a short (<300 words) description of the
session topics (including relevance to Bay-Delta
management), and a list of proposed presentation titles
and authors. Each presentation proposed in the special
oral session must also have its own abstract, which also
must be submitted by the abstract deadline.
Special oral session presentations should be well integrated and representative of the current body of research on the topic. The Program Team may also work with the Special Session Organizer (the person submitting the proposal) to develop the final configuration, including the possible addition of related talks from the pool of general submissions. Because of overwhelming demand for speaking slots, the length of a proposed special session will be limited. Specifically, a given special session can range from ¼ of a day to a half day (1-2 session blocks). Each block consists of five 20-minute talks and may include a panel discussion in place of one or more talks. Proposals including discussion panels should include the length of the discussion period (must be in 20-minute intervals). Proposed panels should inclusively and equitably reflect a diversity of perspectives and participants presenting the discussion topic. Because we anticipate that special session proposals will exceed the available time slots, the Program Team may not accept a special session proposal, and submitted abstracts will be considered for inclusion in other conference sessions based on the technical merits of the abstract, including relevance of the topic, presentation of results, and importance of the findings.
Special consideration will be given for session proposals that integrate the theme of cultivating connections in a dynamically changing environment in Bay-Delta science as described earlier. Presentations on “management-relevant science” related to the session topic are encouraged.
