CALL FOR PAPERS IS NOW OPEN
Deadline extended - 24 February 2012
Please ensure you read ALL information below carefully before submitting your abstract.
The theme for this year’s conference is “Diverse country. Common ground.”
Australia and New Zealand are diverse across their landscape, climate, population and social networks. However within this context the fire and emergency management industry has common goals and we share each other’s challenges. This conference is designed for delegates to explore, examine and debate key issues facing our sector.
The Conference program will address a number of principle topics. The Research Forum will feature research across all hazards.
- Drivers shaping emergency management
- Diversity and resilience
- Volunteering into the future
- The environments (natural, built, marine)
- Incident management – leadership and accountability
- Research to policy to practice
- Research projects
The conference program will include a mix of keynote and invited speakers, and speakers selected from abstracts received in response to the Call for Papers. Posters will once again be given a prominent location in the Knowledge Lounge, located in the main Trade Exhibition area.
Authors are welcome to submit an abstract for an oral presentation and/or a panel session and/or a poster. The Conference Program Committee will select speakers based on their relevance to the topic or panel.
ABSTRACT SUBMISSIONS – Deadline 24 February 2012
All Abstracts must be submitted online, and should be specifically linked to the principle topics being addressed and/or the themes of the panel sessions. Abstracts are invited from emergency services and management professionals, volunteers, researchers and academics, industry and government bodies. Authors may choose to submit abstracts solely for selection as a poster.
Competition for selection as a speaker at the AFAC and Bushfire CRC conference is high, so not all abstracts will be accepted for a speaking slot. It is expected that, subject to the overall quality of submissions, between 20 and 30 papers will be selected for oral presentation over the two day conference, with a further 20 for the Research Forum.
AFAC member agencies have been asked to conduct an internal selection process for abstract submissions. If you are a staff member or volunteer of an AFAC member agency, please contact your agency in relation to this prior to submitting an abstract online.
There are four opportunities to participate as part of the conference program:
1. ORAL SESSIONS - AFAC and Bushfire CRC Conference
The regular sessions will be of 30 minutes duration (including question time). Authors should indicate which topic their abstract will address. Preference will be given to those abstracts most closely aligned to the theme of the conference.
All speakers accepted for an oral presentation are required to prepare a 2000 word paper of their presentation. This will need to be submitted by the end of July 2012 and will be uploaded to the AFAC Knowledge Web and made available to the wider AFAC audience at the time of the presentation. Failure to provide a paper will result in withdrawal of the invitation to speak.
Click here to submit an abstract for an oral presentation. Abstracts should be between 250 to 300 words
2. ORAL SESSIONS - RESEARCH FORUM
Research Forum sessions will be of 30 minutes duration (including question time.) Agencies conducting research projects are invited to submit abstracts. All speakers accepted to present as part of the Research Forum are required to prepare a 3000 word research paper of their presentation. These papers will be peer reviewed and will be published as refereed proceedings, with an ISBN. All authors accepted to speak will also be expected to act as referees for one of the papers. Papers will be published post the conference and distributed to all delegates. These papers will be required by 17 August, 2012.
Click here to submit an abstract for an oral presentation for the research forum. Abstracts should be between 250 to 300 words.
3. PANEL SESSIONS There will also be eight themed panel sessions. Each panel will be led by the Chair, with up to four panellists who will be allocated 10-12 minutes each to speak. This will be followed by a discussion facilitated by the Chair and involving panellist and delegate participation. The panel sessions will run for 90 minutes and panellists are expected to contribute for the full 90 minutes.
Panellists are not expected to prepare an extended paper, however there may be some preparatory work required in liaising with the Chair and other panellists prior to the conference.
The following panel sessions will be conducted:
- Hello – is anyone out there? Engaging the non-converted
- Fire: Balancing community and environment
- Emergency management in the future
- The fear factor – psychological preparedness for communities
- Good practice in urban firefighting
- High profile security events
- From idea to use
- Implications and anomalies of legal inquiries
More information on panel session topics here.
Click here to submit an abstract to participate as a panellist. Abstracts should be between 150 and 200 words.
4. POSTERS
Conference Posters receive considerable exposure, and are located in the main Trade Exhibition area in the Knowledge Lounge. Posters are an increasingly effective means of sharing knowledge with the broadest cross-section of the industry.
A dedicated Poster Session(s) will be held for the 2012 conference, allowing poster authors to present their project or research to interested delegates. Authors who are not selected for oral presentations will be given an opportunity to display a poster. Awards will be presented to the winning poster authors.
Click here to submit an abstract for an oral presentation. Abstracts should be between 250-300 words.
