PAMCA requests proposals for symposia to be presented at the Virtual PAMCA Annual Conference & Exhibition. The symposium format is intended to allow a broad and synthesized review of a given topic with ample time for discussion.

The Symposia will be assigned premium meeting space at the venue, serving as the key pillars for assembly of the scientific program. Proposals addressing the meeting theme, “Empowering local institutions to set the agenda for the elimination of vector-borne diseases” are highly welcome. Nevertheless, any timely and related subject of broad interest will be considered. We also hope to receive proposals that fall under the conference's broad thematic areas.

Symposia are limited to a maximum of 2-hour sessions. The organizers of a given symposia symposium will consider 3-5 talks, each 15 minutes in length, followed by a 15-30 minutes period for synthesis, summary, and discussions. Symposia will be live sessions. However, additional changes in format will be communicated.

Proposals must be received through the online submission form by 12:00 Midnight East African Time on May 31, 2021. Any proposals sent by email or after the deadline will not be considered.

Quality of submission

Proposals should include original data and/or concepts that promote broad debate and synthesis presented by experts in the field. They should have a cohesive theme, clear objectives and a detailed description of the content. All talks should have a descriptive title. Priority will be given to proposals in which presentations and speakers are identified and described in sufficient detail. Provide a brief background and areas of expertise for all speakers.

Evaluation Process and Criteria

All proposals will be peer-reviewed and ranked by reviewers selected by the PAMCA Executive Director as the Chair. The Executive Director who serves as the Chair may accept or decline a given proposal or offer you the opportunity to present your work in an alternative forum (organized oral session, workshop, or special session) during the Annual Meeting.

Decisions will be made available by July 31, 2021.

Symposium proposals will be assessed using the strength of the criteria described herein. Weighting of particular criteria may vary depending on the nature of proposals, but proposals should explicitly address these criteria, as appropriate.

Scientific strength: For a given symposium to be considered it should:

• Offer significant contributions and understanding in mosquito control and related subjects
• Present innovative or collaborative approaches, including technologies in vector-borne disease surveillance and control
• Provide examples of how research in mosquito control and management benefited from attention to public policy concerns, outreach or information dissemination
• Have broad-spectrum of appeal to generate large audiences (>150 people) at the meeting

Structure and organization: Symposia should be more explicitly integrated than other sessions, and should be structured to:

• Provide overall synthesis or overview; they should not be simply a set of related case studies
• Avoid taking a narrow perspective on the symposium topic; organizers should carefully avoid the appearance of biases toward their own perspectives
• Build a well-integrated whole; each talk should have clear relevance to the overall synthesis provided by the symposium
• Integration: proposals may receive higher priority if they are clearly linked to the meeting’s overall theme, or if they offer particular value or insight in the context of other sessions proposed for this meeting.

The symposium chair and co-chair (if applicable) will be required to submit an abstract by May 31, 2021.

Session and presentation rules: In the interest of broadening participation, an individual is allowed to be an organizer (either a principal organizer or a co-organizer) for only one organized session (symposium, organized oral, organized poster).

An organizer of a symposium may serve as its chair/moderator OR speak in that symposium.

If Your Proposal Is Accepted

After symposia are accepted and the scheduling for the meeting is underway, cancellations and schedule changes are very disruptive to planning of any given meeting. Thus, symposium organizers should obtain firm commitments from as many of their invited speakers as possible before submitting their proposal.

If a proposal is accepted, the organizer(s) must submit a final summary description and confirmed speaker list for the symposium to the Executive Director by June 30th, 2021. This summary will appear on PAMCA meeting website and should be written so as to stimulate interest and promote attendance by a general audience, and thus is different in focus from the description in the original proposal. This final summary must include a complete and current listing of organizers’ names and their affiliations and email addresses; a 200 word description of the session; and a final, confirmed speaker list.

Organizers will be informed of their session’s time and date by July 31, 2021. Symposia may be scheduled for any live session schedule during the three days of the event. Organizers should inform their invited speakers that scheduling on any day of the conference is possible when asking speakers to commit to the session. We cannot schedule or move a session at the discretion of availability of a given speaker.

Communication with Speakers

If a proposal is accepted for a session, it is very important that the organizer communicates with the speakers between June and July about the acceptance status of the session, the confirmation status of speakers, session scheduling information, and expectations for participation in the conference.

All speakers are required to register for the conference. Organizers are responsible for making this clear to their speakers.

Cancellations and No shows

The deadlines for cancellation without risk of penalty and with penalty are explicitly as stated on the call for abstracts. Instructions for how to cancel are included in all notification emails sent to presenters. You should reply to any of those emails to cancel. For cancellations after July 30, 2021, please read the following section.

A no show is when a presentation was not made as scheduled and the presenter did not notify PAMCA of their inability to present. For instance, an unforeseen medical condition or family emergency and a presenter in such a situation should reply to any of the notification emails sent to them via emails. We may not be able to respond during the conference, but we will save all such messages for processing after the conference.

For other cases, where there is not a compelling reason and no notice was received, the no show penalty will be enforced. The no show penalty is a one year presentation ban, regardless of presentation type (posters and talks). Any abstract with the penalized author listed as the presenting author will not be accepted for the following year’s conference. This penalty applies only to the presenting author, not to any co-authors. The presenting author can still organize a session, be listed as a co-author, and attend the conference. The ban is for presenting a formal talk or poster only.