Present & Convene

Convener Guidelines

Session Proposal Submission

The deadline for proposal submission for AGU23 has passed; however, you may still refer to information shared during the call for proposals period for:

Please see below for more information on what to expect after proposal submission and session scheduling processes and policies. View information on session formats here. If you have any additional questions, please contact AGU’S Scientific Program Team.

What to Expect After Submitting a Proposal

If you submitted a session proposal, you will be notified of acceptance in mid-June. If your session proposal is accepted, please review the following next steps:

Session Proposal Review

The AGU23 Program Committee reviews session proposals through mid-June. During this process, the program committee reserves the right to:

Reject or merge multiple proposals submitted by the same convener(s) on related topics or across sections.
Move sessions to another AGU section.
Merge proposals on similar topics.
Request that conveners revise the session title and/or description.

In May, the program committee notified conveners of sessions that needed to be merged or have their session descriptions revised.

In mid-June, AGU will notify conveners if their sessions have been accepted.

Abstract Monitoring

If your session was accepted, it will be available to receive abstract submissions through 2 August. Conveners are responsible for ensuring that the abstracts submitted to their session are topically appropriate. Abstracts cannot be transferred after the program is finalized, so please monitor submissions regularly during this time.

Note: abstract text is not viewable by the public during this period.

How to Review Submitted Abstracts

All conveners can monitor through their session's listing on the abstract submission site. The abstract submission site will be closed for submissions after 2 August.
Conveners who are AGU members can log in to the Abstract Management Portal using their AGU username and password. After logging in:
- Click on your session name.
- Click on the “View Submissions” page.
- Abstract titles and author names are shown above the list of conveners.

What to Look For

Check for any abstracts that are not topically relevant to your session or that you think were submitted in error. This may happen due to author oversight or a misunderstanding of the session’s intent. If you see any:
- Email the appropriate program committee representative by 2 August so the abstract can be moved to an appropriate session.
Check that your invited authors have accepted the invitation to submit and have submitted their abstract to your session.
- If an invited author has not responded to your invitation, please follow up to ensure they have received the invitation and intend to submit an abstract.
- If the author has declined the invitation, you can invite another author in their place up until 2 August. Late abstract submissions will not be accepted.
If your session has not received many abstracts:
- You may not request that an author move their abstract from another session to your session.
- Review the program for other sessions with which your session can be merged based on similar abstract submissions.
- Notify your program committee representatives if you have any suggestions on potential merges. If the committee proceeds with the suggested merge, this will be completed after the abstract submission deadline.

Please note: sessions with no submitted abstracts by the deadline will be withdrawn. Sessions with few abstracts may be merged after the abstract deadline.

Inviting Authors to Submit

You may invite up to two authors to submit abstracts to your session. The deadline to invite authors is 19 July. Please adhere to this deadline to ensure authors have enough time to accept the invitation, prepare, and submit the abstract.

Conveners will have access to the invitation tool until 2 August, but invitations should be sent as early as possible. There will be no exceptions to the abstract submission deadline.

AGU’s main objectives for allowing invited authors include:

Raising the profile of a session.
Enticing authors who would not otherwise submit an abstract to a session.
Enhancing diversity or interdisciplinary perspectives and experiences.
Featuring scientists in varied career stages, including student and early-career scientists, and varied geographical locations and institutions.

To find and invite speakers with varied knowledge and experiences, we recommend utilizing your community networks and the resources below. These lists are merely starting points since they are not comprehensive resources and only include scientists who agree to have their names included.

Session conveners may not be the first author or presenting author on an invited abstract in the session they are convening, but:

Conveners can submit contributed abstracts to be presented as a poster in their own session.
Conveners may be invited authors in other sessions.
Union session and student and early career conveners are exempt from this rule and may schedule oral presentations in their own sessions.

How To Invite Authors

Login to the User Portal by 19 July.
Click on "My Account”.
Select the name of the session.
Click the “Invited Author Management” button.
You may invite a total of two authors with the invitation tool.
Do not make any promises to your invited authors that they are guaranteed an oral presentation. The final decisions about presentation type and session format, including oral sessions, are made by the AGU23 Program Committee. If a session is allocated an oral session in August, which is also not guaranteed, the convener schedules the authors in that session and the length of presentations during the scheduling process.
Union session conveners will receive specific instructions if they are approved for a Union session.
- While it is recommended that Union conveners invite a diverse group of authors, Union session conveners may present in their Union session, although they should not be listed as invited authors.
- There is a recommended maximum of eight invited authors for approved Union sessions.
- Please note, conveners may also opt to accept contributed abstracts and convene a companion poster session. Please contact AGU's Scientific Program Team to have the session opened for contributed abstracts if you have not done so.

Invited Author Guidelines and Policies

Invited authors must submit their abstracts via the link included in the invitation email by 2 August.
If the abstract is not submitted through the formal invitation, the abstract will not have an invited author status.
Invited authors must pay all fees associated with attending the meeting, including membership fees, abstract submission fees and online or in-person meeting registration.
Invited authors who are not current AGU members, but are members of an affiliated society/organization or who are a non-geoscientist may request a membership waiver by 19 July. Please contact the AGU Scientific Program Team with any questions.
Please familiarize yourself with the detailed convener invited author policy.

Marketing Tips & Tools

AGU wants to provide presenters and conveners with the tools they need to promote their participation in the AGU23. To assist you with increasing awareness of your session for abstract submissions, your engagement at AGU23, boosting attendance at your session and broadening the outreach for the conference, we are providing you with step-by-step instructions to assist with these efforts.

Social Media
Promote your session on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr. Take advantage of the AGU23 social media templates developed by the AGU design team.
OPEN SOCIAL MEDIA TEMPLATES
Post on a Professional Networking Site
Post an AGU Fall Meeting graphic on your professional networking site, like LinkedIn. To add an image to your network post, click on the image to download, then right-click to save it to your computer. Be sure to hyperlink the graphic to https://www.agu.org/Fall-Meeting.

Session Allocation and Scheduling

Once the abstract submission window closes on 2 August, the AGU23 Program Committee begins the scheduling and allocation process. If you have any questions regarding your allocated sessions, please contact the designated section program committee representative.

Allocation

The designated committee section determines the session type (i.e., poster, oral, or eLightning session OR a combination of the three formats) and the number of allocations granted to each submitted session.
Detailed information on session scheduling will be provided to conveners in mid-August.
In mid-to-late August, at least one of the conveners (the primary liaison) must be available to respond to any program committee requests and to schedule the session.
Following the 2 August abstract deadline, the program committee may decline an abstract for inclusion in the program.
The committee may also merge similar sessions and transfer any misplaced abstracts into a different, more appropriate session than the one to which they were submitted. The final decisions about the placement of individual abstracts within sessions are made by the committee.

Abstract Review and Scheduling

During the scheduling period in late August, conveners who are AGU members can log into the abstract management site to begin abstract reviews and session scheduling (arranging the order of their abstracts).

Conveners:

Must fully review and rate their abstracts as accepted or rejected based on their scientific results and/or their applications, or another focus.
May recommend an abstract for rejection or report any concerns regarding a submitted abstract to the program committee. 
Review the overview of session formats.
Should schedule any abstract authors who requested a poster presentation in a poster session.
Must schedule abstract authors based on their selected presentation location preference of in-person or online. Any authors who selected that they will present online and are assigned to the poster format must be placed in an online poster session.
Must designate a minimum of two session chairs (who do not have to be existing conveners). The maximum number of chairs allowed per session is four.
Must identify one Outstanding Student Presentation Award (OSPA) liaison for each allocated session.

Once the program committee's scheduling meeting begins in early September, conveners will no longer have access to their sessions online. During the scheduling meeting, the committee will schedule any sessions not already scheduled by the conveners as they see fit. The committee is responsible for assigning all dates and times for each allocated session

Final Program

Abstract notifications and notifications of your session’s official scheduled date and time will be sent on 4 October 2023.
After notifications are distributed, authors are required to accept or decline their presentation. Please monitor your session to note withdrawals.
If the presenting author declines, their abstract will be withdrawn from your session.
Due to the size of the program, if you are chairing multiple sessions and have also submitted abstracts to the scientific program, the program committee CANNOT guarantee that you will be free of scheduling conflicts at the meeting.
Ensure your co-conveners are available to step in to chair a session if needed.

Replacing an Oral Presentation

After the program is published in October, if an author withdraws from an oral session, the session convener can request that a presentation from the accompanying poster session, if applicable, be moved to replace the withdrawn oral presentation. This can be done only with accompanying sessions and with the poster presenter’s explicit consent.

To replace a withdrawn oral presentation, email AGU’s Scientific Program Team with the details of the withdrawn abstract, details of the abstract proposed to replace that oral presentation and a message in which the author consents to being moved.

Note: New abstracts CANNOT be added to fill empty slots in any session.