Convener Guidelines

In mid-June, AGU will notify conveners if their sessions have been accepted and accepted sessions are open for abstract submission.

Once the abstract submission window closes on the extended deadline of Monday, 5 August 14:00 EDT, the AGU24 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.

Conveners (the primary liaison) must be available in both May and August to respond to any inquiries from the program committee to aid in mergers and scheduling.

Conveners will be informed of their session’s scheduled date and time when the online meeting program is released in early October.

2. Abstract Submission and Monitoring

If your session was accepted, it will be available to receive abstract submissions through Monday, 5 August. All abstracts must be submitted through the abstract submission site.

Conveners are responsible for ensuring that the abstracts submitted to their session are topically appropriate and should work with the program committee to transfer abstracts to a better suited session or is not appropriate for the meeting. Abstracts cannot be transferred after the program is finalized, so please monitor submissions regularly during this time and contact your program committee representative or AGU staff to request an abstract transfer.

All conveners can monitor full abstract details through their session's listing on the abstract submission site. Note: full abstract text is not viewable by the public during this period.

Conveners who are AGU members can log in to the Abstract Management Portal using their AGU username and password to view full abstract details through the extended deadline of 5 August. 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.

Abstract Monitoring

• 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 5 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 5 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 representative if you have any suggestions on potential merges. If the committee proceeds with the suggested merger, 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.

3. Invited Author Policy

If your proposal is accepted, conveners may invite up to two authors to submit abstracts to your session once abstract submissions open in June. Union sessions do not have an invited author limit, however a maximum of eight authors is recommended.

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.
• EXCEPTION: For AGU24 students and early career conveners are exempt from this rule and may be scheduled as oral presentations in their own sessions. The program committee has determined that this exception will be removed for AGU25.

Please note, over 65% of abstracts will be scheduled in poster sessions and not all accepted sessions will receive an oral allocation from the program committee. Conveners should not promise an oral presentation to invited authors.

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
• Featuring early-career scientists.

Invited authors must pay all fees associated with attending the meeting, including membership fees, abstract submission fees and online or in-person meeting registration.

To find and invite authors 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.

• Diverse Sources
• 500 Women Scientists
• 500 Queer Scientists
• Women's Media Center She Source
• PLZ Diversify Your Panel
• Geosciences of Color
• Databases of Diverse Speakers in STEM
• The Water Researchers of Color (WaterPOC) 

4. How to Invite Authors

• Login to the USER PORTAL by Wednesday, 17 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 Program Committee. If a session is allocated an oral session in August, which is also not guaranteed, the convener will schedule the selected abstracts in that session and the length of presentations during the scheduling process.

Invited Author Guidelines and Policies

• Invite your authors early!
• Invited authors must submit their abstracts via the link included in the invitation email by the extended 5 August deadline.
• 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 must have requested a membership waiver by 17 July. Please contact the AGU Scientific Program Team with any questions.
• Please familiarize yourself with the detailed convener invited author policy.
• 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.

5. Marketing Tips & Tools

AGU wants to provide presenters and conveners with the tools they need to promote their participation in the AGU24. To assist you with increasing awareness of your session for abstract submissions, your engagement at AGU24, 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 X, Facebook and Tumblr. Take advantage of the AGU24 social media templates developed by the AGU design team.
  Open social media templates


• Post on a Professional Networking Site
  Post an AGU24 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/annual-meeting.

6. Session Allocation, Abstract Review, and Abstract Scheduling

Once the abstract submission window closes on the extended deadline of 5 August, the 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.

Session Allocation

• Detailed information on session scheduling will be provided to conveners in mid-August.
• The designated program committee section determines the session type (i.e., poster, eLightning, or oral session OR any combination) and the total number of allocations granted to each submitted session.
• 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 5 August abstract deadline, the conveners may suggest, and 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.

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).

Abstract Review

Conveners must:

• Fully review and rate their abstracts as accepted or rejected based on their scientific results and/or their applications, or another focus.
• Recommend any abstract for rejection or report any concerns regarding a submitted abstract to the Program Committee.
• Review the overview of session formats.
• Schedule any abstract authors who requested a poster presentation in a poster session.
• 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 format (specific instructions will be provided in August).
• 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.
• Identify one Outstanding Student Presentation Award (OSPA) liaison for each allocated session.

Session Scheduling

• The final decision on your allocated session type (i.e., oral, poster, or eLightning session OR a combination of the three formats) and schedule will be made by the program committee. Oral session allocations are not guaranteed.
• Conveners will be informed of their session type allocations in late August.
• Session Conveners will receive access to the online review and scheduling tools and detailed instructions in mid-August. Conveners should review the Session Convener Scheduling Instructions emailed to all session conveners on 20 August 2024.
• During the scheduling period, conveners who are AGU members can log into the abstract management site to:
  • Begin thorough abstract reviews.
  • Arrange the order and timing of their abstracts within allocated sessions.
  • Assign session chairs (do not have to be existing session conveners to each allocated session).
  • Designate a liaison for the Outstanding Student Presentation Award (OSPA) for your session. OSPA liaisons are responsible for recruiting volunteer reviewers and ensuring each OSPA presenter in your session has three evaluations. When designating your OSPA liaison, please confirm with your colleague that they can fulfill this role and please do not assign this role to a student.
• Once the Program Committee 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.

7. Final Online Scientific Program

• Abstract notifications and notifications of your session’s official scheduled date and time will be sent in early October 2024.
• 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.

8. 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.

• 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 2024 AGU members, but are members of an affiliated society/organization or who are a non-geoscientist must have requested a membership waiver by 17 July.
• Please familiarize yourself with the detailed convener invited author policy.