2025 Southeast Land Conservation Conference

Share your experience! Submit a workshop proposal to present at the upcoming 2025 Southeast Land Conservation Conference by Monday, Nov. 4.

We expect approximately 175-200 participants representing a spectrum of land, water and community conservation organizations across the region. The conference agenda will include optional pre-conference field trips, a welcome reception, networking events, informative workshops and more!

We are interested in exploring topics in these four tracks with diversity, equity and inclusion-focused content throughout the program:

• Community engagement

• Development and communications

• Land conservation and stewardship

• Organizational management

Preference will be given to collaborative interactive sessions from diverse panels of presenters with the ability to invite dialogue, encourage discussion and provide different perspectives on relevant issues and topics.

The Alliance will communicate directly with the presenters of accepted sessions who are responsible for accurate session description and honoring deadline dates for handouts, co-presenter changes, bios, A/V requirements, etc.

We will be in touch regarding the status of all proposals the week of Dec. 9, 2024.

The program committee is made up of approximately 10-12 individuals representing organizations from across the Southeast as well as the Land Trust Alliance. The committee will review and select session proposals using the following criteria:

• Relevance of the topic to the needs and interests of land trusts operating in the region.

• Clarity of adult learning objectives, presentation format/flow and workshop title.

• Appropriate length/amount of material to time allotment and level of learner interaction.

• Overall fit with program theme and tracks, target audience and skill level.

• Strength and breadth of presenters’ expertise and experience, including lived experience and direct experience engaging in or benefit from projects or initiatives highlighted in sessions.

• Relevance of the topic to public policy, regional and local initiatives, and/or public sector/agency priorities.

As part of our efforts to foster an inclusive, community-centered conservation sector, we are implementing new policies to ensure that community voices and expertise are part of our gathering. If your proposal describes a partnership, program or area of work that engages or benefits a specific community or population, please include a co-presenter from that community. In the submission form, we ask that you list your co-presenters, their affiliation (if applicable) and their relationship to the topic. If your co-presenters are not able to attend in person, please indicate any accommodations that would support their participation (e.g. video conferencing).

At the Alliance, we believe that people are experts in their own lived experiences and that we need community expertise to succeed in our conservation goals. We borrow inspiration from the mantra “Nothing about us without us,” first used in the South African disability rights movement in the 1990s.

Tips for designing your proposal

• Speak to a specific audience with the skill level you select.

• If you are presenting on a partnership, program or area of work that engages or impacts a specific community, please use asset-based language instead of deficit-based language. Read a primer on this practice, including a useful checklist.

• These should describe what participants will be able to do after attending the session and should not simply repeat the information in the session description.