COFO 2023 Annual Conference: Call for Presentations

Proposal Submission Deadline Extended to July 17th, 2023!

The Coalition of Federal Ombudsman is pleased to announce that it is now accepting proposals to present at its 2023 Annual Conference on October 13, 2023. The conference will be a hybrid event – COFO is thrilled to return to an in-person conference setting in Alexandria, VA this year, but will continue to offer virtual attendance for those who cannot attend in person. Therefore, we are soliciting proposals for both virtual and in-person presentations. We would like to have a mix of both at this year’s event.

Is there an interesting topic you’ve contemplated writing about or preparing a presentation on, maybe an issue you want to try something different or unusual with? Don’t be shy! The COFO Annual Conference is a great place to try out new, challenging, and experimental presentations, so we’d love to hear your idea.

COFO is open to proposals of all lengths on substantive topics. Anything from 15-minute micro-learning sessions up to 90 minute presentations will be considered, though 60 minutes is historically the most common session proposal. Additionally, we are again looking for “blips” – short presentations or interactive activities no longer than 5 minutes that reflect the creative talents of our community. Blips are designed to help transition between presentations, to energize, and to engage. They should be creative or artistic content which can be fun, entertaining, or reflective and can be specific to or adjacent to ombuds practice, but don’t have to be! Share your talent with us!

COFO’s membership is diverse in its practice, so substantive topics of interest to both internally- and externally-facing ombuds models are most likely to be selected. Topics specific to one model will only be considered if content is available to support concurrent sessions of interest to other models.

Please be aware that the virtual technology available to us and the conference’s hybrid format make breakout sessions essentially impossible, so sessions should be designed for traditional presentation and Q&A rather than discussion-based breakouts. COFO has no budget and is unfortunately unable to pay a presenter fee or travel costs.

Registration for the COFO Annual Conference is free, and the conference typically draws over 200 attendees from across the ombuds profession and broader ADR community. The Annual Conference is first and foremost a day of training and learning focused on the needs of ombuds practitioners serving in the federal government, but it is also always an ombuds-wide family affair. We welcome anyone either practicing as an ombuds or interested in ombuds work to join us as an attendee or presenter, and we believe the conference is an outstanding development opportunity for anyone in the field.

Please email the title and description of your proposed presentation or blip, as well as the names, titles, affiliations, and bios of all presenters and whether you intend to present in person or virtually, by Monday, July 17th, 2023 to paul.sotoudeh@uspto.gov. We look forward to hearing from you!