2021 NCASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture: Call for Proposals
The North Carolina Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (NCASLA) is issuing a Call for Proposals for a conference that takes place from May 19-20, 2021. We invite landscape architects, academics, allied professionals and vendors to the profession to submit proposals that fit this year’s conference theme. Please submit your proposal via our online form by midnight, February 26, 2021.
As the organization that represents the landscape architecture profession in the state of North Carolina, NCASLA’s mission is to advance the profession of landscape architecture in North Carolina through advocacy, communication, education, and fellowship.
New this year, in addition to certification of our courses through the North Carolina Board of Landscape Architects, NCASLA has become an approved course provider with the Landscape Architecture Continuing Education System (LA CES) and will be offering LA CES credits for each of our sessions. NCASLA will work with presenter(s) to meet LA CES requirements and will register the session on the national LA CES database. LA CES requires that all sessions be educational in nature and reinforce the learning objectives without the use of proprietary materials. Vendors' sessions will be reviewed carefully to ensure adequate academic content is provided. Please note that honorariums, travel and/or lodging expenses will not be provided.
NCASLA 2021 Virtual Conference on Landscape Architecture
RESILIENT PLACES + SPACES + PRACTICE
Wednesday, May 19, 2021 - Thursday, May 20, 2021
We anticipate an attentive and energetic audience of over 150 attendees that will examine the theme of this year’s conference:
RESILIENT PLACES + SPACES + PRACTICE
Since the inception of this conference’s theme in 2019, the focus has been on coastal resilience and climate change. At the time, our host city and much of the east coast of North Carolina was still recovering from 2018’s Hurricane Florence, and the world’s attention to climate change action was reignited by the 2019 UN Climate Change Summit.
In the 12 months that have passed since the first call for submissions for the conference, the COVID-19 pandemic has presented new and unprecedented challenges to our communities. Public health is now at the forefront of policy conversations, and our daily lives have been dramatically altered. Working from home has become the norm, with social and workplace interaction occurring largely virtually. Projects have stalled. Communication with clients and the public have become challenges many in our industry have been forced to overcome.
While the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted our attention, the challenges our conference originally planned to examine have not disappeared. We were reminded this past summer that addressing these challenges is more important than ever before. The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season was among the most active and most costly hurricane seasons on record with a new record of 12 U.S. landfalls. Locally, South Carolina was impacted my Hurricane Bertha in May and North Carolina was impacted by Hurricane Isaias in August. Planning responses and recoveries to these events during a global pandemic placed overwhelming strain on emergency managers already grappling with the ongoing public health situation.
Underlying social and economic disparities have also been exacerbated during this crisis. Ongoing protests in cities across the country have brought social justice to the forefront of the national spotlight, sparking conversations on the equity of our built environment. Many of us have started to rethink the way we plan and design the public realm. We have begun to explore ways to make resources more accessible and communities more resilient to economic and environmental impacts.
Despite the challenges we have all faced, the COVID-19 pandemic has provided new opportunities for Landscape Architects to play key roles in developing solutions. There is now a greater sense of urgency to address the topics originally explored by this conference and a need to expand the scope of the resilience discussion. It has also placed a much higher importance and recognition of the value of our public spaces, as well as the need for innovative approaches to how we work and engage with our communities.
With this 2021 NCASLA Call for Proposals we seek sessions that examine this idea of Resilient Places + Spaces + Practice including topics related to coastal resiliency and climate change, but also seek projects and processes that address public heath challenges, promote environmental justice, and build social and economic resiliency for our local communities. We encourage proposals that highlight creative and adaptive solutions within our practices that help overcome these challenges, including innovative engagement techniques, client interaction, and approaches to design.
Conference educational sessions will generally be one hour, but we will also consider two-hour deep dive sessions (note two-hour sessions will be broken up by regularly scheduled breaks). Multidisciplinary panels and sessions that address regional issues are encouraged.
Proposal Requirements
Proposals for all conference and continuing education sessions must include the following elements to be considered.
Each presenter’s contact information and biography
Contact information: Please provide the following information for every presenter. If there is more than one presenter, please start with the one who will serve as contact person for the group. All proposal-related communication will be between NCASLA and the first individual listed.
First name and last name, firm or agency affiliation and presenter’s title.
Telephone
Mailing address
Email address
NCASLA member? (yes/no)
Working Title
Choose a title that accurately reflects the content of the proposed session. Clever or catchy titles are great, as long as they are not misleading.
Each presenter’s biography: Provide a brief statement that includes each presenter’s qualifications, expertise and experience related to teaching the proposed topic (Limit each to 150 words.) These biographies will appear in marketing materials for the event.
Presentation Level: Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced
Presentation Length/Type
60 minutes/Classroom Session
2 hour-deep dive Session
Abstract
Session Description: Describe your session content in no more than 250 words.
Your description will appear in the national LA CES database, promotional emails and event program.
Learning objectives
List three bullet-point-style objectives participants will accomplish as a result of this session that will expand their knowledge, skills, or abilities in the field of landscape architecture.
For example, below are sample learning objectives from a presentation on Green Codes:
Participants will:
Acquire a basic understanding of these codes, the policy drivers behind them and how they can work synergistically to create a greener built environment.
Learn how to take a lead on design teams to implement these codes.
Interact with the local government leads responsible for these codes, to explore barriers and solutions to effective implementation.
Understand the resources that are available to help learn and implement these codes in their professional practice.
Audience Engagement: Please describe the format for how you intend to present the information, such as: lecture, panel discussion, workshop, if you will include break-out groups, etc. We encourage you to consider the needs of all learning types including audio, visual, and kinesthetic as you think about the format of your presentation.
AV Needs: As our conference is virtual, speakers provide your own laptop and Internet Access
Promo Pics: If you would like an image related to your presentation or a presenter photo potentially included in the program, feel free to send it along as .tif or .jpg files below 2 MB in size. Pending available space and/or program costs, we may choose to include it.
Health, safety, and welfare (HSW) qualification: State whether the presentation meets the LA CES definition of Health, Safety, and Welfare.
LA CES Qualifying Subjects: Please list which LA CES subjects apply to your presentation. Qualifying subjects include:
Accessibility/ADA
Agriculture/Local Food Production
Business Practices/Contracts/HR
Campus Planning & Design
Design-build
Development Trends
Energy Conservation/Renewable Energy
Green Roofs
Healthcare and Therapeutic Design
Historic Preservation
Horticulture/Plants
Housing & Community Design
Parks & Recreation
Project Management
Remediation/Brownfields
Residential Design
Rural Landscape
Security Design
Site Planning
Sustainable Development & Design
Technology/CADD/GIS
Transportation
Urban Planning & Design
Water/Stormwater Management
All proposals will be acknowledged once received. Acceptance notices will be sent on or before March 31, 2021.
NCASLA looks forward to receiving your proposal.
Thank you for your support of NCASLA.