call for abstracts
The only national conference designed for economic development professionals, this three-day event will help you navigate complex economic issues, provide tactics to energise your communities, insights to help you develop economic growth strategies and the opportunity to collaborate with peers nationally.
Key dates for NEDC22 abstract submissions:
Call for Abstracts open – 23 May 2022
Call for Abstracts close – 22 June 2022
Review by Program Committee – June-July
All abstracts notified of their status – July
ABSTRACT PROCESS & GUIDELINES
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Call for Abstract Process
Abstracts must be submitted through the abstract submission portal. Topics considered should fall under the themes, but areas outside of this and of interest NEDC attendees will be considered.
Some suggestions of what appropriate topics for each theme may be are listed below but these are not exhaustive.
Navigate
- How are you navigating recent changes and challenges?
- What does economic development look like now and for the future?
- What is the new economic development data ecosystem?
- How will workforce challenges affect economic development?
- What does the great resignation mean?
- How can we respond to the housing crisis?
Energise
- How are you bringing your cities/regions back to life?
- Are we redefining place?
- How can we harness innovation to drive economic development?
Develop
- What does good public participation look like?
- Diversification and sector building
- Indigenous economic development
- Regional capacity building
- What is the future of place-based economic development?
Collaborate
- How do we encourage agency in regional communities?
- What is regional self determination
- How can we ensure diversity of voices in economic development?
- Clustering, Smart Specialisation and Agglomeration
Selection Criteria
Following the Call for Abstract Deadline, all abstracts will be reviewed by the program committee who will consider the following:
- Which theme your proposal falls under (Navigate, Energise, Develop, Collaborate).
- Detail of the topic to be presented. Illustrate relevance to an audience of economic development professionals.
- Is this an original topic? Are you covering new ground? Providing new perspectives?
- Best practice / analytical: Can you show thought leadership in your presentation? is your topic supported by evidence/data?
Following the review period all abstracts will be notified via email as to the status of their abstract.
Presentation Types
You will be able to submit to two different abstract types.
- Oral Presentation, 20minutes plus 5minute Q&A.
- IGNITE Presentation, 5minutes with a Q&A for all IGNITE presentations at the end of the session.
Guidelines
Abstracts must meet the following guidelines to be considered:
- Abstracts must be submitted in English.
- The abstract should be no more than 500 words.
- The abstract should include the following:
- Title of proposed presentation
- Abstract of proposed presentation
- Full name, job title and organisation of proposed presenter/s
- Headshot photograph of proposed presenter/s
- Bio of proposed presenter/s
- You can upload supporting documents or images if required, but these must not be the abstract itself
- Presentations will be made in English.
- All abstracts that have been submitted recently to other congresses should not be submitted here. If your abstract is on a subject you have presented at a previous NEDC, it must focus on new developments since then.
- You can return and edit your abstract any time before the submission end date of 22nd June 2022.
Submission Instructions
- Whilst you can come back to your submission/s at any time (before the submission deadline ends), once you have finished entering all details, please ensure you proceed all the way to the end to COMPLETE your submission. Otherwise, your abstract will not be reviewed.
- Amendments can be made to your abstract until the submission deadline. Simply log into your Events Air profile, select the abstract to amend and navigate through the top tabs to the sections you wish to change.
- An automatic acknowledgement email will be sent once your abstract submission is complete.
- Please note that the title must not be written in all caps, but in sentence case only.
SUBMIT YOUR ABSTRACT HERE
- Login or create an Events Air account here
- Select the abstracts tab at the top of the dashboard
- Select submit an abstract now button
Questions?
For any questions, please contact the professional conference organiser at nedc@theassociationspecialists.com.au
CONFERENCE THEMES

NAVIGATE
Supporting cities and regions to recover and adapt.

ENERGISE
Creative and innovative revitalisation strategies.

DEVELOP
Strategic economic development with community and place at the centre.

COLLABORATE
Diverse voices, experiences and economic development knowledge.