FCO-ACCUO 2022 Conference - Call for Proposals (Closed)
Join us in Ottawa for the 2022 FCO/ACCUO Biennial Conference!
We are pleased to announce that this year’s conference, Together Again: Strengthening Ombuds Practice through Connectedness and Inclusion, will be held October 18 and 19, 2022. The conference will be hosted at the Marriott Hotel, in beautiful downtown Ottawa.
The conference will include two days of keynote presentations, concurrent learning sessions, a welcome reception and more. Don’t miss this opportunity to meet and interact with friends, colleagues, and peers from all levels of government, education, banking, private corporations, health care and a variety of other organizations.
Delegates will have the option to attend the conference in-person or virtually. All sessions will be recorded and available for on-demand viewing. Recognizing that the current public health situation continues to evolve, we are confident this accessible hybrid format will allow us to safely and conveniently accommodate attendance in-person or virtually from anywhere across the country and around the world.
Call for Presentation Proposals
We invite proposals from individual speakers as well as from groups wishing to co-present or assemble a panel discussion or other innovative format. All sessions will be 50 minutes in length including time for discussion. Speakers may be placed into complementary groups. Participants may deliver their presentation in French or English as simultaneous interpretation will be provided.
Possible topics
The following broad topics may be of interest but we welcome proposals on any aspect of Ombuds theory or practice. We are particularly interested in those that involve more than one sector or jurisdiction. Proposals explaining how both in-person and virtual audiences will be engaged will be prioritized, with extra consideration given to proposals that aim to engage both in-person and virtual audiences in fun and original ways.
- Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI): What is it and why is it important for Ombuds; Advancing justice and equity while still remaining impartial; Infusing an EDI lens into current Ombuds approaches to achieve equitable fairness; What can we learn from the experiences of other industries/sectors.
- Attracting, Training and Retaining Ombuds Staff: Is it fair to require staff to be resilient/how can we best support our staff; Developing a core competency framework for staff; Reimagining recruitment in the post-pandemic world/novel ways to recruit and retain staff.
- Communications and Outreach: Communicating in ways that cut through the noise; Is the paper report dead; Innovative ways to report and share insights; How to identify and reach key stakeholders and/or vulnerable populations.
- Benchmarking Office Impacts and Results: What is the Ombuds “value proposition” and how could it be better; Metrics for measuring complaint handling; Leveraging technology in all aspect of Ombuds work; How do you know you’re having an impact.
- The Post-Pandemic Ombuds World: How has the pandemic impacted our work; what changes to Ombuds practice will remain with us for better or worse; hopes and plans for Ombuds in the new normal.
- The Canadian Context: Is there such a thing as Canadian Ombuds practice; What unique challenges and opportunities exist for Canadian Ombuds; Is there an international appetite for the Canadian Ombuds model.
Submission deadline: May 7, 2022.
All proposals will be carefully reviewed by the FCO/ACCUO Conference Advisory Committee who will make their recommendations to the Board. Everyone who submitted a proposal will be contacted by the end of May 2022.
For more information, please contact the committee at fco@intertaskconferences.com.
