Hi all, Please find below the call for submissions for open sessions at ICTD 2022. Apologies for cross posting. I'd appreciate it if you can forward it in your networks. Call for Submissions for Open Sessions 12th International Conference on Information & Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD 2022)<https://ictd.org/>, June 27-29, 2022 University of Washington in Seattle, USA ________________________________ The 12th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD) invites you to submit two-page proposals for open sessions by April 1, 2022. ICTD 2022 will be hosted at the University of Washington in Seattle, USA on June 27-29 2022. ICTD as a field aims for inclusivity and ICTD 2022 as a conference aims to include perspectives and participation from industry, policymakers, civil society, practitioners, academia, and government. The Open Sessions provide this opportunity to ensure the representation of projects, experiences, and viewpoints that will benefit the ICTD community, especially where they do not fit the full papers or notes formats. Open sessions<https://ictd.org/ictd2022/participate/call-for-open-sessions/> typically include multiple presenters convening around important, cross-cutting themes. They may take the form of panels, workshops, “ignite” talks, debates, participatory activities, or other types of communication and exchange. Successful proposals will work towards inclusiveness, relevance, and excellence, and examples from some previous conferences can be found here: ICTD 2016<https://ictd2016.info/schedule/> and ICTD 2012<http://ictd2012.org/open-sessions/>. Session organizers may extend invitations to particular participants to attend, or present based on emerging themes in ICTD; likewise, participation is open to any conference attendee who wishes to join in on the day of the session. To propose an open session, please fill out this Google form<https://forms.gle/XWC2kj6rr84TrkQDA>, providing a 75-word summary and an additional 2-page description detailing your goals for the session and how you plan to achieve them. The deadline for submission is April 1, 2022, at 11.59 pm Anywhere on Earth (AoE). Guidelines Open Sessions welcome a variety of submissions and formats. We invite extended abstracts that include proposals for panels, workshops, doctoral colloquium submissions, young researchers meet-ups, and more. Open sessions will be 90 minutes in length by default. They can also be 180 minutes long, but only if there is sufficient justification. Although sessions (and session proposals) will be held in English, we are also open to proposals for sessions in other languages. In such cases, please note the proposed language and indicate why it is important to the session topic. Given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we also expect some attendees to be joining the open sessions remotely. So, please describe an appropriate plan to make open sessions inviting and accessible to both remote and in-person attendees. Proposals for sessions will be reviewed and assessed according to the criteria below. * They should be accessible to a highly interdisciplinary ICTD audience. * They should be lively, inclusive, and participatory in style and content. * They should be on topics relevant to the ICTD community. * They should demonstrate careful planning and a clear agenda. Examples of sessions and formats, based on prior years are indicated below. * A panel of researchers and practitioners to discuss and brainstorm post-PhD opportunities for ICTD researchers. * A workshop organized by 2-3 researchers to discuss in small breakout sessions the role of gender (what it is and what it should be) in ICTD projects. * A short course on co-design in research areas pertaining to global health. * A workshop to set an agenda for future research on digital financial services. * An ice-breaker session for ICTD researchers and practitioners to learn about and from each other and their work. * A series of short, lightning talks followed by an open discussion, where each talk represents an extended abstract on a common, chosen topic such as caste-related inequities in ICTD contexts. Dates April 1, 2022: Deadline for submission of Open Sessions (using this form<https://forms.gle/XWC2kj6rr84TrkQDA>) April 8, 2022: Notifications sent Open Session Chairs * Aditya Vashistha (adityav@cornell.edu<mailto:adityav@cornell.edu>) * Agha Ali Raza (agha.ali.raza@lums.edu.pk<mailto:agha.ali.raza@lums.edu.pk>) If you have any questions, please reach out to both the chairs via email. Thanks, Karthik