Guidance and tips for submitting
Maximise your chances
Suggestions relevant to all submissions
You can increase your chances of acceptance by ensuring your submission:
- Relates to international education: We typically receive a large number of submissions that relate to education generally. Ensure your submission relates specifically to international education.
- Aligns with our theme and/or subthemes: Your submission has a better chance of selection if it aligns with our theme and priority topics. Check out the focus questions under each priority topic for inspiration.
- Has a clear focus: We often receive abstracts where it is not clear what the purpose or focus of the session is. Ensure your abstract indicates the purpose of the session, what it will cover, and what delegates can expect or will learn from the session.
- Helps us 'Think New': We’re on the lookout for sessions which provide new insights, offer new solutions or suggest new perspectives.
- Provides a global perspective – or an Aotearoa one: We are keen to include sessions which either offer a global perspective or which speak to our context in Aotearoa New Zealand.
- Indicates what delegates will learn: Be specific as to what you anticipate the audience will learn or take away from your presentation. A great way to do this is by including text that states “You will learn…” in your abstract.
- Is complete: Check that you’ve completed all the fields in the speaker portal, including providing a speaker biography and headshot photo.
Suggestions relevant to some submissions
In addition to the suggestions above, we are keen to receive submissions which can address one (or more) of the following:
- Includes international student voices: While this is not necessary or appropriate for every presentation, presentations which include the voices of international students will be favourably considered.
- Includes speakers or perspectives from outside our sector: We welcome speakers or perspectives drawn from outside the international education sector which help us look at issues and opportunities in new and different ways.
- Provide practical tips: Sessions which provide practical suggestions and tips are usually well received by our delegates.
Tips for your abstract
As part of your submission, you will need to provide an abstract, or summary, of your presentation.
Your abstract should speak directly to conference delegates (i.e. write in the second person). It must also clearly articulate what delegates will learn from attending your session. Remember not to over promise, but do try to make your proposal as interesting, appealing and informative as possible.
Abstracts are limited to 200 words. Titles should be 10 words or less.
Example abstracts
To help get you started, check out some examples of abstracts used for previous conferences:
Power and presence: Techniques for effective presentations
Presence can be a difficult quality to define, but we always know it when we see it. People with presence hold our attention. They seem to project a sense of ease, poise and self-assurance. They often have the capacity to change hearts and minds.
This workshop attempts to defy the myth that people with presence are born and not made. During this interactive session we will explore techniques that enhance the ability to connect with others emotionally and cognitively. It will suggest that our power as leaders and presenters does not always come from forcefulness or assertiveness, but from openness, presentness and the acknowledgment of our uniqueness.
Sink, swim or surf: Tsunami warning for international student recruitment
The international student landscape is about to be hit by a big wave of technology-driven disruption. Will you sink, swim or surf? New Zealand educators, international agents and government bodies need to be preparing for a world in which:
The web-based internet of the past 20 years is fast dissolving into an app-based world inside devices we carry on our person and use around our homes
Decades-old traditions of booking a taxi, staying in hotels, learning foreign languages, and studying for a three-year undergraduate degree are being challenged to their core
Data is becoming the fuel which will power most aspects of 21st century life and learning.
This dynamic session will highlight some of the key warning signs for New Zealand’s international education industry, and will provide a series of recommendations and tactics to ensure that institutions and agents not only survive but also thrive through the next decade and beyond.
To know me is to recruit me: Using personas to market
Knowing how your audience thinks and behaves is the most important step in connecting with them. The use of personas, embodying common sets of traits, motivations, attributes and values, allow you to connect with prospective customers at a personal and emotional level that resonates.
Through extensive research and one-on-one interviews with students and parents, ENZ has developed four personas that describe the key attributes and motivating factors for students wanting to study here.
Aligning your offering, your service and your marketing to these personas will help improve the experience of students wanting to live and study in New Zealand. In this session you will learn about the four personas and how you can leverage them in what you offer and how you market to international audiences.
Tips for your biography
As part of your submission, you will need to include a biography and headshot photo.
NZIEC KI TUA biographies are designed to be succinct. Plan on profiling yourself in no more than 150 words. Write in the third person.
Your biography should outline:
- Who you are – your role and the organisation you represent
- Your background and experience
- Any career highlights you wish to emphasise. Don’t hesitate to let your personality shine through – have fun with it!
Click here for example biographies.