2023 In-Person Speaker Information

Below you will find pertinent information to assist you in preparing and presenting at the in-person 2023 OAH Conference on American History in Los Angeles, CA. Please read through all sections carefully and make particular note of the deadlines provided. Any questions are welcome at meetings@oah.org.

LOCATION

The 2023 OAH Conference on American History will be located at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel and Suites, March 30 to April 2, 2023.

Westin Bonaventure Hotel and Suites
404 S Figueroa St,
Los Angeles, CA 90071

SCHEDULING

Your session will be scheduled upon the submission of your Speaker Agreement. If you have not completed your speaker agreement, please do so as soon as possible, and no later than July 1. If you are unable to access your speaker agreement, please contact meetings@oah.org. Once you have completed your agreement and after all sessions have been scheduled your schedule will appear on your Speaker Center page. Room locations will be finalized in late February.

Media may be present during your session.

SESSION CONFLICTS

Please note that the conference takes place in-person from Thursday, March 30 through to Sunday, April 2, 2023. Please make sure you are available during these days.

The OAH will make every effort to accommodate OAH committee and affiliate group conflicts. This includes all meetings and sponsored sessions. OAH committee and affiliate group participation must be noted in the speaker agreement by July 1  to allow the OAH to schedule sessions appropriately, if you do not mark your commitments we may not be able to move your session once the schedule is assigned. Please note that due to the number of requests, we are no longer able to accommodate personal conflicts such as work schedules.

CHANGES TO SESSION INFORMATION

Changes to session information may be made after the submission of the speaker agreement. If you need to make changes to your submission please email meetings@oah.org by August 1. Changes after this date will not be accepted. Cancellations, additions, or changes to speakers must be emailed to meetings@oah.org immediately, and no later than January 13, 2023.

Please note: Any speaker cancellations that occur must be communicated with the OAH at meetings@oah.org, no later than January 13, 2023

PARTICIPATION PREREQUISITES

All participants must be registered and be a member of the OAH by January 13, 2023 to participate in the conference. 

Please be aware that OAH policy requires all participants whose career is in the field of U.S. history (either as a professor/instructor, graduate student, K-12 teacher, or public or independent historian) to be members of the OAH. If you have any questions about whether the membership requirement applies in your situation, please contact us at membership@oah.org.

All participants are also required to register for the meeting. We will be providing a special presenter registration rate until January 13, 2023. We require that you be registered and be a member of the OAH by this date in order to be included in the program. Once registration becomes available later this year, we will contact you with the details.

AUDIO VISUAL INFORMATION

Each room will be equipped with an LCD projector, screen, and microphone. Special requests will be considered on a case by case basis and may require a fee. Though we are typically not able to provide additional AV please let us know if you need anything in addition to the standard room set. Please email meetings@oah.org.

*Please note that the OAH does not provide laptops; if your session requires one, you must provide your own. 
If you use a MAC, you will also need to provide an adapter (dongle) in order to be able to connect to the AV equipment.*

ACCESSIBILITY

The OAH asks that all presenters take part in providing accessible space for the community. We ask presenters to do this by:

• All rooms are equipped with microphones. Please use them. We have attendees that loop their hearing aids into the sound system to hear presentations. Please do not assume your voice carries and please do not ask people if they can hear you without a microphone, always assume a microphone is needed.
• Most rooms will not have microphones for the audience. Please repeat questions from the audience to ensure everyone knows what is being answered.
• Please speak clearly and try to avoid covering your mouth (unless there are mask mandates or you prefer wearing a mask)
• Please consider printing two large-print copies of your talk. Before your talk ask if any attendee prefer to read along with you. Access copies do not have to be word for word scripts but may include an outline, keywords,  or Alt-Text for slide descriptions.
• Please keep power point slides simple with high contrast colors, sans-serif fonts and a minimum 36-point font.
• Include transcriptions for any audio or visual files you are presenting.
• Consider making your power point slide available digitally. These can be posted to the mobile app by emailing meetings@oah.org

For more ways to make your session more accessible please see this article in MLA Profession.

TIMING

Please note, each session is allotted 90 minutes. The 15–20 minutes between sessions is designed to allow ample preparation time for other session speakers and grant networking time for attendees. We ask you be considerate of the time limitations of your session.

You should be in contact with your fellow participants ahead of time to reach an agreement about respective time allocations. The OAH requires that twenty five minutes be reserved for audience participation. Please keep that in mind when allocating time for presentations, comments, and introductions. We strongly encourage presenters to deliver ideas and arguments without reading from papers and not to exceed stated time limits. While all of us are tempted to exceed the time allowed, overlong presentations or comments eliminate the opportunity for the kind of meaningful discussion that makes OAH meetings vital.

Whatever form a session takes, we propose that all papers given adhere to the "words per minute" formula outlined below. Most speakers read 100 words comfortably in 1 minute, taking into consideration the "asides" commonly made while presenting a talk. Experience suggests most speakers and listeners find this rate comfortable.
The formula is simple:

10-minute papers = 1000 words
12-minute papers = 1200 words
15-minute papers = 1500 words
20-minute papers = 2000 words

Session chairs should remind panelists of the time allotted and thus the number of words suggested for each paper or comment. Sessions will be 90 minutes in length, with the exception of workshops (which may run longer). Twenty-five minutes should be reserved for discussion. Please take these time limits into account when planning your session.

SESSION ROLE INSTRUCTIONS

Chairs
If you are serving as a chair at the meeting, make sure that all the required material and participants are present before your session begins. If the room is missing requested equipment, contact the room monitors assigned to your room. If a participant fails to appear, proceed with the session as best you can, and notify meetings@oah.org. Your most important responsibility as chair is to keep the session moving smoothly and on time. Introduce each of the participants briefly and, if you wish, make some prefatory remarks about the theme of the session and the participants.

Please be firm in enforcing time constraints (no more than 90 minutes total), even if that means interrupting a speaker, so that all participants will have their full share of time and the audience will have the opportunity to respond. It is often helpful to alert a speaker when her or his time is about to expire by handing him or her a note indicating how many minutes remain. Audience responses must also be monitored by the chair. Please ask each speaker to identify herself or himself, and you should interrupt a member of the audience who speaks too long or otherwise inappropriately. You might also consider soliciting questions for a session participant who is being ignored or perhaps pose such a question yourself.

Paper Presenters
Paper presenters must send copies of their papers to the session chair and commentator(s) no later than February 15, 2023. To facilitate introductory remarks, please send a brief c.v. or biographical statement to the session chair.

Other Session Types
Workshops, roundtables, and other less traditional sessions are also allotted 90 minutes. Panelists on these sessions should reach agreement prior to the meeting on time allocations. Although these sessions are more flexible, it is important that the ninety-minute limit be observed and that at least 30 minutes be reserved for audience response.