Forum Guidelines

Guidelines for Proposal Submission: Forum

Thank you for your interest in submitting a Forum proposal, we welcome your submission!

The Convention Program Committee (CPC) typically receives more than 200 proposal submissions each year, exceeding what can be accommodated in the program. To ensure the integrity and balance of the educational program, each proposal undergoes a rigorous review process, resulting in an acceptance rate from those submissions of approximately 50%. The CPC review process involves three tiers:

  1. A blind review by 10-15 peer athletic trainers
  2. A blind review by CPC members
  3. An open CPC discussion

General Description of Forums

  • Forums are sessions designed to stimulate discussions between researchers and clinicians on current topics in athletic training.

Format & Audience

  • Forums are 55 minutes long and led by a panel of two discussants and a moderator:
    • The first ten minutes are led by the panel discussants. They will provide an overview on a current topic and pose stimulating questions to the audience.
    • The last 45 minutes are reserved for a structured panel/audience discussion.
  • Room capacity for forums typically allows for 100-150 attendees.

Important Guidelines

  • The two discussants and moderator must be familiar with the topic from both a scientific and clinical viewpoint.
  • Forums may include no more than one NATA non-member speaker.
  • Forum presenters must disclose any potential conflicts of interest or affiliations with a commercial product or service at the beginning of the presentation.
  • Forums will be scheduled over all three days of the Annual Meeting.
    • Speakers must be available for scheduling on any of the three days of programming.
  • The individual submitting the Forums proposal must have confirmed the presentation with all speakers before submission.
  • Forum topics will be selected based on the organization of the program, quality of content and speakers, feedback from the review team and CPC, and significance of the material to the NATA membership.
  • After July 22, 2025, the Convention Program Committee will only consider a speaker change if the original speaker is unable to attend the annual meeting.

Deadline

  • Proposals are due July 22, 2025.
  • Incomplete (e.g., missing speaker CV) and/or late proposals will NOT be accepted.

Submission Process

Have the following information available as you will need this to complete the proposal submission process:

  • Title of session
  • Domain(s) of athletic training that the presentation pertains to:
  • Level of presentation (Essential, Advanced, Mastery):
    • Essential - Includes core theory, concepts and applications.
    • Advanced - Includes in-depth theory, concepts and applications of information and/or techniques beyond the Essential Level.
    • Mastery - Includes the highest level of theory, concepts and applications of knowledge or technique within a specific area.
  • Abstract/Knowledge Gap (100 words or less)
  • At least three learning objectives for the session:
    • Use Bloom’s Taxonomy Action Verbs. Avoid “understand” and “appreciate”.
    • Do not begin with “Following this session, participants will be able to…”
    • Start the learning objective with a Bloom’s verb.
  • Two to three keywords (not in the title) that best describe the focus of the proposal
  • Clinical Bottom Line:
    • Provide a summary of the evidence (three to four sentences) identifying the clinical recommendation(s) outlined in the learning objectives.
  • Three to five references/sources that support the content of the presentation:
  • Speaker Information (required for each speaker):
    • Name & Credentials
    • Title or position of speaker
    • Affiliation (or place of employment): name & address
    • Contact information: email, phone
    • NATA Membership Status (Member or Non-member)
    • CV for uploading (Word document or PDF)

Submission forms will be available April 2025.

The deadline for submission is July 22, 2025.