C3X Call for Programs

Details & Deadlines

Call for Programs Closes: September 11

Presenters Notified of Status: September 23

Session Schedule Available: September 28

Session Format: 30 or 45 minutes

What will you need to submit? Session title, description, three learning outcomes, short speaker bio, and headshot.

Seems like a lot, right? Don’t worry — you can always start your submission and come back to edit/submit later.

Presentation materials (ie. slide decks or Powerpoints) are not required for submission.

What We Are Looking For

We are seeking education sessions that provide campus operations with the resources that help students become more engaged in their campus environment, more successful in their college experience, and more likely to stay enrolled in the institution. The services you provide on your campus help achieve student success and attain institutional goals. How do your operations support these goals, and what strategies are used to achieve them?

Should I still submit a program if I cannot present my educational session in-person?

Of course! We aim to meet all our speaker and audience needs so there will be a virtual presentation option offered, among others. We encourage you to submit.

Hot Topics in 2020:

• Mobile ordering for dining services, bookstores or other operations
• Dining hall restructuring
• Contact tracing
• Repurposing facilities
• Supporting high-risk students
• Strategic direction/leadership
• Marketing plans to communicate value with less or limited auxiliary resources available
• The future of student employment during and after the pandemic

Be guided by the core competency definitions below and/or feel free to use one of the corresponding prompts to get your juices flowing.

Innovative Technology: What new technology have you introduced that has provided you an alternative way of solving operational challenges? How has it made the summer/fall semester smoother for you?

Leadership: How have you set the tone as a leader to ensure your team operates with positivity, creativity, and empathy this fall? How have you remained decisive in your decision making as you lead your team through uncertainty?

Management: What best practices & lessons learned have helped you manage changes such as staff restructuring, financial management, and strategic planning?

Marketing & Communications: What marketing strategies have you adopted to ensure that the value of the college experience (whether in person or virtual) is known to your students. What social media platforms have you leveraged and how do you keep messaging uniform across platforms?

Revenue Generation: What alternative revenue streams or unconventional pricing plans have you implemented while there may be limited operations or resources available on your campus this semester?

Student Success: What processes do you have in place to ensure that student success is still at the forefront of what you do?

Sustainability: What social justice or sustainability initiatives have you elevated to ensure student needs are met?

Elevate Your Proposal

• No sales pitches, please! Seriously – don’t try and ‘sell’ a product, it’s the number one audience killer. Instead, keep content educational by nature
• Identify exactly what your audience will learn with clear, concise learning objectives
• Show, don’t tell! Provide actionable takeaways or clear guidelines that attendees can implement in the next six months to one year on their campus
• Specify what type of audience engagement you will have – will you do a traditional presentation with room for Q/A at the end? Panel style format? A workshop? Let your audience know what to expect and how they too will participate
• Use a succinct yet buzz-worthy title
• Clearly identify how your abstract pertains to your chosen track
• Proofread, Proofread, Proofread!

Selection Criteria

Our selection committee will give preference to sessions that communicate successful business leadership, and demonstrate the impact that multiple operations can have on the college campus and the student experience. Submitted programs will be evaluated on how they tie into operations on your campus and how they contribute to the following core competencies: Management, Leadership, Marketing & Communication, Student Success, Innovative Technology and Revenue Generation. Learn more

The following criteria will be used in the selection process of each proposal:

• Abstract demonstrates knowledge in strategy, leadership, or management across multiple business operations that positively impact a college or university environment
• Provides ways to engage and/or interact with the audience
• Learning outcomes have actionable takeaways so that individuals can leave with a foundation to apply, discuss, or evaluate on their own campus
• Presentation is designed for industry professionals who oversee more than one operation

Expectations of Presenters

The following is required from all presenters. Please do not submit a proposal if you are not prepared to do the following:

• All presenters must register with NACAS for at least one day of the conference. Guest rates do not apply. No reduced rate is available for speakers.
• All presenters attending in person must cover their own travel costs to/from the conference. All presenters will not be reimbursed for any costs associated with travel, registration, or presenting the session.
• For onsite education, NACAS will provide a screen, LCD projector, and access to house sound, at no cost to presenters. For virtual education, NACAS will provide online access to the host platform. Presenters must organize any additional needs through NACAS approved vendors and cover costs associated with the additional needs.
• Presenters must provide their own computers.
• Exhibiting NACAS Business Partners are more than welcome to submit sessions. Business Partners who would like to co-present with an institution must have an active membership but are not required to exhibit.

Content Areas

NACAS is committed to offering educational sessions in each of these areas. We strongly encourage you to submit proposals that demonstrate either knowledge in the core competencies or collaboration among multiple operations.

CORE COMPETENCIES:

Innovative Technology: defined as content that showcases the use of various technology systems, software, or tools that progressively disrupts regular operations in auxiliaries (including but not limited to virtual reality, dashboard systems, renewable energy, etc). These presentations would include information on how the use of innovative technology improved or optimized auxiliary services or created an alternative way of solving operational challenges.

Leadership: defined as content that addresses the process of social influence in which a person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a goal. These include presentations that promote the professional development of someone who guides, influences or directs others; motivation, assessment, change management, relationships and valuing employees and partners.

Management: defined as content that addresses the functions and efforts of people to accomplish goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively. This also includes presentations that look at the best practices of planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing and organization to accomplish its goal. May include human, financial, technological, and natural resources; strategic planning, benchmarking, problem-solving or performance indicators.

Marketing & Communication: defined as content that relates to the messages and media used to communicate with our target markets. Content in this area includes promotion, strategy and planning, market research, customer service, and sponsorships. This includes social media, advertising, branding, language, graphic design, packaging, publicity, public relations, sales, and online marketing. Strategies used by an institution or company to reach their market through various types of communication are also included.

Revenue Generation: defined as content that relates to innovative revenue generation techniques and solutions. Presentations may highlight unique cross-campus and/or public-private partnerships or exemplify an alternative technique to optimize an existing stream of revenue. Presentations could also include examples of marketing or sponsorship efforts that enhanced revenue opportunities or how existing non-revenue generating operations were changed to identify new funding opportunities.

Student Success: defined as content that refers to and supports the body of educational psychology that theorizes how student employees gain knowledge in post-secondary educational environments. These sessions might include information in the areas of the student development movement, the environment and landscape in which students learn, student involvement, leadership and retention, growth, and personal identity development.

Sustainability: defined as content that models sustainability practices across operations and activities, encompassing human and ecological health, social justice, secure livelihoods, and a better world for all generations. Sustainability can be measured across an institution’s environmental, social, and economic impacts. (NOTE: definition provided by our partners at AASHE – The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education).

OPERATIONS (may include but are not limited to):

Automated Vending: defined as content related to the sale of goods through automated vending machines. This includes resources needed; coordination and decisions in placement, quantity, and types of machines; federal or state regulation and industry standards related to automated vending services; payment; contract management or self-operation; and inventory (food, beverage, supplies, and other goods).

Bookstores: defined as content relating to a place of business where books are the main item offered for sale, rent, or buyback. This area includes best practices for technology, operations, point-of-sale systems, and organization. This includes textbook industry changes, current or future trends, procurement, contract management, or entrepreneurship.

Card Services: defined as content relating to a category of financial services that utilize business and merchant services to accept various card-based systems during transactions using online ordering or point-of-sale systems within auxiliary services. This includes electronic commerce, card programs, transaction processes and solutions, identification, service/access validation and authentication, attendance, demographic reporting, and authentication tools: biometrics, chip, or NFC based topics.

Commercial & Retail: defined as content related to the sale of goods and services from individuals or businesses to an end-user in a commercial space beyond textbooks (see Bookstore definition). This also includes supply chain management, retail operations, wholesale, brick and mortar locations, door-to-door, or delivery. Buying and selling goods and services, wholesale buying and selling, financial operations, and other business services related to commercial and retail in auxiliary services.

Conference & Event Services: defined as content sharing innovative trends and operations of conference and/or event planning services for students, staff, faculty, public guests. This may include a-la-carte planning procedures or full-scale, start to end event and conference planning processes. Metrics for successful, yet affordable, revenue-generating events. Conference planning content can also include summer conferencing and short-stay programs.

Facilities: defined as content that supports the permanent, semi-permanent, or temporary commercial or industrial property installed for the performance of functions or activities related to auxiliary services. This also includes athletics, finance and budgeting, audits, lodging, accommodations, bars and restaurants, meeting rooms, and any other core features to facility operations.

Food Services: defined as content relating to those businesses, institutions, and companies responsible for meal preparation outside of a residence. This includes content related to the operation of restaurants, cafeterias, catering services, foodservice distributors, consumers, and foodservice ware.

Housing: defined as content related to the act of providing shelter or lodging to students while enrolled at a college or university. Includes houses, apartments, residential colleges, dormitories, residence halls, and other community-based configurations. It also includes summer conferencing programs and short-stay programs.

Mail & Print Services: defined as content related to the daily operations of mail and printing services for faculty, staff, and students across a college or university. Mailing services could include internal campus functions and the mailing, shipping, and receiving items from outside and inside the campus community. Printing services include any printing from small-scale student, staff, or faculty needs to large-scale poster size marketing campaigns.

Parking & Transportation: defined as content that supports the information and operation of public transportation, shuttle services, bus routes, and parking on college campuses. Infrastructure, shipping and transport services, event management, or the business of conveying passengers or goods may be included.