Your Guide to a
Successful Proposal

The proposal portal is a one-stop shop where you can submit session proposals, apply for our Connectivity Fund, and more. Create an account in the portal in order to submit your proposal.

You, as an individual, can propose a maximum of five sessions for consideration. However, you should aim for quality over quantity: we would rather receive one well-crafted proposal than five unfocused or broad ideas.

Depending on the format, a session will need to accommodate a number of roles, including:

• The session organizer, who develops the content of the session, designs the structure, and confirms and coordinates with speakers.
• A facilitator, who understands the many sides of an issue, and steers discussion and participant interaction. Many, but not all, organizers also choose to facilitate their session.
• A speaker brings their unique expertise and perspective to the conversation, and engages participants where possible.
• A technical moderator handles the technical support aspects of bringing a session online. The RightsCon team will supply one technical moderator for every session in our program.
• A participant brings a specific expertise or experience to the table and actively contributes to reaching the session goal.

Jump to the section of the guide on session formats for more details.

We take seriously our responsibility to build a program and a summit space that reflects the diversity of experiences embodied by our community. Despite a strong record on gender and regional representation, we recognize that RightsCon can and should do much more to support critical perspectives on racial and ethnic justice. In 2021, as a first step to correcting this bias, we have strengthened our policies on diversity, equity, and inclusion. These policies aim to address dynamics of privilege and power that impede trust, openness, and collective action.

Diversity is one of our core criteria for evaluating and selecting sessions for our program. As always, we welcome proposals that explore technology’s intersection with gender, race, ethnicity, disability status, economic status, or other social/personal identities. When you submit a proposal, you should arrange speaker/facilitator lineups with care and consciousness of not only regional representation, but also representation of communities in each region that are traditionally pushed to the margins or forced out of global convening spaces, such as Indigenous peoples, Black communities, and people with disabilities.

Access Now upholds a no tolerance policy for men-only panels (“manels”). We will also look critically at sessions that only feature perspectives from communities which perpetrate and benefit from systems of oppression, including but not limited to: colonialism, racism, patriarchy, classism, and land and resource exploitation.

We may reach out to organizers to offer feedback or recommend speakers/facilitators in sessions where these standards aren’t met. In rare circumstances, we may pull a session from the schedule if it violates our policies.

Before you submit your proposal, take a moment to read our Code of Conduct, which establishes principles and expectations for engaging at RightsCon and other Access Now events. If you have ideas on ways we can improve and better serve our global community, reach out to us at [email protected].

RightsCon brings together people from around the world to discuss critical issues and advance a shared agenda for human rights. Every moment counts, and every session should capitalize on, and contribute to, an environment of excellence.

For many people, hosting an effective online session feels daunting. If your proposal is accepted into the program, we’ll work with you to develop session excellence. Session excellence embodies our commitment to providing training, resources, and opportunities to connect with other session organizers, all in the service of producing a strategic and outcomes-oriented program. The process may also involve merging similar proposals into one session, refining the goal, or recommending speakers.

Your proposal should clearly articulate what you want to achieve and how participants will help you reach that goal. Participants are not passive listeners; our community attracts a range of experts with the skillset to elevate your work to the next level. No matter the format, a quality, well-structured session will make the best use of the people and perspectives in the room.

While most sessions are conducted in English, our program has supported sessions in many other languages, including Arabic, Spanish, and French. In an effort to make RightsCon more accessible, the proposal form offers optional sections where you can submit answers in another language. (Note that community labs and strategy sessions are currently the only formats which can support a live translation option. Our team is also exploring whether we can support translation for panels.)

If the proposal form presents a barrier to sending in a session for consideration, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team at [email protected], and we’ll work with you to facilitate your participation in RightsCon.

This year, in lieu of travel support, we will offer funding for session organizers, speakers, facilitators, and participants who do not have access to a reliable or secure internet connection. The application form for the Connectivity Fund will open in January 2021, and we encourage anyone who needs support to apply.

Our team is taking steps to improve the RightsCon experience for people with disabilities. With our partner TechChange, we will undertake a full accessibility audit and optimization plan for the online platform where our community will convene in 2021. We are also exploring closed caption options for our Opening and Closing Ceremonies, and other featured sessions. We will keep the community updated as we take these steps.