ACA Conference Policies & Guidelines

The ACA is committed to providing a professional, inclusive, and welcoming environment for all Annual Meeting participants.  The following policies establish important guidelines and expectations for session chairs, speakers, organizers, and attendees. We encourage everyone to review these documents to better understand their responsibilities and help ensure a positive and successful meeting experience.

Conference Policy

The ACA recognizes the positive impact that a conference speaking invitation has on an individual's track record and visibility. We also recognize that some sections of the scientific community are often under-represented in conference programs, and that this can affect diversity in the long-term. Our policies were developed to ensure quality and equality.

We aim to achieve a speaker balance reflecting the make-up of our community, without bias with regard to gender identity or expression, race, religion, geography, disabilities, or national origin.

The ACA will make every effort to represent the gender, ethnic and racial balance in our community in all aspects of their conferences. This balance will be achieved through appropriate representation on organizing committees, in the choice of session chairs, and in the choices of invitations to high quality speakers.

Speaker Invitation Policy

The conference program committee will ensure the highest quality scientific program, with speakers that represent the broad diversity of our community. We aim to achieve a speaker balance across geography, gender and experience reflecting the make-up of our community.

Reporting Policy

We will report statistics on the conference website on the geographic and gender balance of program committee, invited speakers, selected speakers, session chairs, and delegates.