Guidance for presenters

Guidance 17th August 2026

Information on this page:

What kind of event?

The ASC typically runs two different types of conference:

  • One-day conferences:  These are on a single topic, and consist of a single stream of presentations. Speakers are asked to prepare and submit their presentation in slide form (e.g. PowerPoint, PDF) in advance. No written paper is required.
  • Two-day or ‘international’ conferences:  These take place every few years, and are on a broad range of topics, with a mix of plenary sessions from invited speakers, and contributed papers or sessions in other formats presented in themed parallel session . For these events, presenters may if they wish prepare a full written paper, which will be peer reviewed by two members of the programme committee. These papers then form part of the published Proceedings of the event.  We may also ask presenters to contribute to a review paper prepared after the event, as a means of capturing the knowledge shared at the event. Presenters also need to prepare a separate presentation (e.g. in PowerPoint, PDF), which is a summary of their paper, if a written paper has been prepared.

Presenters are usually given 20 minutes in which to make their presentation, with a further 5-10 minutes for questions.

Responding to a “Call for Speakers”: Abstracts/synopses

When a call for speakers is open, we will announce it as a news article in our news area with a link to an online form for speakers to submit a proposal. In this we will ask you to provide us with an abstract or synopsis in the first instance, so that the programme committee can judge whether the material you wish to present will make a significant contribution to the event being planned. As we receive more submissions than we are able to accommodate in any single meeting, we strongly advise that you follow these guidelines, in order to ensure the programme committee has as much information as possible in order to evaluate your submission.

If you are interested in presenting, please bear in mind that we ask all presenters to work within the following guidelines*

If you would like to propose leading a session which is a different format to a traditional one or two-handed presentation, such as a debate, workshop, panel session or something else. we welcome these ideas too. The general principles of these guidelines will still apply, but we can discuss where your session may need to depart from these, for example, if more time is required than the conventional 20+5 minutes.

Your synopsis should include:

  • A working or actual title
  • Names and corporate affiliations of all authors/presenters
  • An outline of the argument or case you wish to make, or the work you wish to present
  • If relevant:
    • An explanation of any experimentation you have undertaken
    • An outline of the results you have obtained which you will be presenting to support
    • Any software or technology which you will be demonstrating
  • Any learning obtained from the work your are presenting, or learning you will be able to share
  • Any conclusions or recommendations you are making
  • If relevant, any example references to other relevant published work
  • Which of the conference themes you consider your presentation will relate to.

Please also include:

  • Short biography of the presenter or principal presenters
  • Details of any commercial relationship or interest in the subject by any presenter
  • Contact information for whoever is to be the principal contact (this information will not be published)

We suggest you use our Synopsis Form when writing and submitting your proposal, as this will help you to present all of the information requested, above.

Format for contributed papers when a written paper is requested

We may also provide the option for presenters to submit a written paper for for our two-day peer-reviewed events. A written paper is not required for a one-day conference.

As an author, we ask you to follow the conventions of scholarly journals such as the International Journal of Market Research or Public Opinion Quarterly in how you write your paper, as set out in this Example Paper (MS Word)

Your paper should start with an abstract, which summarises the key arguments and any findings or conclusions from the paper. Ideally, it should end with conclusions (and possibly recommendations). We encourage you to make reference to other relevant published articles in your paper, and to list these references at the end, as shown in the example paper.

If your proposal is accepted, you will be provided with a Word template to use for your paper, in order to achieve consistency in the formatting and presentation of papers within the published proceedings. You can download a recent example of a template for papers by following this link (MS Word).

Format for presentations

At the event, we will provide a Windows PC for presentation and we will load your presentation on to this device in advance. We are able to accept presentations in these formats:

  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • PDF / Acrobat
  • Keynote*
  • Prezi (saved as a standalone Prezi executable)*
    * Please notify us if you wish to use these formats.

Other formats may be possible, if we are notified in advance.

Please download and follow these Speaker Guidelines (MS PPTX) in preparing your presentation. These contains practical guidance on putting together a presentation for any ASC conference. The file is best viewed in presentation mode.

Please be realistic about what you can present, and rehearse your presentation to ensure that it will not overrun the allotted time. If you wish to demonstrate any software, you will need to use your own laptop. You must discuss this in advance with your session chair or the conference programme chair.

We recommend you arrive early at the event in order to check that your presentation is rendering properly on the presenter’s PC, or attend the appropriate Speaker’s Rehearsal, if you have been advised of one.

See also our separate note, below on the using the internet when presenting.

Conference fees

Presenters are expected to send at least one delegate to present their paper at the conference and to participate in the conference, if their paper has been accepted. One complementary place is offered for each presentation accepted at our One Day conferences. A second co-presenter may attend for a reduced fee (typically around 50% of the standard rate).

At multi-day events, one complementary day pass is offered on the day of the presentation for each presentation accepted, and attendance on other days (or for additional co-presenters) is offered at a reduced rate (typically 50% of the standard rate). Accommodation is not included for residential conferences but speakers are given priority booking.

Publication

ASC is committed to making knowledge and information freely available. Speakers and other contributors are asked by ASC to provide permission by completing this copyright release form, so that ASC is free to publish papers and presentations on its website, or in a print or online copy of the conference proceedings. We do not ask for transfer of copyright: ownership and all other proprietary rights over the material will remain with the presenter (or the presenters’ employer, if relevant). We may also make audio and video recordings and take still images of presentations and make these available to the public as well, which is also covered in the same copyright release form. We always give presenters the opportunity to make selective edits or request removal if any material to be published is confidential or the presenter does not have consent for it to be released to the public.

Other Important information

Avoiding product promotion

ASC exists to encourage intra- and inter-professional learning and knowledge sharing. Submissions which are self-servingly commerical or self-promotional in their content or approach will be rejected.

Where a paper is proposed which is principally about software or technology developed by the presenter, the programme committee will wish to see evidence that the proposal:

  • is not merely a demonstration of the capabilities of the technology, but that it is a balanced and critical exploration of a topic that is relevant to one or more themes outlined in the call for papers, from the perspective of a specific technological solution
  • will make a significant contribution to the knowledge and understanding of the topic
  • is relevant to the field of market research, social research, survey methodology, national statistics etc.
  • ideally, presents not only what the software can do, but how this was achieved

ASC is always interested in understanding and presenting how any specific technology can inter-operate with other technologies either through the use of standards (e.g. Triple-S), open interfaces or open-source collaboration. Where possible, you should aim to include some considerations on inter-operability if you are making a technology-based submission.

Using the internet when presenting

While ASC will always aim to provide internet connectivity to presenters, this cannot be guaranteed. Even when connectivity is provided, there is still scope for it to be disrupted at the time of the presentation. Presenters should therefore make contingency plans to be able to present in the event that there is a comms failure or instability at the time they are presenting.

Some practical resources:

ASC Example Synopsis Form
This example follows the typical format we use when inviting presenters to respond to to a Call for Speakers. However, please check the specific online Call form created for the event, as there may be differences.

Speaker Guidelines
Practical suggestions and recommendations to speakers in PowerPoint format on how to make your presentation, how to design your slides, working out what needs to be said, communicating the message, do’s and dont’s and preparing the paperwork. (NB. we do not require a full written paper for the majority of one-day conferences, only a presentation.

Template for papers and Example paper
These only apply to events where we have requested a written paper. Two Microsoft Word documents, as follows:

  1. A template for laying out of papers in the desired format to ensure consistency of presentation.
  2. An example of paper layout using the above Template for Papers.

Copyright Release form (form CR-2)
Legal agreement which gives ASC limited permission to publish your work and distribute recordings of your presentation. All presenters should sign this form electronically prior to the event at which they are presenting. Note; signing this form does not transfer copyright to ASC. It’s purpose is to allow ASC to continue to share your work beyond the conference in which it was presented in line with our stated commitment to creating knowledge within professional community..