Gov. Perdue gives keynote address at 2011 National Smart Start Conference.

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Online Submission Only.

Go to the Online Submission System.

Deadline: November 4, 2011 at 5 PM

The National Smart Start Conference is the nation’s largest conference devoted to early education systems and strategies. The conference provides advanced professional development for early education leaders committed to improving the quality of and access to early childhood services for all children ages birth to five. As such, it attracts attendees from all facets of early care and education, including government, non-profit community, and business leaders.

The 2012 Conference will feature a day of preconference sessions followed by three days of workshops and networking opportunities. Key workshop areas include:

• Early Care & Education Program and Practitioner Support
• Early Care Health & Mental Health
• Early Childhood Systems Development
• Family Support
• Governance & Administration
• Leadership Development
• Policy, Public Engagement, & Advocacy
• Research
• Standards & Accountability

Conference Dates & Location

This year’s conference will occur from April 30 – May 3, 2012 in Greensboro, North Carolina. The event will be held again this year at the Sheraton Four Seasons and Koury Convention Center. Two airports are located nearby – Greensboro/High Point (15 minutes) and Raleigh/Durham (45 minutes) and shopping and restaurants are located within walking distance.

Presenter Registration

One presenter per workshop may receive a FREE registration to attend the conference (excluding travel or lodging). If additional presenters would like to attend the conference, they will need to register and pay the conference fee. Note that preconference attendance is not included in the complimentary registration unless the presenter is also presenting during the preconference. Presenters must be available to present between May 1st at 8:30 AM and May 3rd at 11:30 AM.

Online Workshop Proposal Submission & Content

All proposals must be submitted online. The online proposal submission system will open on September 16, 2011 and automatically close at 5 PM on November 4, 2011. No fax or mailed proposals will be considered.

Upon entering the online proposal submission system, you will be asked to submit the information outlined below. It is strongly recommended that you write your proposal in Word and transfer it over to the online submission form.

Note: If you need to make changes to your proposal after submission, please send an email to conference@ncsmartstart.org. Include in the subject line, “Proposal Change,” and in the body, add your Proposal Title, the Lead Presenter’s Full Name, and the Proposal ID Number.

Proposal Content

1. Lead Presenter Information – This is the Lead Presenter for the workshop. You will be asked to enter the Organization Name, Presenter Name, Address, City, State, ZIP Code, Email Address, Phone Number, and a Summary of Experience. Please make sure you have this information ready before submitting online.
2. Proposal Contact – If the person entering the proposal is not the lead presenter, he/she will need to provide his/her contact information. This person will be responsible for receiving confirmation information, proposal acceptance information, and other critical emails.
3. Co-Presenter Information – You will be given the opportunity to add up to 4 co-presenters to your session. You will be asked to enter the Organization Name, Presenter Name, Address, City, State, ZIP Code, Email Address, Phone Number, and a Summary of Experience for each co-presenter. Please make sure you have this information ready before submitting online.
4. Complimentary Registration – You will be asked to select the presenter that will receive the complimentary registration. Only one presenter will receive a free registration.
5. Title of Workshop – Submit a brief title that will be used in the conference program. The title is limited to 10 words and should be descriptive enough to give conference attendees an idea of what the workshop will address.
6. Topic Area – Select one topic from the list of key areas described below. Note we will not approve workshops that are targeted only to child care providers working directly with children or market a specific product from a company.
   • Early Care & Education Program and Practitioner Support includes program improvement and support initiatives such as technical assistance; grants and incentives; shared services and accreditation facilitation; and workforce development strategies, including training, education, and compensation.
   • Early Care Health & Mental Healthincludes health, nutrition, and obesity education and prevention strategies; early intervention efforts; oral health strategies; medical homes; health insurance and social emotional development.
   • Early Childhood Systems Development includes local, state, and national systems- building efforts to address cross-system integration of data, blended funding, financing models, collaboration, and PK-3 or Ready Schools efforts.
   • Family Support includes the use of evidence-based programs that address family strengthening and social emotional support, literacy of child and family, home visitation, parent education and support, involvement and leadership, fatherhood and grand-parenting programs, and strategies for including diverse ethnic and cultural groups represented in communities.
   • Governance & Administration includes best practices for non-profit board governance including, board operations, responsibilities and diversity development; human resource management and financial management to meet fiduciary obligations.
   • Leadership Development includes leadership from a systems building perspective, leadership in accountability and using evidence to guide decision making, and applying an equity lens to the leadership role.
   • Policy, Public Engagement, & Advocacy includes federal and state policy, effective advocacy through use of communication strategies, media outreach and grassroots mobilization.
   • Research includes presentations of recent research studies, evaluations, or data releases in related to child care program quality, child care workforce strategies, family support, health, consultation, early childhood systems building initiatives and board development to support improved outcomes for constituents.
   • Standards & Accountability includes child, family, and program assessment; monitoring, licensing; accreditation; early learning and infant toddler standards; program evaluation methods and accountability systems for early childhood programs and systems-building initiatives.
7. Workshop Narrative - Describe your session in 300 words or less.
8. Workshop Goals – Describe what participants will have learned as a result of attending your workshop. Please provide up to three learning goals. (Example: Participants will increase their awareness of practical applications for using data and evaluation to improve early childhood programs.)
9. Program Description – Provide a brief session description of 60 words or less to be included in the conference program, if selected. The description should tell attendees what they will learn from your presentation.
10. Length of Workshop – Provide the length of time for your session, 90 minutes or three hours.
11. Level of Workshop – Identify the level of content being provided to participants – Introductory, Intermediate or Advanced.
12. Target Audience – Identify who the target audience is for your session – NC participants only OR both NC and out of state participants.
13. Number of Participants – Select the number of participants: under 50, 50 to 100, OR more than 100.
14. Willingness to Repeat Session – Tell us if you would you be willing to provide this workshop more than once to allow more attendees the opportunity to attend. If so, the workshops likely would be scheduled on two separate days.

Workshop Proposal Review Process

The proposal review will occur in mid-November, with notifications provided to all presenters no later than by December 9, 2011. The North Carolina Partnership for Children staff will review all qualifying proposals submitted by the deadline of November 4, 2011.

Notification of Acceptance

Applicants will be notified by email of the committee’s decisions by December 9, 2011. The proposal contact and all conference presenters will receive notification of acceptance or denial. If the presentation is accepted, complimentary registration information will be included for the designated presenter. All additional presenters choosing to attend the conference must register and pay the registration fee. Please note all presenters must make their own travel and lodging arrangements.

Questions

General information is available on the Smart Start website at www.smartstart.org. Please email specific proposal or conference questions to Debra Torrence at conference@ncsmartstart.org.

- Download Call for Proposals as a PDF -

Continue to the Online Submission System.

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