The Younger Chemists Committee

By Ray Forslund

So you have just been placed in charge or worst yet volunteered to plan a symposium; easy work, right? You just need to find four or five speakers (for a half day symposium) on the given topic and your work is done, it could only take a few hours if that. This is usually the sentiments of a person organizing their first symposium, at least those were mine. In reality its never that simple unless you are well entrenched in the subject matter and personally know several subject matter expects that can all give a talk that fits with the symposium message or theme and does not overlap with another speaker. In most cases you are planning a symposium on a topic that you find interesting but may know very little to nothing about! So what to do now?

One of the first actions you should take is to ask all your colleagues if they know anyone who fits the bill for what you are looking for. Now the fun begins! This action will likely flush out a few names and if you're lucky contact information. If contact information is not provided, then point your browser at Google or some equivalent search engine and begin searching. Also follow up with the initial contact to see if they have that elusive business card stuck somewhere in their desk.. If the person you are searching for is in academics then visit the school's web page.

Once you have identified and contacted a speaker for your symposium use them to help you find others. They may have spoken with someone before or have always wanted to speak with someone and in most cases they are a treasure trove for possible speakers. Even if the original speaker declines your invitation to speak, still use them solicit colleagues or other "experts" they know.

If you have asked your colleagues and received no leads and you are at a total loss to find speakers or you just need to find the one last speaker to fill out the perfect symposium panel, Google the topic! Yes, this will likely produce thousands of pages of material that you may have to skim though but my personal experience has been that you will find speakers that you may have never have encountered otherwise!

Another useful source is the ACS speaker service page. This is often a good page to search by symposium topic as it is usually pulls up old abstracts from talks and is a good starting point to find names that you can contact. If you are planning a symposium or talk affiliated with you local ACS section then you could use Speaker Services offered through the national ACS. This service will cost a fee ($300) for every speaker you plan through them.

So you have followed the steps above and have a list of possible speakers, but how should you initially contact them? I personally use a bifurcated approach. If possible I send out a very personalized email followed in a day or two with a phone call. What I think is important to remember in contacting speakers is that as hard as this is to believe NOT everyone uses e-mail, which is why you have to call. Or if they do use e-mail responding back to you may be at the bottom of their list of things to do. When contacting speakers be prepared to talk about the symposium. What you want them to speak about, who else might be speaking and what the other speakers have planed, dates and times and also be prepared to talk about yourself. Most of the time potential speakers will want to know what your interest in their topic is and what your motivations for organizing a symposium.

In closing it is important to remember that organizing a symposium is suppose to be fun! Your doing this because you want to share information about a field or topic that interests you to other people and hopefully spark a new interest or get someone thinking about a topic in a new and different way.