The 2024 International Town & Gown Association's City & University Relations Conference
Hosted by the University of Maryland and City of College Park
The Power of Partnerships: Solving Grand Challenges Together
Background and Invitation to Submit
The City of College Park and University of Maryland, College Park invite you to apply to be a presenter at the 2024 ITGA City & University Relations Conference, “The Power of Partnerships: Solving Grand Challenges Together," June 5 through June 7, 2024. This year’s theme is inspired by University of Maryland President Dr. Darryll Pines’s campus-wide commitment to addressing unprecedented global challenges through the exchange of stories, collaborative exploration of issues, and the pursuit of innovative solutions. Some of the challenges to the conference sessions we will tackle through this theme include community & civic engagement, social injustice, health and safety, race relations, disparities in education, and climate change.
The conference program tracks are designed to encourage presentations that will inform and inspire the future of our communities through classroom and mobile sessions, and will allow for a broad range of discussions to address society’s grand challenges – on our campuses, in our towns, or around the world.
ITGA Core Competencies
Each proposal must connect to one of ITGA’s Core Competencies below. For more information, click here.
- Building Community: Strengthening, adding, and growing diverse, equitable and inclusive opportunities for all members of the community
- Transforming Relationships: Creating collaborative partnerships to foster economic growth and success of the community
- Wellbeing: Creating a balanced approach to health, safety and wellness to faculty, staff, students and community members
- Resiliency: Responding to environmental challenges
Presentation Topic Areas
Track 1: Partnerships for the Public Good – Health, Safety and SustainabilitySuccessful proposals for this track will explore the partnerships between cities and universities in reference to community-based strategies to advance health, public safety, and sustainability in communities. Present best practices, tools, and resources vital to partnering for the public good.
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Track 2: Equity, Belonging and Civic EngagementSuccessful proposals for this track will:
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Track 3: Placemaking, Housing and DevelopmentSuccessful proposals for this track will:
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Who Should Submit
- Mayors
- City administrators
- Elected officials
- University/college presidents
- Vice presidents
- City/campus police officers
- City/campus planners
- Housing administrators
- Parking/transportation officers
- Students/community members
- Private housing developers
- Others sharing a unified town gown vision
Mobile Sessions
Conference attendees from the College Park community are invited to submit proposals for mobile sessions after 3:00pm on the afternoons of Wednesday, June 5, Thursday, June 6, and Friday, June 7. Mobile sessions offer participants the ability to leave the conference site for unique interactive experiences. Each mobile session will be scheduled for no more than two hours. Transportation and any other costs are the responsibility of the presenters in coordination with the Host Committee.
Mobile sessions will be submitted, evaluated and accepted on the same basis as other proposals for concurrent sessions and should address learning objectives and outcomes. Proposals should include a logistics timeline indicating travel time to and from the conference site. Mobile session topics must fit into one of the three tracks.
Presentation Information and Important Dates
- Time: Sessions are limited to a total of 60 minutes, keeping into account the desire for interactive sessions encouraging attendee participation.
- Technology: Rooms are equipped with audio/visual capabilities-projector screens and/or flat screen TVs. Presenters must bring your own laptop.
- Proposal submission deadlines: You must submit your proposal on or before Friday, February 23, 2024.
- Authors notified of selection: You will be notified on or before Friday, March 22, 2024 regarding the status of your proposal.
Suggested Guidelines for a Successful Session
Representative of multiple organizations
Sessions should be representative of town and gown relations, so it is important to include both university and community stakeholder perspectives.
Telling your story
Many times, we focus on the “what” without exploring the “how.” We encourage you to share challenges and how you overcame these, as well as any lessons learned throughout the process.
Show your data
Research, data and program evaluation are part of many processes, and we are interested to understand this part of your experience. Make sure to share any data/metrics you have, as well as how that has informed your work.
Make it a conversation
Conference presenters can sometimes fall into the routine of lecture-style and/or tour-like presentations that are not always the most engaging for attendees. We want this conference to be an exchange of information, so we encourage you to develop your classroom and/or mobile style session as interactive and conversational as possible.
Submission Requirements
- Name of contact person and contact information
- Title of innovation or solution
- Track #
- Include student enrollment size and population of city/town
- Description of the format and outline of the content and key messages
- Abstract in 75 words or less describing your program session (to be used in the conference program)
- Learning outcomes
- Indicate whether this is a mobile session.