Best Practices for ELO Conferences

Published November 2025

The Conference is the most important event for the Electronic
Literature Organization (ELO). It builds our academic and artistic
communities and is a significant incentive for membership in the ELO,
which operates primarily with membership dues. As the organization has
grown, so have community expectations for our conference. Thus, the
suggestions found in this document are intended to help future ELO
conference chairs with hosting successful conferences.

Conference Structure and
Theme

• An ELO conference has these basic components:
  • The Academic Conference, which consists of scholarly
    presentations in a variety of formats (keynotes, panels, papers,
    roundtables, lightning talks, artists’ talks, workshops, etc.).
  • The Media Arts Show, which consists of:
    • Festival: live performances, usually in the evenings during the
      conference.
    • Exhibitions: which are curated and/or selected from an open call.
      These exhibitions usually have an online component.
  • Workshops and meetings, which provide a venue for close
    collaboration on projects (e.g., CELL, Lit(e)Lat) or interactive
    exercises (e.g. writing workshops)
  • ELO business (Town Hall, Awards Ceremony)
• The conference theme is formulated by the organizers in the
  proposal and presented to the ELO Board of Directors for
  feedback.
• There are usually 3-4 keynote speakers, one per day of the
  conference:
  • The organizers choose the keynote speakers, keeping in mind their
    contributions to the conference theme.
  • The ELO expects the keynote speakers to be a diverse group, with
    direct or adjacent expertise on electronic literature, who can address
    the conference theme.
  • Keynote speakers typically receive an honorarium for their talks
    and their conference registration and membership are waived. These
    expenses should be part of the conference budget.
  • Travel and lodging for keynote speakers would need to be covered
    by funds other than those brought in by registration fees.

In Person Conferences
/ Online Conferences

ELO admits both in presence and online conferences. Each type has its
own logistic and technical requirements. A good proposal should be
explicit in terms these aspects according to the type of conference the
proposal aims to.

Hybrid Conferences

Hybrid conferences represent a true challenge in terms of managing
all the aspects involved. Although ELO may consider the possibility of
the hybrid conference design, we do not encourage it unless several
requirements can be assured by conferences’ teams and host
institutions.

The following recommendations are offered as an aspirational standard
and may not be achievable in all contexts (such as when laws restrict
live-streaming).

• The face-to-face conference should offer streamed live online
  events/talks/panels which are made available to registered conference
  attendees.
• Panel moderators should have a way to receive questions from
  online participants and incorporate them into the panel
  discussion.
• Allocated members of the organizational team should be readily
  available at all times to ensure the smooth running of and access to the
  virtual sessions.
• There are several ways of designing the online portion of the
  conference, such as:
  • An asynchronous program, in which participants offer videos and
    papers.
  • Lightning talks in the synchronous program to draw attention to
    materials from the asynchronous program.
  • A synchronous fully online program in which presenters can
    participate in sessions that are scheduled concurrently with the
    face-to-face conference.
  • Incorporating online live or recorded presentations into panels,
    with participants telepresent for the discussion portion of the
    panel.
  • Incorporating remote performances into the conference
    festival.
  • Having volunteers available to give virtual exhibition tours with
    remote participants telepresent to experience some of the
    installations.
  • A fully online or virtual exhibition.
• Recordings of events and panels should be made available in a
  timely manner for conference participants to access.
• After the conference is over, these materials should be released
  to the community as open access.
• Conference organizers may require fees for online conference
  participation to cover additional costs involved in offering a high
  quality online conference experience. Online fees should, however, be
  proportionately lower than those for physical attendance.
• Online conference attendees must be dues-paying ELO
  members.
• When providing time for changing sessions, have a video chat room
  open for networking

Regional Conferences

• The ELO Board is interested in exploring offering smaller
  regional conferences, which would be simpler and easier to organize than
  the large international conference.
• Scheduling ideas:
  • We can have multiple regional conferences in a given
    year.
  • We can alternate a large international conference in one year and
    multiple regional conferences in another.
  • We can also simply have sporadic regional conferences, whenever
    desired.
  • The large international conferences are usually scheduled between
    May and August, while regional conferences can be any time in the
    year.
• Thoughts on regional conferences:
  • They should define clearly the region they wish to
    represent.
  • Most or all of the participants should be from that region
    (75%-100%).
  • They should address topics that are relevant to the
    region.
  • They should last 1-2 days and have few or no concurrent
    sessions.
  • Regional conferences can be fully hybrid, but can also minimally
    offer live streaming access to the ELO community.
• ELO Membership is required for all ELO conferences and can be
  used to attend multiple conferences in a calendar year.

Documentation

• Conference organizers should work to include a plan for
  documenting the conference, such as:
  • A website or repository for the conference materials.
  • Publishing papers in some form (conference proceedings, website,
    special issue in a journal, etc).
  • An online documentation of the exhibition.
• The main conference documentation should be available open
  access, with accessible design, as defined by
  the ADA or similar standard.
• We recommend the conference website be archived in a static site
  format, instead of in a system that requires maintenance (such as
  security upgrades).

Administration

• The primary administrative roles are:
  • Conference Chair – oversees and coordinates the whole
    conference.
  • Scientific or Academic Committee Chair – oversees and coordinates
    the Academic Conference and Scientific Committee.
  • Artistic Chair – oversees and coordinates the Media Arts Show and
    Artistic Committee.
  • Tech Chair- oversees and coordinates the technical infrastructure
    needed for the in person events and the remote events (if the conference
    is hybrid)
• The administrative roles and responsibilities are flexible. For
  example, sometimes the Scientific and Artistic Chairs serve as
  Conference Co-Chairs. On other occasions, roles can be further
  subdivided, such as having a Festival Coordinator and one or several
  Exhibition Coordinators or Curators. Sometimes there are multiple teams
  collaborating. The important thing is to ensure a clear sense of duties
  and responsibilities in the organization of the conference.
• There should be two separate Conference committees for the
  Academic Conference and for the Media Arts show. Typically, those
  committees are designated as the Artistic and Scientific Committee, with
  separate leadership reporting to (and potentially overlapping with) the
  primary conference team. While the Scientific Committee should be in
  close contact with the Artistic Committee, it is unwieldy to have both
  groups in the actual committee meetings (some of the issues overlap, but
  not many). The Conference Chair oversees both committees.
• The ELO Board will assign a conference liaison to offer guidance
  throughout the conference planning process.

• Conference Chairs should have a large enough committee of members to
  handle the various routine duties. We should use the conference
  planning time as a way to mentor newer members and show them how to do
  the many functions associated with our events. Inclusion of colleagues
  in related fields and local collaborators is encouraged, and Conference
  Chairs should prioritize diversity and inclusion in committee
  organization: as a best practice, every committee should include
  representation from multiple genders, races, ethnicities, disciplines,
  and career stages.

Funding & Costs

• The ELO Conference should be a self-sustaining activity. Its
  primary income sources are:
  • Conference fees
  • Institutional and external grants
  • Donations
• The ELO will provide $2,000 of startup funding in support of its
  Conference so that the Conference Chair can have access to funds needed
  for pursuing matching funds from their institution and/or expending
  funds for items needed early in the conference development. These funds
  provided by the ELO should be paid back, although the organization
  assumes the risk that they might not be.
• In addition to the conference fees, participants must be ELO
  members and pay the dues described on our membership
  page.
• Conference organizers can waive conference fees, but cannot waive
  ELO membership for participants, organizers, and volunteers. It can
  cover membership dues for them out of its budget, however.
• Funds left over after covering all conference expenses and ELO
  startup funds should be invested towards activities that seed and
  promote electronic literature or donated to the ELO for the same purpose
  and for paying in future conferences the conference/membership fees of
  persons who cannot afford them.
• In an effort to ensure that we can make the conference accessible
  and affordable to our diverse membership, organizers will make every
  effort to keep the conference fee close to cost per person.

Planning

The ELO Conference is an essential component of the ELO work and
should be clearly planned and documented.

• The conference proposal is to include an approximate budget with
  all expenses, which the Board will review and offer input on.
• Conference planning should be transparent and available to the
  ELO Board and community.
• Given the recent growth of the ELO, the Board recommends placing
  the following limits on the conference program:
  • historically, conference participants have been allowed to have
    up to two participations in different parts of the Conference, but not
    two in the same:
    • The Academic program
    • The Festival (performances)
    • Exhibitions
    • The online conference
  • the Conference typically lasts 3-4 days, but could be
    shorter or longer.
  • organizers frequently hold events and collaborations outside the
    conference dates, but connected to the conference activities,
  • historically, the ELO Conference has had up to 7 concurrent
    panels; community feedback suggests there shouldn’t be more than 4
    concurrent panels.
• In general, the conference committee should recognize that a good
  program is varied and well-paced, and that time for discussion,
  reflection, transitions, and rest are vital.
• The ELO Board requests three 60 minute spaces in the program:
  • ELO Town Hall
  • ELO Awards Ceremony
  • CELL (Consortium of Electronic Literature) meeting (can be during
    a concurrent session).
• To the extent possible, we should try to have the lodgings for
  the conference at the same place as the conference. If there are events
  associated with the conference (e.g., banquets or side trips), consider
  traveling time and logistics. Experience has shown that long bus rides
  and distances between event venues pose difficulties in transportation,
  timing, and convenience for the attendees. Facilities that follow
  accessibility standards (such as the ADA) should be
  strongly preferred.

Reasonable
Accommodations for Disabilities

• The ELO makes reasonable accommodations for Members with
  disabilities to attend the ELO Conference and Festival.
• ELO members with documented disabilities should contact the
  Conference Chair to discuss accommodation needs.
• It is the Conference Chair’s responsibility to plan and budget
  for accommodations.
• The ELO Liaison will assist and work with the Conference Chair on
  these accommodations.

Meals

• Our conferences have used a variety of models for providing meals
  or access to cafeterias, restaurants, and other food venues.
• There should be 1-2 breaks per day in which at least water,
  coffee, and tea are offered to participants.
• Whenever meals are provided, conference organizers are
  responsible for gathering information on registered conference
  attendees’ dietary restrictions and offering attractive
  options.
• If conference participants are to get meals out in restaurants,
  please take into consideration the time it takes for large groups of
  people to be served at local venues.
• If there is to be a banquet or final dinner event, the price
  should be included in the conference fees and kept as low as
  possible.
• Conference organized meals offer opportunities for event
  programming.

Code of Conduct

• The ELO Conference, including all related activities and
  communication, should be in full compliance with the ELO Code of
  Conduct.
• Conference organizers may place additional rules, as long as they
  extend, but don’t contradict, the ELO Code of Conduct.
• Conference organizers should display and/or reference the ELO
  Code of Conduct on their website and in conference materials.

Equity, Diversity, and
Inclusion (EDI)

• As stated in the ELO Code of
  Conduct, the ELO “is dedicated to providing an inclusive,
  equitable, and harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of
  gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability,
  physical appearance, body size, age, race, class, religion, or
  linguistic and cultural background.”
• Conference organizers should take into consideration EDI issues
  in every aspect of their team building and conference planning.
  • Assembling a diverse team that can be informed by multiple
    perspectives.
  • Acknowledging, honoring, inviting, and/or donating to indigenous
    first peoples who inhabit or were displaced from the land on which the
    conference will take place.
  • Making space in the conference program for historically
    underrepresented minorities.
  • Diversifying the conference by inviting and investing in
    participants from historically underrepresented minorities.
  • Being sensitive to safety concerns from historically marginalized
    groups.
  • Arranging for child care to increase access to the conference for
    parents.
• The ELO Conference Policies detailed in the Code of Conduct and
  cited in the next section express principles and practices to guide
  conference organizers in planning and executing an inclusive and
  equitable conference.

Partnerships

• We encourage partnerships with other organizations and planning
  adjacent to other conferences or events. (The ELO has done this with
  DHSI and the ACM Hypertext conference).
• This partnership should not negatively impact the ELO conference,
  though.

ELO Conference
Policies (from ELO Code of Conduct)

Future organizers of Electronic Literature Organization events,
including the annual ELO Conference and Media Arts Show, will be
required to adopt a version of the ELO Community Code of Conduct,
appointing an appropriate team to address any reports that emerge from
the event’s physical and virtual platforms.

In addition, all ELO events will adopt the following practices to
strive towards inclusion and parity.

• Transparency and Inclusivity in Review
  Processes. The names of all reviewers and/or curators for any
  event should be publicly available prior to the submission process.
  Updates to the composition of the review team should be made public as
  soon as feasible as changes are made. ELO event organizers are
  responsible for working towards diverse review teams.
• Double-Anonymized Review. Wherever possible,
  conference submissions should be made anonymous for peer review, and the
  names of specific reviewers on a work-by-work basis should not be made
  public during the review process. In the case of artistic work
  (particularly work that is iterative or previously displayed), full
  anonymization may not be possible; however, the omission of identifying
  information should be the goal wherever feasible.
• Clear and Reasonable Deadlines. Deadlines for
  all stages of event submission should be communicated at least two
  months prior, with an emphasis on providing clarity and, whenever
  possible, translations of the call to circulate across the international
  community. While circumstances may occasionally necessitate closer
  deadlines, all consideration possible should be given to early
  communication to enable broader participation.
• Support for and Compliance With the United Nations
  Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Consideration of the
  status of any potential host country with regards to support for human
  rights, as documented by the United Nations, will be taken into
  consideration when choosing organizations to host ELO events to ensure
  that all members of the community feel safe and welcome in those
  locales. All conference organizers commit to upholding those values as
  annotated above.
• Accessibility and Archiving. The shift to
  virtual conferencing has enabled the full participation of members of
  the community left behind by an emphasis on in-person events. Future ELO
  events should build on the inclusivity and accessibility enabled by
  virtual conferencing, prioritizing access in both physical and virtual
  venues, and following principles of universal design wherever possible.
  Events focused on physical participation should be documented, streamed,
  or otherwise made available through the ELO’s archival
  projects.