MENU
Back to Top

The AAEA Culture of Engagement

The leading benefit we all look to AAEA for is to participate in the AAEA Culture of Engagement. Through engaging with AAEA, we receive timely and insightful feedback on our work, learn about cutting edge work by others, and network with colleagues and friends, old and new. Building on our AAEA Culture of Engagement is a top priority for us. The AAEA Board is excited to introduce three initiatives below that build on our culture.

Networking Sunday—This Year it is July 27 in Minneapolis!

Networking Sunday recognizes the growing role of our Sunday program as a networking venue. Plan to arrive in Minneapolis by Saturday, July 26 in order to take full advantage of Networking Sunday! Many of you may want to arrive earlier to participate in pre-conference and mentoring workshops on Saturday.

Networking Sunday is packed with:

  • Section Business Meetings—allow you to meet other AAEA members with similar interests (see http://www.aaea.org/membership/sections) and help shape plans for the Section for the upcoming year.
  • Committee Meetings—AAEA members meet face-to-face to work on and shape important issues facing the AAEA.
  • Setting Up your Poster for the Sunday Evening Poster Reception
  • Early Career Professional Networking Reception
  • Section Receptions
  • First Rounds of Academic Bowl
  • First Rounds of Graduate Student Case Study Competition
  • First Rounds of the Graduate Student Extension Competition
  • Time to Meet with Colleagues to Plan Work

All this leads into the Keynote Address at 6:00 p.m. followed by our Poster Reception and the Welcome Reception. Please build Networking Sunday into your meeting plans and encourage your colleagues and students to do so, too!

Selected Papers Culture of Engagement

Obtaining great feedback on on-going work is what Selected Paper sessions are all about. In Minneapolis, we will have 108 Selected Paper sessions, with over 400 papers presented! To continue to build our culture of engagement, we will be asking all participants and attendees of these sessions to be very actively engaged in the conversation that takes place in each session. We want to encourage interaction and discussion in all our sessions rather than only presentation.

To facilitate this process, we will ask all session moderators to follow a set format that allows 15 minutes per paper, with five minutes of Q&A following each paper. We ask session moderators to have questions ready for each presenter, to seed and/or augment the discussion of each paper. We also ask each presenter to have read and be ready to comment on the papers of the other presenters. With an active audience, the structure of these sessions is ideal for meeting other people working in our areas, starting conversations, and meeting new collaborators.

Lightning Talk Sessions

In Minneapolis we will pilot Lightning Talk Sessions as part of the Selected Papers lineup. These sessions will feature 8 short presentations of 8 minutes each—a great opportunity to present the key ideas of your work and meet others working in your area.

The Exchange—Starting Bi-Weekly Publication in February

The AAEA Board has decided to begin bi-weekly publication of The Exchange, replacing our current bi-monthly schedule. This will allow us to get news out to you faster in a concise format and to easily locate items you want to know more about. Features such as the President’s Column and the People Section will continue to be published on an approximately bi-monthly schedule. We are working on the publication schedule and I welcome your input (caswell@resecon.umass.edu).

Julie Caswell
AAEA President