The IGF strives to be an open and inclusive forum, bringing all stakeholders together to exchange information and share best practices on public policy issues relating to Internet governance. The IGF meeting is organized following an open, bottom-up, multistakeholder process. The meeting programme features different types of Sessions: Main Sessions, Best Practice Forums, Dynamic Coalitions, Open Forums, and Workshops. Any individual or organisation can propose up to three Workshops for the IGF event, except for members of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) who evaluate these proposals.
The IGF Secretariat receives a large number of workshop proposals each year from individuals and organisations around the world. The MAG evaluates these proposals. Any given proposal may be accepted by the MAG, declined, or the MAG may ask one workshop proposer to collaborate and merge with another workshop proposer if both proposals cover the same material.
Before submitting your proposal, please ensure all the minimum requirements are met for the Secretariat’s initial screening. After submitting your proposal, please check the List of Published Workshop Proposals to verify that your proposal has been received.
For questions regarding this process, please contact Eleonora Mazzucchi at [email protected].
Contents of Workshop Proposal
All proposals must contain the following information:
• The contact details of the workshop proposers;
• The workshop format. There are SEVEN formats to choose from: Break-out Group Discussions, Roundtable, Debate, Birds of a Feather, Flash Session, Panel and “Other”;
• The duration of the workshop – 30, 60 or 90 minutes. Different formats have different durations. Please consult the format outlines here;
• The title of your proposed workshop;
• A concise description of the workshop (maximum 250 words), including a specific statement of the Internet Governance question to be addressed and how it relates to [to the IGF2017 Main Theme];
• A list of speakers, participating individuals and organisations, or a description of how stakeholder perspectives will be represented (Note: three provisionally confirmed speakers are required);
• A list of institutional co-organizers;
• The names of moderator(s), online moderator(s) and rapporteur(s);
• Links to reports from previous workshops;
• A list of up to three subject matter tags related to the workshop;
• A description of how online participation will be facilitated.
The workshop proposal submission form is available here.
About Online Participation
Online participants may join sessions through the WebEx platform provided by the IGF or a different platform (e.g. Twitter). Workshops should be planned to support participation of online participants on an equal basis with in situ participants. Organisers should consider monitoring Twitter feeds/comments in the discussion, and not only allow for, but encourage online participants to intervene.
Workshop proposals must include the name of an online moderator. The online moderator must be an integral part of the workshop, technically inclined, and work closely with the workshop organiser to develop a clear strategy that includes online participants. The online moderator is a critical part of the workshop, not part of the tech support team. The Secretariat will assist with guidelines and training of online moderators, but cannot provide for online moderators, since this is part of the workshop organisation. Online moderators are required to attend a training session before the IGF.
About the Descriptive Paragraph
This part of the proposal should contain a statement of the Internet Governance question to be addressed during the workshop and its relationship to the overarching theme, ‘Shape Your Digital Future!’, as well as an overview of the agenda and the session format. Proposers should also explain the desired room set-up and how it will assist participation in light of the proposed format. Please review the available formats here.
About the Rapporteur
All workshop sessions must be attended by a rapporteur. The purpose of the rapporteur is to produce a summary report of the workshop session. Reports must be submitted to the IGF Secretariat no later than two weeks following the IGF event. If a report is not submitted, then the workshop proposer will not be allowed to submit a workshop proposal for the IGF 2018. The reporting template is available here.
Workshop Proposal Selection Process
To ensure that the final result is a manageable number of high quality workshops, the MAG will closely assess all proposals according to agreed criteria.
The selection process will take place in three stages.
1. Initial Screening: Workshop proposals will be accepted from 17 March to 3 May 2017. Proposals will not be accepted after this date. After this period, the IGF Secretariat will conduct an initial screening of proposals and those which do not satisfy the minimum criteria will be declined.
2. Evaluation Process: MAG members will evaluate individual proposals prior to the next MAG meeting on 12-14 June 2017 (TBC), based on the criteria outlined here.
3. Discussion, Identification of Merger Candidates, and Finalization: Final selection of workshop proposals and identification of “merger” candidates will occur during the in-person MAG meeting on 12-14 June 2017 (TBC). The overall programme will then be finalized.
IGF Organizational Principles
• When scheduling the overall meeting the IGF will strive to ensure that Workshops and other events dealing with topics that are addressed in the Main Sessions will not be scheduled at the same time.
• To increase participation, the MAG has expressed a general preference for workshop formats that are not Panels. Therefore Break-out Group Discussions, Debates, BoFs, Roundtables, Flash Session and Other (new and innovative) formats will be preferred over Panel formats.
• Workshop organizers are encouraged to bring new faces to their Workshops. In order to do so, they can consult with the resource persons list on the IGF website. They will also have the option, through the proposal form, to be connected with IGF intersessional groups or contacts in Geneva-based organizations.
• All Workshops will be Webcasted and will have real-time transcription. Organizers are encouraged to seamlessly include online participants.
• The rooms reserved for Workshops and all equipment, including a screen and a PC or laptop for projections and a projector (XGA/SVGA Data), will be available free of charge. Details related to the logistics will be made available in due course.
• Interpretation in the UN six official languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish), as well as the host country language, is only provided free of charge for the Main Sessions. If Workshops would like to have interpretation for their Session, they would need to bear the cost. To have more information about arranging interpretation for your session, please contact the Secretariat at [email protected]