Forwarding this for C2ER. Their next annual conference (June) will be virtual. [cid:image002.png@01D6A5FE.5CE38860] C2ER 61st Annual Conference & LMI Institute Annual Forum 2021 Call for Sessions The Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER) and the Labor Market Information (LMI) Institute are currently soliciting proposals for the next annual conference and forum, which will be held virtually June 7 - 11, 2021. The theme this year is The Great Pivot: Reinvention for Recovery and Resilience. We are interested to learn how your organization and community have and continue to respond to the impacts and implications of the COVID-19 pandemic, what that means for your local businesses, and how we can ready ourselves to better weather future events. Content and presentations from practitioners are a key component to the success of our conference. This enables our attendees to share, learn, converse, and interact with one another on topics of mutual interest and compare research methods, data collection practices, visualization tools, and lessons learned in the field. We invite members and non-members alike to submit session proposals. View full call for sessions details<https://crecstorage.blob.core.windows.net/c2er/2020/10/2021-Conf… Click here to start your proposal<https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2021CallforProposals> Session proposals are due by 5:00 PM EST on Friday, November 6, 2020 Who is Our Audience? The C2ER Annual Conference/LMI Institute Annual Forum attracts researchers from state labor market information, economic development, and workforce development offices; community colleges; workforce boards; and other organizations in the economic and workforce development fields. The conference includes a variety of keynote and plenary speakers, and roundtables to offer world class networking and the opportunity to see community and economic development in action. What is the Structure and Format of the Conference? [cid:image003.jpg@01D6A5FE.5CE38860] Freepik.com Sessions will be a combination of pre-recorded and live-streaming content. We are seeking to create unique learning opportunities for our attendees and encourage you to submit new and innovative ways to use this time to share new knowledge and approaches, facilitate panel discussions, and/or engage attendees in active conversation. A virtual environment allows us to offer a variety of session formats, including traditional sessions (individual presentations; traditional panels of three 15-20-minute presentations; facilitated roundtable discussions), but we also welcome proposals that utilize the unique advantages of virtual meetings (such as on-site visits to activities or developments of interest in your community that you bring to us virtually). [cid:image004.jpg@01D6A5FE.5CE38860] Freepik.com This year we will continue to include skill building workshops. If you host a FREE data tool, website, or have a skillset that you would like to share with business and community researchers, we want to hear from you! Please note that the session is expected to offer an introduction to your data tool or website and a "hands-on" experience to allow participants to gain practical experience with the data, walk away with new skills, and possibly access a new tool for their work going forward. Workshops should be a minimum of 60 minutes long and a maximum of two hours long. [cid:image005.jpg@01D6A5FE.5CE38860] Freepik.com We are interested in a variety of viewpoints, we encourage researchers and analysts from different racial and ethnic backgrounds to share their experiences. If you are recruiting participants for a panel or developing a topic to share, please keep our mutual commitment in mind. We also want to hear from our younger researchers. This could be your chance to make a mark on the community and economic research profession for years to come! We're always looking for new leaders and a fresh set of contributors. [cid:image006.jpg@01D6A5FE.5CE38860] Freepik.com Become a sponsor city! Typically, we use the annual convening as an opportunity to learn more about our host city through local research keynotes, sponsors, off-site tours. With a virtual meeting, however, we have a chance to hear and see different communities across the U.S. and have various cities serve as "sponsors" by submitting speaker ideas, remote tours to showcase an area in development, or anything that provides local flavor. A key underlying theme is diversity, equity, and inclusion so we'd love to have different viewpoints and see how research is helping communities of color prosper. Proposals may address one or more of the following ideas as they relate to the theme of The Great Pivot: Reinvention for Recovery and Resilience. See the sub-topics below and related research questions and ideas. Please do not feel limited to the session focus areas listed below * Diversity, Inclusion, Equity * Response, Recovery, Resilience, Readiness, Reinvention * Future of Work * The Virtual Economy - Power of Remote Work * High Frequency Data - innovative real time data, unemployment insurance data, etc. * Technical Skills Workshops * Sponsor City (see details in Structure & Format here<https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fc…) For more information on content, please contact Jennie Allison<mailto:jallison@crec.net>. Instructions and Guidelines Click here for the full list of proposal instructions and guidelines<https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%… C2ER/LMI Institute will provide a response to all submitted proposals no later than January 15, 2021. JOIN US ON SOCIAL MEDIA [Facebook]<https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2… The Council for Community and Economic Research<https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F… (C2ER) is a membership organization working to improve data availability, enhance data quality, and foster learning about regional economic analytic methods. The Labor Market Information Institute<https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F… (LMI Institute) is the pre-eminent resource for supporting the development, interpretation, and use of labor market information. C2ER and the LMI Institute are managed by the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness<https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http… (CREC).