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Transportation Research Board looking for geosynthetics webinars for 2022

News | October 19, 2021 | By:

Photograph courtesy of Sol Solution

The next round of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Webinar Program is underway, and the deadline for webinar proposals is one month away.

TRB webinar proposals are due by midnight (your local time) on Monday, Nov. 15, 2021. Proposals are open to anyone. However, all proposals must have approval of a TRB Standing Committee Chair (for the AKG80 Standing Committee on Geosynthetics, this is Jennifer Nicks; see contact information at the end of this article), or must be about a CRP report. This deadline applies to webinars that TRB will host between January and April 2022.

Proposals received after the deadline will be held until the proposal process for webinars between May and August 2022 begins. If you or someone on your behalf submitted a webinar suggestion previously that was not accepted, you may submit the same proposal again with TRB’s suggested changes.

TRB will review forms and respond to proposers in December 2021 regarding scheduling the webinar or will provide reasons why the proposal was not selected. Next, TRB will contact the listed panelists, coordinate schedules and select dates for the required practice session and the live webinar. TRB will do its best to honor requested timeframes. Webinar proposers should not schedule any specific date with their panelists before hearing from TRB staff.

Tips for a successful webinar

Proposals that meet the following criteria have been selected and well received by webinar attendees:

  1. Diversity of panelists:TRB seeks webinars that include multiple perspectives. Therefore, suggestions featuring persons of color, women, young professionals and a wide geographical representation are favored. Additionally, entering more than one presenter is preferred.
  2. Focus on practical messages: On average, 60 percent of attendees are employed at state departments of transportation. Therefore, webinar proposals should target methods, techniques and practices for on-the-job applications. Webinars featuring case studies do very well.
  3. Complete the full webinar form without placeholders: Do not use “to be determined” or placeholders for any information in the form. TRB will consider only completed webinar suggestion forms. Plan to spend at least 45 minutes completing the proposal form.
  4. Avoid proprietary information:TRB is an objective, nonbiased organization. Thus, TRB will not accept proposals that are proprietary, even from a governmental organization.

A committee or individual’s past track-record of organizing well-received webinars will also be considered. Committees who have not proposed webinars, particularly in the freight, rail, aviation, transit, marine or pedestrian/bicycle topic areas, as well as those that focus on underserved populations, including those in rural and tribal areas, are encouraged to apply. 

To suggest more than one webinar, the Bulk Webinar Suggestion form may be submitted. Contact Elaine Ferrell at EFerrell@nas.edu to receive the Bulk Webinar Suggestion form.

If you would like to propose a webinar related to geosynthetics, please contact the committee’s chair, Jennifer Nicks, at jennifer.nicks@dot.gov.

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