Insights Into The #dfa2018 Abstracts And Speakers Selection Process
Preparing the programme for #dfa2018 is an exciting process!
Follow our #dfa2018 programme preparation work
1 April – 28 April 2018: Abstracts revision by the Programme Committee
Our international Programme Committee (new window), made up of 25 experts from business and academic bodies, spent hours working together in April, revising the abstracts.
The abstracts submitted to the Summit were independently reviewed by three members of the Programme Committee who assessed them on their relevance to the Summit’s themes in terms of topic, innovation, interest, consistency, presentation, conclusion and transferability. They kept on reviewing and grading in the most objective way!
The aim of the Programme Committee and the Organising Committee? To create a robust and competitive programme, ensuring that #dfa2018 will continue to be a major Summit whose aim is to ensure that the entire tourism chain, including transportation, offers an obstacle-free experience to all visitors, worldwide!
Discover the people heading up our Programme Committee (new window)
28 April – 3 May 2018: The Organising Committee meeting up to prepare the pre-programme
We now have all of the content in our hands, so let’s get started and build the programme!
Day 1 (28 April) : Preparations for #dfa2018 on the way
The Organising Committee met in Belgium for six days. Michel Trudel and Jean-François Lavoie (Kéroul (new window)) came from Canada to kick off the Summit’s pre-programme with #dfa2018 co-chairman Vincent Snoeck (Atingo), Mathieu Angelo (CAWaB – Collectif Accessibilité Wallonie Bruxelles (new window)), and Anne-Sophie Marchal (Atingo).
Day 2 (29 April) : Work in progress
We received 136 abstracts from 31 different countries. The review process by the Programme Committee took four weeks, following the close of the call for abstracts.
It is really encouraging to see submissions and best practices of such high standard!
Day 3 (30 April) : Very good work has been achieved already thanks to our Programme Committee!
Using the combined scores and Programme Committee members’ recommendations, the Organising Committee selected the abstracts, compiled them and started building the sessions for this year’s Summit.
We rely heavily on the recommendations from the abstracts review team to make these decisions!
Day 4 (1 May) : Fuelling the Summit programme
The clock is ticking – just a few hours remain for the #dfa2018 pre-programme to be finalized. Our experts continued matching the abstracts and the sessions. Rigorously reviewing, sorting, and organizing to soon have the final compilation!
The tension is rising: the final selection and programming is in our hands.
Day 5 (2 May) : Rigorous preparation
Yay! We came to 23 well-balanced sessions in the Summit five core topics, destination management, hosting and security, accommodation, leisure products and activities, and transport and mobility!
In the coming days, abstracts authors will receive notifications to confirm whether or not their submissions have been accepted for inclusion in the Summit.
Day 6 (03 May) : Mission accomplished 100%!
Our experts were elated! Our World Summit on Accessible Tourism is assured of being one of the most respected meetings for innovation and best practices for the development of accessible destinations the world over, and we are getting ready to welcome you.
On behalf of #dfa2018, we would like to thank all the applicants for their participation and engagement and for submitting their abstracts as well as our Programme Committee members!