28th - 30th September 2015 Hilton, Double Tree Hotel, Woodstock, Cape Town
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This is a call for interested individuals to submit an abstract of a topic they would like to present at BASSA 2015.

CONFERENCE THEME

Business Analysis – Pushing Boundaries

KEY DATES

Deadline for submission of abstracts   18 May 2015
Notification of acceptance   28 May 2015
Submission of final presentation content   31 August 2015

 

CONFERENCE OVERVIEW

The Only Constant is Change

 

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION

We call upon all stakeholders who have ideas, expertise and knowledge to share this at the conference.  Please submit an abstract, using the attached template. You may submit more than one abstract, but each abstract should relate to its own topic, and link to one of the 4 tracks.


Abstracts should keep strictly to the limit of 100 -200 words, clearly outlining your content and including which track you want it linked to and 3-5 bullet points at the end to summarise the key takeaway ideas or value the attendee will get. These abstracts will be included in the conference programme as a guide to assist conference attendees to select the sessions to attend.

The wording of your abstract should:

  • Provide enough information for us to evaluate your submission relative to others.
  • Be attractive to conference attendees and help them to select the sessions most valuable to them, given their interests and level of maturity of their BA experience.

 

PRESENTATION FORMATS

The following types of contribution are invited.

  • Standard presentations (i.e. PowerPoint) - time 50 minutes of which 10 minutes should be allocated for introduction and questions. Presentations can be focused on theoretical knowledge, sharing practical expertise or discussing experiences (case study)
  • Workshops (half-day or full day facilitated workshops aimed at learning or skills development)
  • Panel discussion topics (which you are prepared to chair and with suggested participants) – should fit into a standard 50 minute presentation time slot
  • Non-standard sessions – We are considering introducing the possibility of different timings  (for example,1 hour 50 minutes, which will cover 2 standard sessions and the 10 minute room break between them) to cater for any of the following:

              o    Longer presentations or panel discussions
              o    Shorter workshops
              o    Unusual sessions – be innovative and tell us what you think you could do and how long you would need to do it.

For all accepted abstracts we will require a full copy of your presentation, in PowerPoint or similar format, or as a PDF file, for inclusion on the delegate proceedings CD or memory sticks. Presentations must also be made available to the organisers ahead of time for loading onto the presentation machines. If you want to be able to use your own machine, please include this information in your submission.

 

TARGET AUDIENCE

Typical delegates will include business analysts, systems analysts, business architects, business process specialists, industrial engineers, agilists, change managers, consultants and business product specialists. However, the breadth of topics will be of interest to delegates outside of a narrow definition of Business Analysis:  past presentations have included topics on business process management, business architecture, innovation, change, thinking skills, business value, and career planning.

The conference will also be attended by people whose role intersects with business analysis, including managers, project and product sponsors, business people, recruitment and service providers.

SUGGESTED THEMES AND TOPICS

The conference is preceded by a pre-conference workshop day.  The two-day conference itself will be structured into tracks that include grouped themes.  Proposed core tracks include the following (but exciting and interesting papers may generate additional tracks):

  • Business Analysis Fundamentals
  • Soft Skills for Business Analysis
  • Tools and Techniques
  • Innovation and Strategy

Proposed topics could include but are not limited to the following:

Click here to download the Call for Papers doc>

Click here to download the Abstract Template doc>

 

GUIDELINES FOR SPEAKER - DO’S AND DON’TS

Based on previous conference feedback and programme assessments, here are some tips to help you

DO:

  • Be specific and concrete about what you will be presenting and how the audience will benefit from it.
  • Use the bullet points to highlight the key ‘takeaways'.
  • Show which track you are aiming your talk at and why it would fit into that track.
  • Demonstrate real-world achievements, showing examples of BA content if possible, and describing outcomes from applying it.
  • Push the envelope. Aim to stretch the audience with fresh insights and the benefit of your own experience. Or present a topic that would fully engage people at the experienced practitioner level.
  • Ensure that your presentation is relevant to this conference. If your talk covers a specialised topic (e.g. BPM, information architecture or software), you should position it clearly in an overall Business Analysis context.

AVOID:

  • ‘Pitching' specific products, crass commercialism or self-promotion.
  • Exceeding the word count limit.
  • Telling the audience what ‘they must do’, unless you are a recognised expert.  Rather share your experiences and lessons you learned
  • Trying to cover too much ground in the time available.
  • Putting forward unsubstantiated theories or opinions.
  • Repeating what you have read in a book or online without adding your own learnings and experience
  • Using vague abstractions and jargon.
  • If you are not sure whether your idea is suitable, please feel free to contact us to discuss it before making your submission.

 

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More Information

Call: +27 21 914 2888
Email: registrar@sbs.co.za

 

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