The TOC Annual Institute kicks off on April 22, and this year’s program is one of the strongest yet. TOCAI Chair Lin Burton asked for creative, engaging and topical presentations, and you responded! The Program Committee reviewed 76 proposals for Concurrent Sessions and Keynote sessions. Especially when competition is stiff, as it was in 2018, we thought it would be helpful to review what items are in the “secret sauce” of a TOCAI18 selected proposal.

In TOC Registrant surveys, the Annual Institute is continuously mentioned as the highlight of the program.  The 2018 Program Committee took its cue directly from the TOC Board’s Innovation Lab experience last summer, to strive to maintain the “impressive” success (a quote from the Registrant Survey) of the sessions when selecting 2018 TOCAI speaker proposals appropriate for the SMILES themed Annual Institute.

Each proposal was considered in a blind review—meaning, the reviewers did not know who submitted them.  They considered what content was submitted about the presentation itself. Individually, the committee scored each presentation against several criteria, each criteria with a maximum value of 5 points, for a maximum proposal total score of 100.  After all committee rating score sheets were combined into one, we selected proposals which attained a total score of 85 or higher, in keeping with the direction from the TOC Executive Board’s desire for excellence.

The all-volunteer Program Committee was: Susan Stinson (Co-Chair), Joy Watkins (Co-Chair), Debra Brown, Kevin Elliott, and Teresa Redden. Please congratulate them on a job well-done in securing the great content you have come to enjoy and expect at TOCAI18!

Download the TOCAI18 details agenda and schedule.

If you haven’t registered for TOCAI18 yet, it’s not too late!