Proposal for sessions – The 74th Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of Japan

There are three types of sessions: Symposia, Workshops, and Forums.
- Symposium category includes the Regular Symposium as well as two special types: the Open Session, where the theme is introduced as a new presentation field within the Ecological Society, and the ER Symposium, where travel grants and free admission to the conference are available for inviting international researchers.
At all sessions, speakers will be asked to present on-site.
We look forward to receiving enthusiastic proposals from researchers from various positions, genders, and nationalities.

Concept of Sessions

	Symposium	Workshop	Forum
Concept	Core sessions of the conference	Free discussion about various topics	Building consensus within ESJ on issues in the field
Applicant	Open	Open	Applied by committees of ESJ
Time	3 hours	1.5 hours	1.5 hours
Presenters	On-site	On-site	On-site
Online Support	On-Demand Streaming	On-Demand Streaming	On-Demand Streaming
Priority	High	Low	High
Presentations by non-ESJ members	Encouraged Invited speakers are exempt from the registration fee	Not allowed Contributions without presentation abstract are allowed	Allowed

Symposium

Symposium is the main session of the conference, and we call members to submit proposals for organizing. Conference participants look forward to symposia with fresh themes that have never been presented before.

Duration of the session is 180 minutes. Speakers are required to present on-site.
To promote exchange with other disciplines, non-members of the Ecological Society of Japan are welcome to give invited lectures. The conference registration fee for invited speakers will be waived. Please note that the same non-member cannot be the invited speaker for two consecutive years. Please check “Symposium Invited Speaker Program” for procedures for invited lectures.
To promote international information dissemination and discussion at the Symposium, we welcome the active participation of international researchers and non-members through the Invited Speaker System.

Workshop

Workshop is the session traditionally emphasized by the Ecological Society of Japan as a place to help launch new fields and to allow free discussion of various topics outside the framework of ecology.

Duration of the session is 90 minutes. Speakers are required to present on-site.
It is also possible to hold sessions consisting only of contributions without presentation abstract, such as opinion statements or lightning talks. In this case, you do not need to register presentation information when submitting your session proposal.

Forum

Forum is organized by the committees of the Ecological Society of Japan to solicit the opinions of a wide range of members on issues related to the management of the Ecological Society of Japan and ecology that the Society is working on, to promote information sharing among members, and to build consensus within the Society through wide-ranging discussions.

Duration of the session is 90 minutes. Speakers are required to present on-site.

Online Support

Online Presentations

Online presentations will not be accepted for any presentation with abstract submission at this conference, except in cases where reasonable accommodation is required. This policy applies equally to presenters residing outside Japan. All such presentations must be given on-site.

If it is difficult to present on-site, remote presentations using Zoom or similar tools will be permitted only for contributions that do not require the submission of a presentation abstract, such as opening remarks, comments, or statements of opinion. These presentations can also be recorded and included in the on-demand streaming described below.

If online presentations are introduced for such purposes, session organizers are responsible for arranging the necessary tools (e.g., Zoom) and internet access at their own expense and responsibility. For information on the network environment at the venue, please also refer to Presentation Guidelines. Connection to Zoom or similar tools is strictly limited to organizers and presenters. Audio or video from the session must not be independently streamed online outside the venue.

On-Demand Streaming of Presentations

Presentations in all symposia, workshops, and forums for which on-demand streaming is selected will be recorded and made available on the RakuRaku-Conference at a later date. As a general rule, all symposia will be made available for on-demand streaming.

When submitting a proposal for a session, the organizer selects whether the entire session will be available for on-demand streaming.
Each presenter within the session also selects whether their own presentation may be distributed on-demand when submitting their abstract.
On-demand streaming will be provided only for sessions whose organizers have permitted on-demand streaming, and only for presentations whose presenters have also permitted streaming.
- Presentations which do not involve abstract submission, such as opening remarks, comments, and general discussions, will be recorded and distributed as long as the organizer has permitted on-demand streaming for the session as a whole.

In order to prevent problems with the recordings, all recording work will be handled by a contractor. Organizers cannot perform the recording.

Organization of Symposium and Workshop

How to organize Sessions

The following are important notes related to session proposals. Please also check the “Guidelines for Presentations” page for notes regarding the venue facilities and recording.

For all sessions, the organizers and speakers must be members of the Ecological Society of Japan. However, non-members may be invited to give invited lectures for symposia only (see eligibility for each membership category).
- Each member of the Ecological Society of Japan may submit only one session proposal.
- For information on how to use the Symposium invited speaker program, please refer to “Symposium Invited Speaker Program”.
In this meeting, each participant is allowed to give only one presentation with abstract in total, either in a Symposium, a Workshop or a Regular Presentation.
Contributions that do not require the submission of a presentation abstract, such as opening remarks, commentator, panelist, or lightning talk, are not counted as “presentations”. Therefore, participation in sessions in these formats is possible even for non-members and is not subject to the restriction on multiple presentations.
- Even for such contributions, conference registration is required. Organizers are requested to inform participants accordingly.
- Symposia and Regular Presentations may be scheduled in the same time slot. Even if the sessions overlap with your own presentation time, no adjustment of presentation slots will be made.
- As Workshops may take various formats, they are planned to be scheduled in time slots that do not overlap with Symposia or Regular Presentations.
If you apply to Symposium, it should consist of at least two speakers. If there is only one speaker, please apply to Workshop.
Organizers are requested to structure the sessions with consideration for the balance of positions and genders of organizers and speakers, in accordance with the promotion of diversity at the conference.
In addition to the overall explanation of aims and summary, abstracts of individual presentations will be posted on the conference web page and on the conference platform.
In view of the increasing number of international students and participants from overseas, we encourage Symposia to be held in English. Even if the meeting is held in Japanese, please prepare presentation slides in English or in both Japanese and English whenever possible.

For Organizers

You can apply for the sessions at the following pages.

[Go to Application site]

The deadline to apply for the Symposium and Workshop is 2nd Nov. 2026 23:59 (JST).
Organizers submit session proposals using the membership number registered on the conference application site. The membership number can also be found by using the member search function on My Page.
- All co-organizers/speakers must be registered on the conference application site before the organizer submits an application (deadline: 2nd Nov. 2026). Please make sure to inform all co-organizers and speakers to log in to the conference registration site and register their information (e-mail address, affiliation, etc.) in advance.
Organizers will register all presentations together. Please collect the following information before submitting.
- Title: no more than 150 characters
- Name and affiliation of speakers/co-presenters
- Membership number of speakers (or login ID for symposium invited speakers)
Access the application site and submit your session proposal by entering the following information.
- Type of session
- Session title: up to 40 characters in Japanese or 150 characters in English
- Session short title: up to 20 characters in Japanese or 75 characters in English
- Session abstract: up to 800 characters in Japanese or 400 words in English
  - Information for presenters who will not submit an abstract (e.g., introductory speakers and commentators) should be included in the session abstract.
- Whether the session will be available for on-demand streaming (please refer on-demand streaming)
- On-demand streaming: please indicate whether the entire session will be made available for on-demand streaming.
- Open session
  - Please indicate here if the Symposium is proposed as an Open Session, or if a workshop is to be held in the field added under the Open Session.
After submitting your session proposal, the presentation registration menu will appear. Please register presentation information such as titles or speakers for all presentations requiring abstract submission.
- Contributions without presentation abstracts, such as opening remarks, comments, or opinion statements, cannot be registered via the presentation registration menu. Please include information about such contributions within the session abstract.
Organizers will be notified by email approximately three weeks after the deadline as to whether or not their proposal will be accepted. If the number of proposals significantly exceeds the number of previous years, a lottery will be held to determine acceptance or rejection.
- In the case that your proposal is not accepted, alternative measures such as changing the session type or transferring your application to a general presentation will be provided. Please refrain from submitting duplicate applications for Regular Presentations as a backup in case your session proposal is not accepted.
The conference committee will not be involved in the content of the session, but those that are deemed to contain content that defames or slanders individuals or groups may not be accepted.
Please also read Other Notes before applying.

For Speakers

Only members of the Ecological Society of Japan are eligible to present at Symposia and Workshops, with the exception of Symposium Invited Speakers.
- Non-members are requested to apply for membership by 2nd Nov. 2026 23:59 (JST) and pay the conference fee by 16th Feb. 2027 13:00 (JST), by referring to this page.
- For registration for invited speakers, please refer to the Symposium Invited Speaker Program as below. In this case, the application for membership is not necessary and registration fee of the conference is free of charge.
All co-organizers/speakers must be registered on the conference application site before the organizer submits an application (deadline: 2nd Nov. 2026). Please log in to the conference application site using your membership number and register your information (e-mail address, affiliation, etc.) as soon as possible.
- Although the payment of the registration fee can be made up to the day of the conference, we recommend completing the payment as early as possible to ensure smooth access to the conference platform.
When applying for the session, please provide the following information to the organizer. Please note that these information cannot be changed after the deadline.
- Title (both in Japanese and English, maximum 150 characters)
- Name and affiliation of speakers/co-presenters
- Membership number of speakers (login ID for invited speakers)
Please submit your abstract (maximum 400 words) through the conference application site by 16th Feb. 2027 23:59 (JST). Also, please indicate whether or not your presentation will be made available for on-demand streaming.
- Note that on-demand streaming will only be provided if the session organizer has also registered to allow on-demand streaming for the entire session (please refer on-demand streaming).
Please also see Other Notes.

Symposium Invited Speaker Program

To promote collaboration with other fields, we welcome invited speakers from non-members of the Ecological Society of Japan. The conference registration fee for invited speakers will be waived. Please note that the same non-member cannot be the invited speaker for two consecutive years.

To apply for the program, please ask the invited speakers to follow the procedures outlined below.

Please access the conference application site.
Please proceed as follows: Non-members ⇒ Create a new ID.
Depending on the speaker’s status (Regular or Student), please select either ‘Non-Member (Symposium speaker, regular)【Presentation only at symposia】’ or ‘Non-Member (Symposium speaker, student) 【Presentation only at symposia】’ in “Category” field.
Please fill in the required information in the other fields and complete the registration procedure.
Thereafter, please follow the procedures for Speakers, i.e., provide the organizer with the login ID for the relevant presentation submission site, along with the title, affiliation, and other required information.

Please inform the organizer of your ID on the application site.

By applying through the above procedure, one can register as an invited speaker without conference registration fee.

Proposal of Forum

Proposals for Forums are solicited from representatives of each committee of the Ecological Society of Japan.
Tentative proposals will be reviewed by the Board of Directors, and a final decision on adoption will be made after coordination with the Annual Meeting Planning Committee and the Executive Committee. During this process, you may be asked to revise the content or adjust the format of the event.
For Forums that are adopted, please submit the full proposal through the conference application website.
Organization and presentations in Forums are not subject to the restrictions on multiple presentations.
If non-member speakers are invited to a Forum, they may participate in that Forum free of charge. Free participation in other programs, such as Symposia and Regular Presentations, is not permitted; if they wish to attend these, they must pay the conference registration fee.