Frequently Asked Questions
We are excited to offer a wide range of professional development opportunities at the 2025 Outdoor Professional Conference!
We opened our call for proposals February 2025 for anyone (members, non-members) to submit. The call for proposals closed March 31, 2025
Those who submitted proposals agreed to the following:
1. In order to increase access to AORE, the association has always operated with a strong reliance on volunteers and with a lean budget. This means, all presenters and volunteers pay to attend the conference. If accepted, all presenters must register and pay for the attendance at the 2025 AORE Annual Conference (daily rates are available).
2. All presenters understand that they must be willing to present any day of the Conference, during any time slotted under the direction of the Conference Planning Action Team. Efforts will be made to avoid conflicts listed by the presenters at the time of submission.
3. All presenters will demonstrate high standards of professional conduct and will not discriminate against participants on the basis of gender, age, socioeconomic or ethnic background, sexual orientation, or disability. As the Lead Presenter, I verify that I have communicated with all other presenters. By Signing below, we acknowledge that, if accepted, our presentation will adhere to the requirements listed above.
Once the proposal window was closed, we worked with our volunteer review team. Approximately 20 volunteers went through multiple proposals and grade the proposal on the follow criteria:
Any identifying information, such as presenter, was removed during the review process.
- The content is current and of interest to the target audience.
- The topic will and should affect the industry.
- The topic aligns with one or more of the goals and objectives for the conference.
- Organization and Structure
- Easily identifiable goals/outcomes appropriate for the audience.
- Argument/evidence clearly grounded in research and/or experience.
- Acknowledges a range of perspectives, learning preferences, and abilities.
- Clear and logical progression of topics.
- Ability to Inspire Action
- Transferability to a range of settings.
- Clearly articulates practical application strategies in a significant and thorough manner.
- Encourages and motivates audience to achieve more.
- Overall Quality
- Relevance: Original and engaging content.
- Organization: Creative and innovative presentation.
- Inspiration: Promoting growth and excellence.
This year we also worked with many partners, including the Leave No Trace, LoopNOLA, and Desert Mountain Medicine to curate topics that were missing from the conversation.
If you are interested in presenting with AORE with our virtual programming or at our future Outdoor Professional Conferences, please email us at NationalOffice@aore.org.
Yes! We will be hosting the Research Symposium again this year. There will be four sessions on Wednesday, November 5.
8:00 am - 9:00 am
Curriculum Requirements of Outdoor Academic Majors in the United States
Jeremy Jostad (Eastern Washington University), Jeff Turner (Georgia College), Brent Bell (University of New Hampshire), Kellie Gerbers (Westminster University)
How the Brain Changes During and After Outdoor Experiences
Cory Inman (University of Utah)
9:30 am - 10:30 am
Sowing Seeds of Change: Growing Grit and Resilience Through Outdoor Challenges
Curt Davidson (University of Wyoming)
The Role of The Documentary Film in Mountaineering Sports
Ilina Arsova (University of Tennessee), Nina Adjanin (Northwest Missouri State University)
11:00 am - 12:00pm
Research into Practice: Assessing the Validity of the Leadership Style Quadrant Class
Guy DeBrun (James Madison University)
The Leadership Style Quadrant Class (LSQC), formally No-Doze leadership class, is an active leadership training designed to reveal leadership style preferences. The LSQC places participants into one of four leadership quadrants based on their responses to four prompts. The class is engaging and widely used in outdoor leadership contexts. However, no efforts have been made to test the validity of the LSQC concept. This active, "practice of research" session is intended to test the convergent validity of the LSQC with the more widely used and studied DISC personality instrument. The first 50 participants will receive a free DISC assessment ($35.00 value).
Learning credits will be available to attendees [FOR FREE] thanks to a partnership with American Trails and are included in the registration fee. In order to be eligible for learning credits, presentations must run at least 15 minutes to be eligible for AICP CM, and at least 60 minutes in length to be eligible for LA CES and NRPA CEU equivalency petition, as well as CEU/PDH equivalency petition for other accepting organizations. The length of the session will determine the number of hours/credits given.
In order for sessions to qualify for these credits and if a certificate if requested, attendees must fill out an evaluation survey for each session they attend, as well as complete and have their learning credit tracking sheet signed by the conference host or American Trails (the survey and tracking sheet will be provided to attendees at registration as well as available electronically).
