2025 SCRiB LAB Playwriting Conference

Event Proposal Guidelines

Want to lead an event at the conference? We’d love to hear your ideas!

The 2025 SCRiB LAB Playwriting Conference will feature 8 events and dozens of speakers at the in-person conference in Seattle on Saturday, June 21.

We encourage you to familiarize yourself with our guidelines for event proposals and the roles & responsibilities of participants before proposing your event.

The deadline to submit your event proposal is February 28, 2025.

Guidelines for Event Proposals

We’re seeking proposals for events that are informative, enriching, and rewarding to conference attendees. They should feature participants who are diverse in their professional, cultural, intellectual, and creative backgrounds. Panels should have a range of speakers in age, race, gender, and career stage. Organizers should take into consideration the diversity of the conference’s attendees and how everyone could benefit from their event. Our audience is made up of playwrights, educators, literary managers, creative writers, theatre artists, and other members of our local creative community.

Each event participant will receive waived registration to the conference for each event participant. We hope you’ll attend other events, peruse the exhibiting tables, and mingle with attendees.

All proposals must include:

  • contact information for event organizer

  • names, bios, photos for all participants (including moderator and panelists for panels, presenter/s for workshops)

  • title and description of event

  • confirmation that the event will be 60 minutes long

You may propose a panel or a workshop event:

  • Panel

    • 1 moderator with 2 - 5 panelists

    • specific topic that all participants are experts in

    • Q&A for attendees

  • Workshop

    • 1 - 2 presenters

    • variety of formats: presentation, open forum, masterclass, interactive exercise, seminar

    • possible Q&A for attendees

SCRiB LAB reserves the right to reject any event proposal if one or more of its proposed participants fails to meet the guidelines.

If your event is accepted, your event must be executed as it was described in your proposal. Participants who fail to execute their accepted panel as it is described in the event proposal submission may forfeit their participation in future conferences.

Event Roles & Responsibilities

Organizer: The event organizer submits the event, is the main point of contact for SCRiB LAB and the conference up until the day of the event, and acts as liaison to the other participants in the event. The organizer of the event doesn’t need to be one of the participants below.

Moderator: The moderator leads the panel by ensuring that it starts and ends on time and facilitates the discussion with panelists and any Q&A with attendees. On the day of the conference, the moderator is the main point of contact with SCRiB LAB and conference staff (if they are not also the event organizer) and coordinates any preparation with the panelists.

Panelist: The panelists are participants who have been added to the panel by the event organizer. They are expected to adhere to conference guidelines and come prepared and on time to the event.

Presenter: The presenter leads a workshop, either solely or with a co-presenter. They ensure that the workshop starts and ends on time and facilitate any discussions with attendees. On the day of the conference, the presenter is the main point of contact with SCRiB LAB and conference staff (if they are not also the event organizer).

Selection Process

The conference planning committee will read and evaluate all proposed proposals with the following criteria:

  • Value to the Playwriting Community (33%)

    • How important will this event be to our attendees and members of the playwriting community?

    • How will this event bolster our attendees' knowledge of their community?

    • Will this event offer professional development, resource sharing, networking, or other important information to our attendees?

  • Diversity (33%)

    • Will the event be inclusive of all playwrights and create a sense of belonging for our attendees?

    • Will the event offer a range of backgrounds including artistic, intellectual, cultural, and professional?

    • Does the proposed event address a topic that is different to other proposed topics?

    • How will this topic expand our attendees' knowledge of their community?

  • Proposal Feasibility (33%)

    • Has all the required information been submitted?

    • Is the proposal clear to read and understand?

    • Do the moderator, panelists, or presenters seem like they will be reliable and prepared?

    • Can this event fit within the 60-minutes duration?

Timeline

January 7: proposals for events open!

February 28: deadline to submit 2025 conference event proposals

March 1 - 15: conference committee evaluates proposals

March 17: SCRiB LAB announces accepted events

March 28: deadline for organizers to finalize changes to accepted events

April 1: full schedule is announced!!!