Presenting at the annual meeting fills a number of professional goals, including building your CV, presenting your research in a respected venue, publicizing your work, and receiving professional credit. We know that many attendees also value the chance to build a research community by engaging in conversation with fellow historians. We envision the AHA Colloquium as a place to continue the professional conversations that take place between panelists, the audience, and attendees at the meeting.

Those who want to formally present their work in the prestigious forum of the AHA annual meeting have the opportunity to post written remarks at the AHA website. A PDF program, documenting all sessions accepted by the AHA Program Committee and the affiliated societies, is posted on the AHA website so that participants can document their expected participation for their CVs.

We will also promote web-based video content created by people originally accepted for the 2021 annual meeting program. Staff have developed guides and procedures for this programming. Creative ideas for online content are welcome.

We hope that participants will take up the challenge of organizing online sessions that forefront conversation. Those organizing web-based programming should think carefully about how to organize a webinar that will encourage lively interaction. For example, panelists might pre-circulate prepared remarks posted on the AHA website so that the bulk of the webinar can be reserved for discussion. The ideal webinar is a collaborative discussion among a community of scholars. Those interested in organizing web-based sessions should think conceptually about what that might look like.

We are committed to providing those accepted for the canceled annual meeting program an opportunity to present their work. Please be mindful, however, that this is new territory for us and we are learning as we go. We will try some things that will work, but we are very likely to try other things that do not work as well as we hoped. We are creating Virtual AHA in the midst of an unprecedented crisis. In such an environment we all will do the best we can and try to set realistic expectations.

See the FAQ and guide to producing virtual session for details about developing content for the AHA Colloquium, including detailed guidelines about the mechanics and technical details requred to organize a successful webinar and guidelines for participants. Session organizers received an email with information on how to submit webinars to be publicized on the Virtual AHA website in early November. The email also included procedures for submitting prepared remarks. Feel free to contact us at virtualaha@historians.org with any questions or concerns.

Like you, we are learning as we go and will revise our plans and policies as we learn from experience. As you proceed with us on this adventure, please let us know at virtualaha@historians.org if you learn anything that will be helpful to us.