All papers accepted for a Pikes Peak Regional History Symposium topic are evaluated for inclusion in Pikes Peak Library District’s online Digital Collections repository. Papers must meet minimum requirements outlined in Writing Tips. Accepted papers are added to the online collection as submitted with no editing or illustrations, and with only uniform formatting changes. If papers do not meet the minimum requirements,  contributors are offered an opportunity to submit revised essays for consideration.

Papers received by the stated deadline are also evaluated for possible print publication. Papers accepted for a potential book must meet higher scholarly standards than for the online collection and must be based on new research using primary sources and either expand on common knowledge of a topic, or draw new conclusions. Qualifying papers are edited for content and style.  Illustrations with author-provided captions will be included in printed publications.

“How can I get my proposal accepted for presentation at the annual Pikes Peak Regional History Symposium?” Refer to the Proposal Guidelines. Following the guidelines is especially important as your proposal will be evaluated by the panel of readers using those guidelines.

The annual theme offers wide latitude in your selection of topic but the most important thing to remember as you organize your essay/presentation is that the readers are not looking for a retelling of an already well-known event or historical person. Beyond a brief summary or biography of the event or person, if needed, the readers will be looking for a unique interpretation of the evidence in your telling of the story as well how it makes a new contribution to the historical narrative or opens up new avenues of research.

Excellent examples of these points were the 2013 presentations at the Massacres of the Mountain West symposium by Chris Rein and Katherine Scott Sturdevant, as follows.

A Symposium Bookstore is personed by the Friends of the Pikes Peak Library District to sell books, DVDs, etc., authored by the symposium presenters, or otherwise relevant to the symposium topic. Presenters may sell their items at the bookstore with 10% of sales going to the Friends for their efforts to secure and sell the items. 

An Inventory Sheet must be completed by the presenter to account for the quantity of their books/DVDs delivered for sale and each item must be priced. Prior to opening the book store, a Friends representative will reconcile the Inventory Sheet with the presenter’s items. After the bookstore closes, the representative will reconcile the items sold with the remaining inventory. The presenter will take any unsold items at the end of the day and a check will be mailed within a few weeks from the Friends to the presenter for the items sold.

Presenters are asked to let the symposium organizers know how much table space they will require. Display stands are provided by PPLD.

Most presenters at the Pikes Peak Regional History Symposium use Microsoft PowerPoint to illustrate their 20 minute talk.  Below are a few presentation pointers:

• A presentation should include only one slide for each minute of  presenting time. A 20 minute presentation should have no more than 20 slides.  This is a good rule-of-thumb to avoid too many slides for a presentation.
• Use bullet statements, not paragraphs, to show relevant points so that the audience is listening, not reading. An exception would be a short quote. Any text in a slide will be read by the audience, so keep it minimal.
  
• Do not use busy backgrounds or fancy transitions. Bells and whistles just distract the audience from an otherwise great presentation.
• Practice. Even experienced presenters should practice so that advancing slides occurs at the correct time and without hesitation. A practice session is open for presenters to tryout PPLD's equipment during the afternoon prior to the symposium day.
• Keep to the 20 minute time limit. A timekeeper in the audience will alert speakers when they have five minutes, and then two minute remaining. At the end of the 20 minutes the timekeeper will stand-up and the speaker is expected to conclude immediately.
• Leave the audience wanting more. Twenty minutes is not adequate time to cover all aspects of your research topic, so do not try. Keep on time, and end strong. Understanding the limits of time, the audience will appreciate that your vast research cannot be presented in great detail.