Call for Proposals

Scottish AI Summit 2024

***THE CALL FOR CONTENT FOR THE SCOTTISH AI SUMMIT 2024 IS NOW CLOSED. IF YOU SUBMITTED A PROPOSAL, WE WILL BE IN TOUCH IN NOVEMBER 2023. THANK YOU!***

On 28 March 2024 we will return to Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh for the Scottish AI Summit and we are delighted to launch our call for proposals for Scottish AI Summit 2024! 

We want to make sure that the Summit includes sessions that YOU want to see and take part in. 

To ensure that Scotland is a leader in trustworthy, ethical and inclusive AI, we want the Summit to be a space for the important conversations about AI to take place. We want the Summit to be an event where diverse voices can participate and be represented in those important conversations.

We want to collaborate with the Scottish AI sector to ensure that we showcase all the fantastic AI activity happening in Scotland and provide an opportunity for everyone to get involved in discussions around the key topics. 

We particularly welcome proposals that are bit different from the normal conference panel or workshop. And we would very much welcome proposals from groups and organisations that would normally not submit an idea to a traditional “tech” conference. AI impacts everybody and we want to involve people and organisations from all sectors. 

Provocations 

For 2024, we would like to invite proposals in response to five provocations.  

The Scottish AI Alliance have developed these provocations through the lens of trustworthiness, ethics and inclusivity, the key tenets of Scotland’s AI Strategy.  

  • Who should regulate AI? 

  • What steps can we take to prevent AI discrimination? 

  • Where are the diverse voices in AI? 

  • When will we trust AI? 

  • Why should we care about the ethics of AI? 

If you have an idea for a session that addresses one or more of these provocations, we would love to hear from you!  

Review Criteria

All proposals will be reviewed by members of the Scottish AI Alliance executive team.

We are happy to receive proposals that are either an idea that needs our help to develop or something that is more ready with participants in mind.

Submissions will be assessed based on the following criteria.

  1. Proposals should address at least one of the provocations listed above. Applicants must indicate which provocation their proposal is addressing.

  2. Trustworthy, Ethical, and Inclusive AI are the foundations of the work of the Scottish AI Alliance and we want the sessions at the conference to reflect these values.

  3. We are looking for innovative sessions, preferably with an interactive element that will work both in person and online. We are NOT looking for single speaker sessions or panel sessions where the panellists do all the talking with no input from the audience. The quirkier the better!

  4. We will be prioritising contributions from the Scottish AI community, however we are open to international organisations and partners that share our values.

  5. We want to ensure that our programme is as diverse and inclusive as possible and will favour proposals involving a diverse range of participants/speakers

Session Format

Sessions must be delivered fully in person. This is to ensure that participants and the audience on the day get the best possible experience. We are however planning to live stream the programme.

We are particular open to ideas for programme elements that fall outwith traditional sessions (e.g. exhibitions, interactive exhibits etc).

Submission Deadline

The deadline for proposals is 12.00 BST, Monday 9 October 2023, but we will be reviewing proposals as they come in and may be in touch sooner if we have any questions or if we would like to take your proposal further. Please check out the FAQs below for more information.

What happens if my proposal is selected?

Depending on whether your proposal is ready to go or whether you need help in developing it, members of our Scottish AI Alliance team will help you develop it to its final form with confirmed participants, format, and a full session brief. We aim to have a full programme lock by end January 2024.

***THE CALL FOR CONTENT FOR THE SCOTTISH AI SUMMIT 2024 IS NOW CLOSED. IF YOU SUBMITTED A PROPOSAL, WE WILL BE IN TOUCH IN NOVEMBER 2023. THANK YOU!***

 
 

FAQs

  • No, not at all. Although we’d like to showcase the Scottish AI ecosystem across our programme, we’re really happy to hear from people and organisations outside Scotland that share our values and vision for trustworthy, ethical and inclusive AI.

  • Once again like the question above, no. We’re really keen to get a broad spectrum of representation from members of the AI ecosystem across Scotland whether you’re Scottish or not. Or if you’re outside of Scotland, we’d love to hear from you if you or your organisation share our values and vision for trustworthy, ethical and inclusive AI.

  • Absolutely not! We do not want cost to be a barrier to anyone submitting an idea.

  • The Scottish AI Summit 2024 will be an in person first format. Although sessions will be livestreamed, it will be designed as an in person event If a hybrid set up is unavoidable, we can deal with it on a case by case basis.

  • No problem! Please select all the provocations that you feel it’s appropriate for. When reviewing all the submissions, we will work with our content track chairs to find the most suitable home for it if selected.

  • We do have a small budget allocated to each successful proposal. The Scottish AI Alliance team member assigned to each successful proposal will discuss this with you.

  • Yes absolutely! The more the better! We have exciting plans for the venue and we would love to hear of your demos!

  • Our audience so far has been a balanced mix of academia, public sector (government, local government, NHS, education) and industry and with some third sector representation too.

    We want to make the Summit as inclusive as possible to reach as diverse an audience as possible

  • Yes, absolutely! Our Scottish AI Alliance team are always happy to help.

    Please email us on hello@scottishai.com and we’ll get back to you!

  • No problem! Please fire an email to hello@scottishai.com and we’ll get back to you ASAP. If your question is relevant to a wider audience, we’ll add it here along with an answer.

Newsletter

Sign up to the Scottish AI Alliance mailing list! NB you will be directed to a sign up page on Brevo.