The organizers encourage those who operate, manage, support, and study tourism in rural areas to attend the conference. Community organizers and business owners are encouraged to share both their success and challenges building tourism in rural areas. The conference is intended to provide opportunities to share knowledge among important players in rural tourism and to build capacity toward sustainable rural tourism product development and implementation. Sharing this knowledge is intended to improve efforts toward economic diversification via tourism.

The conference includes a number of formats and is not exclusively designed for presentation, discussion and dissemination of academic research; hence research presentation proposals will not be peer reviewed. All proposals will be reviewed and ranked according to their relevance to the conference theme and approach described above.

The Conference Committee invites presentations that contribute to the conference theme within the following categories.

Rural tourism product/experience development and implementation;

Aboriginal communities and rural tourism development;

Capacity building for rural tourism product development;

The role of business/organization relationships and partnerships in rural tourism;

Sustainability and rural tourism operations and products/experiences; and/or

Success factors for rural tourism development/production.

The Conference Committee encourages proposals that clearly illustrate your topic and add diversity to the conference program. Suggestions for formats include each or a combination of the following:

Prepare and deliver a workshop;

Lead a group through an interactive exercise;

Present a case study; and/or

Present research relevant to the conference theme and categories.

All proposals must include:

Topic title;

Description of the presentation style (as suggested above);

Category within conference theme (as suggested above);

Presentation description/abstract (300-500 words in length);

Presentation duration preferred;

Name and contact information for the primary applicant;

Indication of audio-visual or other needs; and

Short biography of presenter(s).

Submit your proposal in digital format using Microsoft Word. Proposals will be accepted through email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it In the subject heading of your e-mail use ‘BC Rural Tourism Conference’

Proposals must be submitted by January 15, 2010

Applicants will be notified if their proposal has been accepted by February 1, 2010. RED TREE Project website: http://redtree.tru.ca Page 3

Conference organizers reserve the right to decline any proposal for any reason.

Preference will be given to submissions that are unique, engaging and most relevant to the conference theme and categories.

Successful proponents invited to participate in the conference may be required to submit a revised summary/abstract prior to the conference, no later than: March 1st, 2010.

Successful proponents invited to participate in the conference are responsible for their own conference fees, travel, accommodation and other related expenses.

The conference organizers reserve the right to record (through audio, video, transcription, or other means), publish, reproduce and distribute (in whole or in part) all submissions and subsequent conference sessions, presentations, materials and related content as part of any conference proceedings or similar legacy materials.

Registration opens January 14, 2010 See http://redtree.tru.ca/Conferences/register.htm

Email any questions to TRU SOT Rural Tourism Conference Committee at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it