2024 Call for Abstracts

Important dates:

  • Submissions due: Thursday, June 1, 9:00 PM ET / 6:00 PM PT (no extensions) 
  • Submission review period: June – August 
  • Acceptance notifications: Mid-September 
  • Annual Conference: February 5-8, 2024 

The Association of Energy Services Professionals (AESP) is accepting abstracts for its 34th Annual Conference & Expo, taking place February 5-8, 2024 in San Antonio, TX at the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter on the River Walk. We can’t wait to see you all again! In addition to the opportunity to present alongside other subject matter experts in our industry, speakers are invited to participate in all conference activities. This includes educational sessions focusing on the latest thinking and innovations in energy efficiency, demand response, and distributed energy resources, as well as fun and highly-coveted networking events. 

February 5: Pre-conference Training Courses, Utilities Connect, Emerging Professionals Event, and Welcome Reception
February 6: Opening General Session, Breakout Sessions, and Evening Reception
February 7: General Session, Breakout Sessions, and Special Evening Event
February 8: Breakout Sessions and Closing General Session Lunch 

AESP’s Annual Conference is the preeminent event for AESP members, attracting close to 1,000 energy professionals from across North America. As a speaker, you will have the opportunity to:

 

  • Increase your organization’s image and visibility
  • Position yourself as a leading expert
  • Grow your professional network, connect with peers, and make new contacts
  • Contribute your expertise to this rapidly changing industry
  • Gain knowledge from others in your session and at the full event
  • Enjoy the sights, sounds, and tastes of San Antonio
  • Receive a highly discounted registration rate for the full conference

Submittal Requirements:   

  • Presentation title  
  • Preferred session format  (presentation, discussion, or learning lab) 
  • Topic category  
  • Presentation descriptions (shortened version for the conference agenda, and then an expanded version for the abstract judges to review)  
  • Three (3) learning objectives  
  • Speaker information, including a bio and optional resume   

Our goal is to meet the needs of differently-abled people throughout the abstract submission and agenda creation processes and to make the final on-site content fully accessible. Please contact Jenny Senff at [email protected] for assistance in making the process and content accessible. 

Submittal Guidelines: 

  • Complete your submission by the deadline – abstracts received after June 1 will not be considered. Submit early to avoid heavy traffic at the deadline! 
  • Explain why your abstract topic is relevant, innovative, and important to the AESP audience 
  • The presentation and/or content has not been offered at a previous AESP conference or large industry event 
  • The presentation and/or content should showcase the latest innovations, best practices, and trends impacting the industry. New or unrefined concepts or lessons learned from other industries may be considered 
  • The suggested speakers/panelists should be considered experts on the proposed topic and experienced public speakers 
  • An abstract that appears to be selling a product or service will not be accepted 
  • While AESP does not limit the number of abstracts submitted by a company, the program planning committee does limit each company to three (3) accepted presenters throughout the conference agenda, to ensure a wide representation of organizations and perspectives 
  • Please note that preference may be given when utilities are part of the presentation

Similar to the communities served by utilities and the energy industry across North America, AESP is made up of clean energy professionals that represent different races, ethnicities, genders, gender identities, geographic backgrounds, sexual orientations, educational backgrounds, vocations, ages, abilities, career stages, socioeconomic backgrounds… and more. As you submit your abstract, we encourage you to be inclusive in your selection of presenters to reflect the diversity that contributed to the information you intend to share. AESP believes that human diversity should be celebrated, respected, and represented in every way.   

The following session formats may be featured at AESP’s Annual Conference:  

Presentation Sessions: Speakers may submit as individual presenters and will be combined into a moderated session. An accepted presentation speaker will be part of a session that includes 3 to 4 total presentations (10-15 minutes each), based on similar topics. All presentations should provide clear takeaways and learning objectives that are summarized in the submission. Typically, presentations are conducted by one subject matter expert, but up to two speakers may be submitted. Please note that the two speakers MUST be from different organizations, and there is a preference for at least one utility representative. Speakers typically show slides, videos, or similar visual content to support their presentation. 

Discussion Sessions: Discussion sessions will foster and stimulate discussion and debate between the panelists and the audience, with a moderator keeping the panel on topic and providing questions to facilitate discussion. Discussion sessions typically include a moderator and 3 to 4 panelists and may choose to use slides as references, but should mainly be discussion-based. Speakers interested in being a part of a discussion session may submit themselves and their topic of interest to be combined with other speakers or may submit a full panel of recommended speakers and moderators. If multiple panelists and moderators are submitted, they MUST be from different organizations. 

Learning Labs: Similar to a workshop, this format is meant to be highly engaging and emphasizes participant interaction. Learning labs are facilitated experiences that immerse attendees in interactive discussions and exercises. These are generally smaller to ensure that every person in the room can engage with the facilitator(s) and get the most out of the experience.   

The 2024 Annual Conference will provide content across the five topical areas below. We look forward to your abstract submissions showcasing your projects, research, methodologies, policy analysis, data applications, program results, industry trends, and new hot topics! Areas of interest may include, but are not limited to:  

 

Business Issues & Regulatory Models 

  • Role of efficiency and demand response in decarbonization goals  
  • Local and regional leadership models 
  • Clean energy and infrastructure policy impacts 
  • Making meaningful strides with supplier diversity 
  • Corporate and investor initiatives driving the clean energy transition 
  • Beneficial electrification 
  • Pay for performance models 
  • Demand flexibility and DER aggregation market models 
  • Innovations in earnings and cost recovery 
  • Gas and alternative fuel business issues and policies 
  • Grid modernization and investment 
  • Growing and diversifying the clean energy workforce 
  • Equity in pricing and demand response 
  • Flexible energy consumption rates 
  • Designing rates and incentives for multi-family tenants and owners 
  • Cost of service studies 

Marketing & Customer Experience 

  • AI: Ethical challenges in using artificial intelligence to engage your customer 
  • Threats of a recession: Why reducing your marketing and engagement budget is a bad idea 
  • Successful grassroots efforts and creative partnerships 
  • Next level technology: Recruiting and supporting trade allies in your network 
  • Bridging marketing KPIs to program performance metrics 
  • Account Based Marketing – Nurturing relationships for effective marketing 
  • Tribal energy initiatives 

  • Reaching rural communities with efficiency, demand flexibility, EV, and electrification offerings 
  • The new digital landscape 
  • Small business: Evolving strategies for supporting the majority of North American businesses – from energy efficiency to gas to beneficial electrification 
  • Promoting the adoption of decarbonization 
  • Emerging marketing tactics and trends

Program Lifecycle 

  • Electrification of C&I buildings  
  • Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act  
  • Pay for performance program design  
  • Designing programs for diversity, equity, and inclusion 
  • Work from home’s effects on C&I programs  
  • Gas demand response opportunities 
  • Setting energy equity and environmental justice goals 
  • Evaluating demand flexible load applications and programs 
  • EVs and traditional energy assessments 
  • Controlled environment agriculture (CEA)  
  • Designing advanced demand management programs 
  • Evolving EM&V methodologies   
  • Heat pumps in all climates  
  • Coordination between gas and electric programs 
  • Innovations in program delivery models 

 

Emerging Tools, Technologies, & Methods 

  • Paring energy storage with efficiency and demand response 
  • Innovations in sensors and controls for building energy management 
  • Energy equity in emerging technologies 
  • Commercial building performance 
  • Innovations in gas-efficient technologies 
  • Advances in data analytics 
  • Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) 
  • Decarbonization strategy and technology research 
  • Leveling up building performance with resilience and weatherization offerings 
  • Controlled environment ag technologies 
  • Innovations in billing, pricing, and enabling technology 
  • New heat pump technologies / HVAC and strategies 
  • Software and data driven advancements 
  • Emerging methods of tracking and measuring performance

Advancing System & Climate Resilience Initiatives 

  • Next gen generation: Advancements, pilots, and R&D on new methods and sources of electricity generation 
  • Fleet electrification 

  • Gas’s role in decarbonization and electrification  

  • Restoration and reutility-ization following natural disasters: Rebuilding infrastructure, reengaging with retired assets, and employing displaced workers 
  • Environmental justice for all: Rectifying historical environmental inequalities and incorporating environmental justice framework into program design and delivery 
  • Designing, tracking, measurement, and reporting of climate impacts 

  • Decarbonization initiatives for underserved communities 
  • Leveling up building performance with resilience and weatherization offerings 
  • Electrification collaboration: Working together to advance electrification of end-uses and vehicles 
  • Resilience efforts around natural disasters 

  • Regional economic hubs that reduce reliance on physical and intellectual imports 
  • Large-scale and community-wide renewables 

  • Smart home 2.0: How the latest generation of smart home tech can be leveraged and combined to improve flexibility, safety, comfort, and the customer experience 

  • Understanding energy equity and environmental justice 
  • Decarbonization strategy and technology research 

 You may also submit a Professional Development session for consideration outside of the five primary topics. 

First Step: Judging by Topic Committee Representatives 

A distinguished panel of AESP Topic Committee judges, who are energy professionals with subject matter expertise, will review and score abstracts submitted in their area. Judging is completed in a fair and objective process. Judges are bound by confidentiality and are required to declare any conflict of interest in entries over which they deliberate, in which case they will recuse themselves. 

Abstracts are scored on a 1 (low) – 5 (high) scale on the following criteria: 

  • Innovation, to ensure that the topic is unique and new to the AESP community. 
  • Relevance and Impact to conference attendees and AESP membership.  
  • Speaker’s Qualifications, to ensure the presentation is high quality.
  • Overall Impression, including the strength of abstract writing, clear direction, and cohesion. 

The judges will also apply their own experience to assess the quality of the abstract. After initial judging, each Topic Committee team participates in a virtual meeting to review scores and abstracts. All graded abstracts are then sent on for review by the Program Planning Committee. 

Second Step: Final Selection by Planning Committee 

Between 25-30 experts in the industry are invited to participate in the Program Planning Committee. These individuals are selected based on their subject matter knowledge. AESP also ensures a strong mix of utility representation, board representation, geographic representation, and diversity of Planning Committee members.  

The Planning Committee members first review all abstracts, along with their scores and comments that have been passed on by the Topic Committee judging teams. From there, a highly collaborative planning session takes place, where Planning Committee members select the final abstracts to be included as part of the agenda. If a topic area is missing, AESP may curate some content to balance out the remaining agenda. 

The AESP Program Planning Committee reserves the right to:

  • Build unique sessions based on ideas presented in the abstracts. For example, an abstract submitted as an individual presentation for a presentation session may be modified and incorporated into a multiple-speaker panel on the same subject. Abstract authors and proposed speakers will be allowed to accept or reject the reconfiguration of their abstract. 
  • Accept no more than three (3) presenters from the same organization. The Committee’s goal is to provide diverse opinions, speakers, and organizations on the program agenda. 
  • Reserve session slots for hot topics, late-breaking industry news, and/or invited speakers. 
  • Curate sessions to fill content gaps not addressed by abstract submissions.  

    Panelist, Speaker, and Moderator Requirements:

    • All speakers must have superior public speaking, presentation, and / or training skills.  
    • All speakers will be required to use an AESP template if using PowerPoint slides. 
    • All speakers identified in abstract submissions must confirm their availability to travel and present, prior to submittal. 
    • All speakers must register for the conference unless attending only their session. AESP sincerely appreciates our speakers’ efforts in developing and delivering exceptional presentations, but unfortunately AESP is not able to pay speaker fees or travel / lodging expenses. AESP does, however, offer speakers a significant conference registration discount. 

    Please get in touch with Melanie Cohen at [email protected] with any questions regarding the abstract submission process.