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Digital Geographies Research Group

The RGS-IBG Digital Geographies Research Group (DGRG) would like to invite session proposals for (co-)sponsorship for the 2025 RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, which will take place at the University of Birmingham, and online, from the afternoon of Tuesday 26 to Friday 29 August 2025.

The Chair's theme for the 2025 Annual Conference, chaired by Professor Patricia Noxolo (University of Birmingham, UK), is on Geographies of Creativity/Creative Geographies. See our guidance on organising sessions.

We are particularly interested in sessions linked to the conference theme, but sessions relating to wider aspects of ‘the digital’ will be considered. We’re keen to sponsor sessions that examine a range of theoretical and empirical interests, with particular emphasis on supporting the work of early career scholars.

We encourage you from the outset to think about not just the theme and speakers, but also the kinds of activities and discussions you want to hold and opportunities to use pre (and post)-uploaded content.

We encourage and support creative or innovative session formats which may include workshops, digital shorts/lightning talks, or other non-traditional presentations. Formats including presented papers, panels, practitioners forums, discussions, and roundtables are also welcome. We support joint proposals with other Research Groups too.

Please be aware of limits on contributions, available on the call for sessions page.

If you would like to have your session sponsored by DGRG, please submit your proposal to the Events Coordinator, Adam Michael Packer, by Monday 10 February via email: a.m.packer@bham.ac.uk

We will confirm sponsorship promptly and before the final RGS deadline for session submissions (Friday 7 March 2025). Please get in touch with Adam directly if you would like to discuss sponsorship or would like to discuss the benefits of doing so.

Please include in your session proposal the following details:

  1. Session title.
  2. Names, affiliations, and email addresses of the session convenors.
  3. Session delivery (either in-person or virtual).
  4. Session abstract (maximum 300 words, excluding references), including up to five keywords.
  5. Indication (if known) of preferred session format (in-person, hybrid, or online) and session type (paper, panel, workshop, etc.). Sessions will be limited to TWO timeslots in the programme. A timeslot is 1 hour and 40 minutes. Please indicate the number of session timeslots being sought.
  6. Whether you are applying for (co-)sponsorship with any other research group.

Key dates and timelines 2025 conference

Once a sponsorship decision has been made, you will have until Friday 7 March 2025 to provide the full session details (with all proposed papers and presenters) for final submission via the conference portal, ExOrdo.