Goals of Conference
- To enhance leadership skills.
- To promote friendships and networks among international and study abroad students
- To acknowledge and reward student leaders who work at promoting international understanding on campus
- To challenge students to see themselves as global leaders.
- To recognize the different styles of leadership across cultures
Conference Registration
Register for FILC
Registration will open February 2025
Conference Proposals
Students, faculty, staff, and community members involved in leadership and international education are invited to apply. Presentations should be prepared for a 45 minute presentation time. We encourage you include an interactive component to your session! Creativity is more than welcome.
Proposals will open January 2025
Deadline:
March 8, 2024 @11:59pm
NOTE: If your proposal is accepted, you will need to register for the conference.
There is a registration form for advisors, faculty, staff, community members, and presenters. If you are a student selected as a peer leader, or as one of the student participants from your school, you do not need to submit a separate application/registration form.
FILC Peer Leaders
Each year past year student participants are invited to return to FILC in the capacity of Peer Leaders. The peer leaders are a vital asset to the success of the program. Please encourage your students who have participated in FILC to apply.
Registration fees for peer leaders will be waived.
Applications will open January 2025.
If you have any questions, contact florida.filc@gmail.com
Video Contest
The purpose of the FILC Video Contest Guideline is to foster relationships among attendees pre/post-conference attendance by highlighting their educational objectives, experiences, and leadership development for the conference.
This is meant to be a fun and global educational experience for participants to remember their FILC attendance, show their school spirit, and promote friendship and networking among attendees. This is not a required activity but it is highly encouraged.
See the FILC 2022 Contest Winner here.
Elevator Pitch Contest
The Elevator Pitch Competition is a solo competition where students will have the opportunity to present themselves in an elevator-pitch format to a panel of judges. The panel will choose the best pitches and prizes will be awarded to the top three student presenters.
What is an Elevator Pitch?
An elevator pitch is a 1 minute (60 seconds) mini-speech that succinctly tells people who you are, what you do, and, more importantly, what you can do for others. An elevator pitch is usually given at a job interview, graduate school interview, or networking event. It reflects your unique skills, abilities, and achievements. It contains brief examples or stories describing your successes, those achievements that set you apart. Your speech can help in getting across the major points that you want to highlight about yourself and contains answers to these key questions and it focuses on what you have to offer the organization…not on what they can do for you.
Why Is Having an Elevator Pitch So Important?
You only have 30-60 seconds to make a powerful first impression. The attention span of the average person is just 30 seconds before their mind starts wandering. The other reason is people have less time today. You need to grab them quickly or lose them forever.
Advisor Information
Do some team-building prior to the conference.
There are several benefits to meeting as a group before you depart for the conference. This is an ideal time to help your students get registered, review logistics for the weekend, and get to know each other a little better before you go.
Keep Students Engaged!
- Meet 1-2 times per month
- Create school spirited team building activities (30 min)
- Host social media engagement and tag FILC07 (ex: Instagram Reels, throwbacks, host a Discord server)
- Create a Passion Project or brainstorm on Video Contest/Elevator Pitch content ideas.
- Passion Project: Project your students are working on in their community and may want to share it at the conference as a session. (Submit a session proposal under the “Proposals” tab)
- FILC Contests: Discuss participation and strategies
Advisor Checklist
Institution Needs / Approvals
- Funding Request
- Institutional Covid-19 Guidelines for domestic travel
- Transportation Request
- Authorization for Travel for students and staff (e.a. Risk of assumptions, etc.)
Recruitment Ideas
- Hold an information session (or sessions!) before the application deadline:
Information sessions to review the conference goals, highlight FILC traditions, and build interest in this leadership experience can help you get the word out early. - Design an application that reflects your institution:
You can view a sample application here. However, we encourage institutions to go beyond the example provided. Choosing a team to represent your institution is one of the most important responsibilities of an advisor, so be creative and don’t be afraid to include additional pieces in your group’s application process and highly encourage Session Proposals. - Share your application with campus partners:
One of the best ways to recruit a strong group is to let your colleagues around campus know about FILC! Think of other departments or individuals working closely with your international students or study abroad students, and have them share the application through their own channels. - Do some team-building prior to the conference:
There are several benefits to meeting as a group at least once before you depart for the conference. This is an ideal time to help your students get registered, review logistics for the weekend, and get to know each other a little better before you go. - Use your colleagues at other institutions for inspiration:
Many of our participating institutions already include the above steps in their FILC program plans. Share resources, borrow recruitment strategies, and pass along your successful tips and tricks to the other FILC advisors.
FILC Registration
You can find the registration form here. Each participant needs to complete their own registration form.
- Student registration:
Advisors can have students register themselves and fill out the application on our website. If your institution is covering students’ registration fees, in payment details students should select “I am paying by credit card/PayPal for multiple registrants AND I have more registrants to enter (make payment on the final entry)”.
Advisors can also preemptively collect all the necessary information from the students (t-shirt size; food restrictions) and complete the registration forms on behalf of each person. In all entries but the last one, select “I am paying by credit card/PayPal for multiple registrants AND I have more registrants to enter (make payment on the final entry)”. - Advisor/Presenter Registration:
Participants from the same institution can fill out registration forms individually, or by one person on behalf of all participants. - Making a Payment:
- Individual Payment:
There is an option to pay for 1 individual at the end of each form. Select “I am paying by credit card/PayPal for this individual registrant” or “I am paying by check and I need an invoice for this registrant only” based on your preference. If you have multiple people attending from your institution, this means you’ll have to make multiple payments. - Bulk Payment.
If an Advisor completed the registration form for all students or students have done so themselves without payment. The advisor can make the full payment on the final entry. Select “I am paying by credit card/PayPal for multiple registrants AND this is my last entry (make payment now)” or “I am paying by check and I need an invoice for multiple registrants (Please list them out in the comment box below)”.
- Individual Payment:
Conference Timeline
Pre-Arrival
- Select students for participation (confirm numbers with FILC Registrar)
- Register students for the conference
- Organize logistics (rent a van/car, if necessary)
- Email students pre-conference materials
- Host meeting with students to discuss:
- Conference Goals;
- Expectations from students as attendees;
- Covid-19 guidelines
- Packing List
- Participant Agreement
- Ramadan Accommodations
- Logistics
- Collect from each student:
- Participant Agreement Signed
- Emergency contact information;
- Email FILC Registrar and/or Coordinator with any last-minute changes
- Review the conference schedule
Arrival
- Check-in is Friday from 12pm – 1:45pm. It is important that you arrive no later than 1:45pm to ensure the conference runs smoothly and on time.
- Check-out is Sunday from 10:45am – 11:45am. Please make sure you check-out no later than 11:45am.
- Advisors check-in students
- Advisors distribute conference materials/ t-shirts
- Students go to their assigned cabins
Post-Conference
- Have a post-conference meeting to reflect on learning objectives and video contest final idea and submission
- Engage campus: share videos of student experiences
Conference Sponsors
It is not possible to hold our annual conference without some extra help. We have some wonderful sponsors who support FILC and international education through financial contributions and valuable services.
