NMC2025 is a landmark event celebrating the rich diversity of dispute resolution practice and innovation in the field with the exchange of skills and ideas and the exploration of new frontiers. In particular, NMC2025 is being designed to celebrate the valuable work and skills of community mediators: the quiet benchmark underpinning all other mediation sectors.

We invite creative presentations that elevate the quality of discussions and inspire bold, fresh thinking; that sharpen our understanding of what we craft and how we connect.

Within the conference theme, we encourage submissions that draw connections between all dispute resolution (DR) sectors, fostering dialogue that bridges local and community experiences and more global perspectives.

Let NMC2025 be the platform to showcase your experience and skills, to push everyone’s boundaries, and spark fresh thinking that shape the future of dispute resolution practice.

At NMC2025 we are providing an opportunity for sharing skills, knowledge, ideas and innovations among practitioners at all levels, as well as scholars, thought leaders, and influential decisionmakers. The program is designed to showcase the full range of DR processes, including mediation, conciliation, restorative justice and other conflict resolution approaches through a variety of presentations, discussions and workshops. The conference is designed to maximise interactions between delegates, presenters, and our conference partners.

Concurrent conference streams will incorporate dynamic individual and panel presentations, as well as alternative formats such as collaborative conversations, interactive specialist roundtable discussions and mini-workshops. The focus will be on learning, contributing, networking and creating opportunities for crafting new ideas and connecting with researchers and practitioners from multi-disciplinary fields - encouraging new and forward looking contributions that enrich perspectives on what we do as dispute resolvers.

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Key dates

Friday 7 February 2025

Submissions close

Thursday 17 April 2025

Notification of proposals status

Conference streams

Below, you will find detailed information about each stream, including their associated key words. Please note that streams 3 – 13 are listed in alphabetical order and are not intended to represent any form of priority or preference.

Note: you should also identify at least three key words from the selected stream that help categorise your submission

Conference streams

Keywords

1. Community mediation, and other community-focused processes

Community Justice Centres and Community Mediation Centres

Neighbourhood disputes

Conflict coaching

Alternative approaches

Environmental DR

Multi-party, consultative, and whole-of-community processes

Innovative approaches

Evidence-based approaches

2. First Nations peoples’ approaches

First Nations approaches to managing conflict and decision-making processes

Peacebuilding and peacemaking

Governance

Effective policy and services

Specific processes such as circle sentencing and yarning circle

3. Business and commercial dispute resolution

Adapting DR to evolving business landscapes, leveraging technology, and fostering sustainable relationships through effective DR

Cost-effective strategies, complaints handling, cross-border challenges, and future-proofing DR practices for globalised markets

DR clauses in contracts

International commercial dispute resolution

Evidence in business and commercial disputes

4. Climate, environment and global conflict

Disputes over resource scarcity, environmental justice, and climate displacement

Sustainable development, empowering communities, and facilitating international climate agreements

Migrants, and asylum-seekers

Obligations, law, policy and courts

5. Conciliation, including public and private advisory processes, and statutory programs

Conciliation, evaluative mediation, advisory dispute resolution, hybrid dispute resolution

Statutory program and processes

Conciliation training, standards, and accreditation

Evidence-based approaches

6. Court-connected DR, mediation and restorative services including services associated with courts and tribunals

Mandatory DR

Judicial DR

Artificial intelligence

Theoretical frameworks

Evidence-based approaches

Current developments

7. Dispute System Design, online mediation, and other online DR, processes; technological innovations

Current developments

Sociocultural influences

New and innovative technological approaches and applications

Artificial intelligence

Evidence-based approaches

Theoretical frameworks

8. Ethics, theory and history

Ethical practice

Confidentiality

Impartiality

Historical trends

Access to justice

Quality control and regulation

9. Family mediation, including FDR, FGC, restorative approaches and other associated DR

Child inclusive and child focused processes

Innovations in addressing family and domestic violence

Parenting plans, including shared parenting

Parental responsibility

Property and financial matters

Mandatory FDR

Confidentiality

Lawyer assisted FDR

Family group conferencing

10. Peace-building, transitional justice, reconciliation, and civil society

Sociocultural influences, including: intra-cultural, cross-cultural and multi-cultural approaches

Discourse analysis

Evidence-based approaches

Innovative approaches

Climate change

11. Research, training, and education: building a rigorous evidence base for mediation, restorative and DR

Research design, empirical methodologies, program evaluations

Standards and accreditation

Innovative research

Evidence-based approaches to training and education

12. Restorative justice, restorative practice and innovative approaches to conflict

Circles, conferencing, transformative mediation; humanistic mediation

Theoretical frameworks

Current developments

Innovative approaches

Evidence-based approaches

13. Workplace and employment

Industrial and employment DR

Fair Work Commissioner, and Fair Work Ombudsman

DR clauses in employment contracts

Workplace arbitration

Innovation

Restorative practices in workplaces

Conflict coaching

Presentation types

The Design Committee is accepting proposals for presentations in any of the following formats.

Type

Time allocated

Details

Presentations

30 minutes

The program will include opportunities for presenters to share their research and/or experience and explore a topic in detail.

Collaborative Conversations

60 minutes

The program will include opportunities for collaborative conversations involving researchers and practitioners. These will be semi-structured discussions, and the active involvement of conference delegates will be encouraged. The intent is to foster exchanges of academic and practitioner ideas, research and insights.

If you wish to submit a proposal for a collaborative conversation, you must include the subject matter for discussion, as well as some of the key questions to be asked.

Interactive specialist roundtable discussions

30 minutes

The program will include opportunities for specialist roundtable discussions that focus on specific areas of mediation practice (e.g. environmental disputes, workplace disputes, court-connected practice, etc).

Mini-workshops

60 minutes

The program will have limited spaces for “mini-workshops”; these will be time-limited to 1 hour per workshop.

If you wish to submit a proposal for a mini-workshop, you must include: the title of the workshop, its general subject matter, its target audience (e.g. newly trained mediators, or experienced mediators), how you expect people to participate, and what outcomes people will gain from their attendance.

Number of Presenters in Each Session

Although there is no specific target or limit for the number of presenters to be included in any specific proposal, the number should be appropriate to the nature of the proposal, to its stated subject matter, and to its proposed duration. As a guide, it is suggested that for 30-minute program no more than one or two presenters be listed, for a 60 minute-joint presentation there would be no more than three presenters.

Duration of Presentation Sessions

Proposals will be accepted for presentations that are: 30, 45 or 60 minutes in duration. It is assumed that presentations of 45 and 60 minutes will include multiple presenters, as noted above. Proposals for mini-workshops are to be for 60 minutes.

Review process

A sub-committee of the Design Committee will conduct initial reviews of submitted proposals. According to that sub-committee’s recommendations, proposals will progress for consideration by the Design Committee who will make final decisions about a proposal’s acceptance into the Conference Program.

Review criteria

The Design Committee will give priority to the following criteria: 

1. The introduction of new and innovative concepts not previously canvassed or fully explored in the sector
2. Where applicable, the rigour of any research that will be included in the presentation, or on which the proposal relies
3. The inclusion of credible demonstration of the importance of the subject matter to the mediation, restorative practice or DR field, and to the preferred Conference Stream
4. The inclusion of intercultural, cross-cultural and/or multicultural considerations
5. The potential appeal of the proposal to a broad spectrum of delegates; the proposal should include appropriate comments if it would appeal more to one cross-section of the sector (e.g. newly trained practitioners, or experienced practitioners)
6. The demonstrated capacity of the proposal to allocate appropriate time for coverage of the topic, and if for a panel, to include all presenters
7. The title of the proposal conveying to delegates what they can expect from the session.

Notification of decisions will be distributed by Thursday 17 April 2025. If your proposal is accepted, you must agree to register for the conference and pay the registration fee within 15 days.

Please note: following assessment of submitted proposal, the Design Committee may decide that it is more practicable to combine some streams. This will not detract from the importance of each original stream

How to submit your proposal

All presentation proposals must be submitted via the call for proposals portal. Follow the steps below to submit your proposal.

1. Click the SUBMIT PROPOSAL button to create an account in the call for proposals portal. Note, you will need to create a new account for the 2025 conference (your previous conference account is no longer active)
2. Follow the prompts in the portal to begin the submission
3. Enter the title of your paper (up to 12 words); the title may be edited for inclusion in the conference program 
4. Choose a conference stream
5. For the proposal to be considered, details of the submitting author/s and their affiliation is required, with the biography (max 150 words) of the presenting author/s only and a high resolution head-shot of the presenter/s 
6. Prepare an abstract of your proposal (up to 300 words), to be used on the website. Video URL (publicly accessible Vimeo or YouTube link) will also be accepted. You should identify at least three key words from the selected stream that help categorise your submission
7. If your proposal includes more than one presenter, please outline how time will be allocated between them. This outline will be used for review and will not be published. The outline is crucial to the assessment of your proposal, and its allocation to an appropriate part of the conference program
8. Follow further instructions in the portal to complete your proposal submission
9.  You will receive a confirmation email once your proposal is submitted for review
10. Proposal/s may be saved as a draft, to be finished at a later date, but must be submitted in order to be considered in the review
11. You may submit more than one proposal under the same account.

Proposal submissions close Friday 7 February 2025.

Submission guidelines

• Online submission is the only method of abstract submission 
• Submissions can be saved as a 'Draft' in the abstract portal but must be finalised to be considered. Abstracts still in 'Draft' will not be considered for the program
• Abstracts submitted for presentation will be published exactly as received. Abstracts may be revised for clarity, spelling, or grammar
• You may submit more than one abstract all under the same account 
• All presentations should be primarily in English. If English is not the first language of speakers/projects please provide details on how you will provide access for delegates (i.e., translator, subtitles…). If you need assistance with this, please email nmc@conlog.com.au  
• All speakers must attend and present at the conference in person 
• It is the responsibility of the presenter/author to ensure that the abstract is submitted correctly. For assistance with submissions, contact nmc@conlog.com.au
• It is the responsibility of the presenter/author to ensure their abstract explains how it relates to the themes 
• Where there is more than one presenter all correspondence will be sent to the person who submitted the abstract 
• NMC reserves the right to allocate the presentation to best suit the program 
• The invitation to submit an abstract does not constitute an offer to pay travel, accommodation or registration costs associated with the conference. Similarly, no presenter fee is paid to successful presenters 
• As the primary author/submitter on this paper, you are responsible for obtaining evidence of copyright clearance/authority on any items subject to copyright which are included in the presentation 
• By submitting a proposal, you agree to have it published on the conference website and app, should it be accepted for presentation
• If your abstract is accepted, all speakers agree to register and pay the conference fee within 15 days.