We welcome proposals in a wide range of formats - talks, workshops, keynotes, artistic process-sharing, dialogue sessions, and experimental or unconventional formats. 

Session ideas can respond to one of three strands:

1. The Plenary Meeting theme: care

The meeting will explore care across four interconnected strands:

• Caring for Democracy — participation, equality and the civic role of the arts
• Caring for Place — communities, environment and shared spaces
• Caring in Times of Conflict — borders, displacement, coexistence and solidarity
• Caring Beyond Centres — power, reciprocity and whose knowledge counts

These strands hold urgent questions, such as: 

Who do we care for? Who do we leave out? How do we turn care into action? And what would change if care became not an aspiration, but a practice?

2. THRIVE priorities

Sessions connected to priority areas within THRIVE, IETM's EU-funded network programme:

• A session as part of the IETM training programme, which in 2027 will focus on the Fair Arts School.
• A session addressing arts and digital technology.
• A session involving the 2027 cohort of the IETM Global Connect Programme. At previous Plenary meetings, this has taken the form of the Global Connectors Breakfast. 

3. Networking and open proposals

Sessions designed to foster connection and exchange among members, in whatever form feels right - inspiring networking activities, informal conversations in an open space, or more structured formats. 

All proposals must respond to one of these three strands. Proposals that do not will be excluded, and we'll let you know if that's the case.

A total of 6-8 sessions will be selected through this call. The remaining sessions will be curated by the IETM team - with a focus on essential and recurring sessions that have become a regular part of the Plenary - alongside sessions curated by Larnaka 2030, focusing on the local context. 

All three strands need to be covered at the Plenary. If a strand receives no proposals, or none are selected, we'll programme a session for it ourselves. 

The Plenary Meeting in 2027 will take place across four full days, from the morning of Tuesday 25 May to mid-afternoon on Friday 28 May.

During September and October 2026, IETM members are invited to submit proposals for Plenary sessions using the online form. The IETM team will hold an online Q&A on Wednesday 30 September to answer questions about the call; you can register in advance for this meeting here.

Each member organisation or freelance member may submit one proposal only. This limit is per organisation, not per person; if several people from your organisation would like to submit a proposal, you will need to agree on one to submit.  

We welcome proposals in written, audio or video formats. 
The deadline for submissions is Wednesday 21 October at 23.00 CEST (calculate your timezone).

Sessions will be selected by IETM members. In mid-November, main contacts of member organisations will receive an email with a document outlining all the proposals, along with an online form to make their selection. 

Members will also be invited to attend an online Session Spotlight gathering on Tuesday 17 November, where proposers will briefly introduce their ideas so members can hear directly from them before making their selection. Proposers will each have 2-3 minutes to speak, and the session will last as long as it needs to in order to give everybody a chance to present. A recording of the session will be available to members afterwards. 

In advance of the Session Spotlight, an optional online guidance session for proposers will take place on Tuesday 3 November. It will offer practical advice on how proposers can make the most of the Session Spotlight and present their proposals in the most compelling way. 

Each member organisation may submit only one response to the session selection process - within that response, you will be able to select multiple sessions, up to a fixed limit. This limit is per organisation, not per person; if your organisation has multiple staff members, you will need to agree on one person to make the submission.

The deadline for members’ decisions is Friday 27 November at 23.00 CET.

All members who proposed a session will be informed of the outcome by mid December.

Selected sessions will go into further development with the support of the IETM and Larnaka 2030 teams. While the core concept of the session will be respected, it will be refined to meet key practical and strategic requirements, including:

• Budget
• Scheduling and length
• Room availability and session capacity
• Technical and staffing resources
• IETM’s Environmental Policy
• IETM’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equality and Access Strategy

For example, you may be asked to adjust the number of facilitators, the number of nights of accommodation required, how far facilitators are travelling, how many participants the session can hold, or its technical requirements. If your proposal is selected, you will need to be willing to make these kinds of changes if asked, and we encourage you to keep these requirements in mind when making your proposal - further details are provided below in the section Useful information.

Selected proposers must also meet all deadlines communicated by IETM, so that meeting planning can proceed smoothly, including:

• End of January 2027: Agreement signed
• Early February 2027: Session copy agreed
• Late March 2027: Technical and access information agreed.

You can check your local time against the deadlines using this time zone converter. 

Session proposals must be made via this online form. You will need to be logged in to your IETM account in order to make your submission.

Members may submit proposals in written, audio or video format through the form, answering the questions below. Please provide captions on your videos, for use by your fellow members when selecting their preferred proposals. Full video and audio guidelines (e.g. file format, file size) can be found in the online form.

1. Which programming strand are you responding to? (multiple choice):
   - Plenary Meeting theme: care
   - THRIVE (IETM’s EU-funded network grant)
   - Networking and open proposals
    
2. Please answer the following questions:
   - How long is the session?
   - What is the capacity of the session (the number of people who can participate)?
   - What technical equipment, furniture and/or materials/stationery do you require?
    
3. Session title (this can be adjusted at a later date if your session is selected)
    
4. Describe the session you propose (maximum 350 words written; 2 minute sound/video recording)
   Think about what will help members understand what will take place in the session and why they should select it, e.g.
   - What the session focuses on in terms of a theme/topic. 
   - What they will learn or can take away into their own practice.
   - What activities participants will take part in, e.g. will the session involve discussion, practical exercises, movement-based activities or collaborative work?
    
5. Describe the speakers and facilitators who will deliver the session (maximum 350 words written; 2 minute sound/video recording):
   - Include their name and a very short biography that describes why they are suitable.
   - NB. Please make sure the speakers and facilitators you have proposed have agreed to take part before you make your submission.
    
6. Please provide the total budget for the session, in Euros (€)
   - Your total should account for: speaker/facilitator fees, travel and accommodation for each speaker/facilitator, technical equipment and materials, and any other necessary costs.
   - NB. An additional budget will be available to support speaker and facilitator access costs - you do not need to include this in your budget.
    
7. If you require any access support to participate in the Session Spotlight, please tell us here

All of the above information, apart from access requirements, will be shared with members to help them make their decision. Access requirements will only be shared with the IETM team members responsible for organising support.

If you need support to make a submission or take part in any stage of the process, please contact us at [email protected].

Budget

The total overall budget for the sessions selected by this call is 18 000 EUR.

As a guide, in the past few years the total costs per session have ranged from 450 to 5400 EUR, including speaker/facilitator fees, travel and accommodation, and technical equipment and materials.

Speakers/facilitators have typically been offered up to 3 nights of accommodation.

Guidance on local costs:

• Hotels: 80 - 100 € per night
• Per diems: 40 € per day for 2 meals

Length of sessions/scheduling 

Participants have told us they value a longer lunch break and plenty of informal networking time, so the day usually runs for a maximum of 8 hours in total - from the first session in the morning to the last in the evening, including breaks. Of this, around 6 - 6.5 hours are dedicated to sessions themselves. 

Room availability 

We will provide a room for each session. The available rooms are empty and flexible (not fixed like an auditorium), and can fit 80–100 people.

Technical resources

Each room provides:

• Microphones
• A projector

Session capacity

IETM Plenary Meetings typically welcome 300 - 600 participants. Most sessions don't require advance booking - participants simply decide on the day whether to join. With this in mind, it's worth designing your session to work well for a range of group sizes, from around 20 participants up to 40 or more. 

IETM’s Environmental Policy

This policy was agreed by the members and guides our decision making.

IETM’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equality and Access Strategy 

This policy was agreed by the members and guides our decision making.