We're looking for abstracts from across the optimisation community — industry practitioners, researchers, and students at every stage. If you've solved a real problem, run into an interesting wall, or built something that's actually in use, we'd like to hear about it.

Formats

• Presentation — 15 minutes, plus 5 for questions.
• Poster — presented during the poster session.
• Presentation preferred — you'd rather give a talk, but you'll take a poster slot if the program fills up. Choosing this doesn't make a talk any less likely; it just means we can offer you a poster, instead of turning you down.

Writing your abstract

500 words or fewer. We'll also ask for a title, your institution or company, and which theme(s) your work fits.

One thing worth knowing before you start: our audience is deliberately mixed — industry people, academics and students in the same room. Please keep talks largely non-technical, with no more than a slide or two of heavy detail. The work that lands best at OPTIMA-CON is the work explained in terms of the problem it solves.

Themes

We're not running to a single theme. Tag your submission with whichever apply:

• Arts;
• Infrastructure, Logistics and Transport; Defence and Cybersecurity;
• Energy, Water and Resource Management;
• Advanced Manufacturing;
• Climate and Environment;
• Health and Wellbeing;
• Social Good; Education, Finance and the Service Economy;
• Food Security and Agriculture;
• Optimisation Technologies;
• Other

If none of them fit, say so — we'd still like to see it.

Questions about submitting go to info@optima.org.au. Registration, venue and travel details are on the conference website.

Submissions close on 2026-10-08 23:59 (Australia/Melbourne), 1 month, 2 weeks from now.