Oral Presentation Submission
Submissions will open on 2 November 2026 and close on Friday, 29 January 2027 (midnight, UK time)
Please make sure that you have read and understood the guidelines below before commencing.
If your submission is selected, the BMLA will invite you to contribute to the conference as an Oral Presenter. All selected presenters will be required to register for the conference as delegates.
The BMLA programme must be submitted to the RCP by 26 February 2027 to meet the CPD application deadline.
Best Oral Presentation Awards
The BMLA will award two prizes for the best oral presentations at the 2027 Annual Conference. Winners are chosen by a judging panel, based on the quality of both the submitted abstract and the presentation at the conference. To be considered, please select the Best Oral Presentation Award option when you submit your abstract. The winners will be announced at the close of the conference, and afterwards on the BMLA website and social media.
The BMLA Prizes awarded include:
- £100 cash award each
- BMLA Standard Membership for the current year
- One complimentary conference ticket for the next edition of the conference (not including educational courses)
Who can submit?
We welcome submissions from everyone working with lasers and light-based technologies, including clinicians, scientists, Laser Protection Advisers, nurses, therapists, aestheticians, dentists and veterinary surgeons. Veterinary submissions are welcome under any of the presentation themes below, as well as under Lasers in Veterinary Medicine, and comparisons between human and veterinary practice are particularly encouraged.
Guidelines for Review and Selection
The Programme Committee carries out an initial review of all abstract submissions and may, at its discretion, re-categorise abstracts. Abstracts are then passed to the BMLA conference abstract review panel, who review, rank and select abstracts for presentation at the BMLA Annual Conference. The panel also takes the following criteria into account:
- Abstracts should be original and not previously published or presented (clinical series updates and reviews are an exception to this).
- The selection of talks for presentation will usually be limited to those where the work has been completed at the time of submission.
- Trials in progress: please submit if you feel that the topic would be of interest to delegates and there will be adequate findings to report on by the date of the conference. Trials in progress have been presented at past conferences, and the collaborative and supportive environment has led to productive discussions during the meeting. Not all abstracts will be accepted due to limited space in the programme, but the reviewers will provide feedback and will encourage resubmission at future conferences if they feel the trial is at too early a stage.
- The number of patients in the study will be taken into consideration. Well-designed scientific studies are given preference over anecdotal findings or single cases. Single case reports are encouraged for the Challenging Cases session.
- Abstracts must be of high quality and free of commercial bias.
- Each author of an abstract submitted to the BMLA must have made a significant contribution to the work and must take responsibility for the content of the abstract.
- Full disclosure of any conflict of interest is required of all presenting authors and co-authors. This should be declared in full during the submission process and on the slides at the start of the presentation.
- Where patient images or data are used, appropriate patient consent must be in place, along with ethical or audit approval where relevant.
- Early Career Research submissions: the BMLA encourages early career researchers to submit their work, including projects that are still in progress or under development. Submissions at this stage are welcome, especially where constructive feedback from the community would be valuable. If your abstract fits this category, please select the "Early Career Research" option when submitting.
General Guidelines
Before you begin, please gather all the information you need to complete each stage of the process, including:
Presentation theme:
- Aesthetic Treatments and Devices
- Basic Science and New Developments
- Biophotonics and Diagnostics
- Laser Safety and Governance
- Laser Surgery
- Lasers in Dentistry
- Lasers in Veterinary Medicine
- Paediatric Laser Treatments
- Photobiomodulation
- Photodynamic Therapy
- Skin Lasers
Presentation type: Oral Presentation
Presentation length: 15 minutes, including questions
Abstract content: title, abstract (summary) and all contributing authors, with first and last name, organisation (affiliation), city and country. Any conflicts of interest and the companies concerned must be declared.
Abstract structure: Background and Objectives, Study Design/Materials and Methods, Results, and Conclusion.
Word count: title limited to 15 words; abstract text limited to 250 words.
Essential Information
Make sure your abstract is in on time and in the right format by following these simple steps:
- Language: your abstract should be in English.
- Title: keep your title concise (maximum 15 words) and informative, and only use capital letters at the start of a sentence or for an acronym or name. Please do not use capital letters for your entire title.
- Authors: list all authors' names in full and identify the presenting author.
- Addresses: addresses should be in the following format: Department/Institute, Organisation, Town/City, Postcode, Country.
- Acknowledgements: please do not include acknowledgements in your abstract, as these count towards the word limit.
- Email address: please make sure the email address you provide will still be valid in February/March 2027, when abstract outcomes are emailed. This address will be used for all correspondence about your abstract.
- Confirmation of submission: all completed submissions will receive a confirmation email. If you do not receive it, please check your spam folder, then log back into the portal to check that your abstract has been submitted. If you need further help, please email the organisers at office@bmla.co.uk. Please note that the organisers cannot access incomplete submissions.
- Time to register: to make the most of the early bird registration fees, we advise registering as soon as possible, even before the abstract review results are published. If your abstract is not accepted and you decide you no longer wish to attend, there is a £25 administration fee to cancel your registration.
- Oral presenters are paying delegates: all selected abstract presenters are required to register as paying delegates for the conference. A selected abstract presenter does not have the same entitlements as an invited speaker.
- Recording and photography: presentations will only be recorded or streamed with prior written approval from the BMLA Executive and the consent of the speakers concerned. Recording of presentations is not planned for 2027. If this changes, you will be asked for your consent before the conference. With the approval of the BMLA Executive, a photographer will be at the conference to take photographs and short video clips for the BMLA website, social media and future promotion. This will not include recording of full presentations, and slides will not be photographed in a way that shows patient images. If you do not wish to be photographed during the conference (including while on stage during your presentation) please notify the organisers on site, when collecting your badge from the registration desk.
- Permission to publish: there are currently no plans for accepted abstracts to be published in a journal. However, there will be a digital abstract book to accompany the conference programme, which will be shared with all registered delegates. If you do not want your abstract shared in this way, please email office@bmla.co.uk in good time.
- Abstract withdrawal: if you need to withdraw your abstract, please contact office@bmla.co.uk and we will guide you through whether this is possible, depending on the stage of the process.
The submission portal works best on desktop devices.
We recommend avoiding the use of mobile devices for submission.
What happens after you have submitted?
You will receive a confirmation email that your submission has been received. If you don’t receive this email, check that you have indeed submitted the abstract and it’s not sitting in drafts or contact the organisers. Your submission will be sent for review after the closing date, and you will be notified of the outcome by email after 16 February 2027.
Please note that notification emails will be sent to the email address provided when you submitted your paper.
