• Do a thorough literature review – comprehensive for Australia and your sector, and at least checking international papers and key documents from other sectors, or complementary fields. There is no point presenting what others have already written, but building on their work benefits everyone.
  
• Pull together relevant work and themes from existing presentations by colleagues
• Set up [del.icio.us] tags and let people know what you are researching so others can contribute relevant material and follow your research.
  
  
• Draft an outline of the paper, and organise collected quotes, documents, readings, links and ideas under key headings. At this stage I find it best to keep the references firmly attached to quotes as footnotes, even if this is not the final format required.
• It is not enough to just collect material. Remember to make time to actually read and note these.
  
  
• At least four weeks before the paper is due, take a writing day away from the office, and offline (!) write a first draft from the material collected.
• Create a ‘to do’ notepad document where you note gaps that require further research, quotes to research or references to follow up.
  
  
• Blog the big questions/issues you have identified at this stage and invite comment.
• Continue to collect, read, think, follow up on the ‘to do list’ and clean up the paper.
• Remember to check back to the abstract and the conference requirements to ensure you have not strayed too far from the original submission.
  
  
• At least one week before the paper is due, do the final cut including correct referencing and styling and give it to at least one proofreader. You need to leave time to make the changes that they will suggest, and follow up any leads they provide to key references.
  
  
• Submit the paper in the required manner and ask for confirmation that it has been received. Find out how and when the paper will be published, and whether you are permitted to publish online either before or after the conference.
  
  [If it is a refereed paper, you will need to re-work it in line with the comments received back from the reviewers, and resubmit. There may well be a very short turnaround for this process.]
  
  
• SAVE a copy of the final paper clearly labelled as such in your official personal repository/file space. Then back it up.
  
• Provide a copy of the final version of the paper to the editor of your organisation’s document archive and website if appropriate, and advise of any embargo on publication.

Note: Sometimes the paper is not required until after the conference in which case you have the luxury of including any feedback, comment or issues raised by participants in the final version. The paper will also be more up-to-date.
However, by this stage you will quite probably never want to look at this paper again and will wish you had finished it before the conference.