Presenting the idea of a PhD research project before publishing it I have an idea for my PhD research project but my supervisor wants me to have that idea/model published or endorsed before I can start working on and she suggested that idea/model to be presented in a conference and have comments about that.

I know about normal papers being presented at conference but what is idea/model presented in the form of paper. Can anyone help me in understanding the format.
I think this is a good idea. There are many conferences in which they invite exclusively the Ph.D. students in different domains to a co-located workshop. There the students present their work (so far) and get comments and feedback. Further, there is a chance of getting collaboration by senior researchers. 

Have a look at this: https://www.eurosla2019.se/programme/doctoral-student-workshop/