Key Points

• Proposal Deadline: October 9, 2017
• The NCEO Conference will take place April 18-20, 2018 at the Marriott Marquis hotel in downtown Atlanta, with preconference sessions on April 17.
• We had more than 1700 participants at the 2017 Annual Conference in Denver.
• You must complete a proposal if you want to present in a session at the annual conference.
• Please distribute these guidelines or the links to all people at your firm submitting proposals.
• We try to allocate speaking slots as broadly as possible among service providers. We ask that you limit the number of people from your firm submitting proposals: too many from the same firm limits your chances of being chosen to present.
• We may need to modify your proposal or invite you to participate in a different session than your request.
• We strongly encourage representatives from employee-owned companies to propose sessions.

You may submit a proposal either as a session leader or a speaker. Session leaders organize their sessions, introduce speakers, and also make presentations themselves. Speakers just make presentations.

You may submit a proposal for yourself individually or propose a specific panel of speakers. If you submit an individual proposal, we may later pair you with other speakers, or you may speak solo.

Panel proposals combining speakers from different firms are favored, especially if they cover a new topic. New this year: One person on a panel submits the body of the proposal, and invites others (up to 3 others) on to the panel. Each of the other speakers will receive an invitation email and then they need only submit their contact information and their speaker bio. They will be able to view the completed proposal, but won’t be able to change the description or the goals, etc. We no longer require that each speaker complete a full panel proposal in order to match them up together.

If you submit as part of a panel, please understand that we may not be able to accommodate your panel as proposed. Generally, we prefer panels with diverse experts, including, whenever it fits the topic, members of employee-owned companies. We will not consider a panel that is made up entirely of members from the same firm.

Conference organizers will match speakers to sessions based on the needs of the conference, speaker qualifications, and, to the greatest extent possible, speaker preferences.

Proposal Requirements

• Sessions must be educational and will be eliminated if they appear to be “pitches” for products or services.
• Each speaker may submit up to three proposals. Each proposal must be submitted on a separate form, or be part of a panel submitted by one member of said panel.
• Proposals must be submitted on the online form. Your text must fit into the space available on the form.
• Please click here for Guidelines and Session Topic Ideas Annual Conference 2018.

You will create your own Access Key (password) which, along with your email, will allow you to submit speaking proposals for the Annual Conference and other NCEO meetings and webinars. You will have a different password to the Conference and Fall Forum sponsorships which are housed in a site called “Harvester”.

For more information, please contact Conference Director Deborah Krant at dkrant@nceo.org or 510-208-1304.