Call For Speakers

IMPORTANT DATES:

July 19-August 10 – Call For Speakers
August 10– Final day to submit proposals
September 28– Notification to all submitters of proposal status

Share Your Innovation By All Story

Each year at the Great Place to Work® For All™ Summit, our Focus Breakout Sessions feature leaders acrossindustries with the knowledge, the experiences, and the passion it takes to create and sustain a great workplacefor all employees. These leadersshare theirmost effective tactics, their trials, and their triumphs with an audience eager to learn how to link people strategies with business success. It’s all in the service of a mission that unites us: building a better world by creating Great Places to Work For All.

We are pleased to open our submission process for proposals from those leaders interested in speaking at our 2019 Great Place to Work® For All™ Summit in San Francisco.

Thematic Framework & Key Areas

The thematicframework for the 2019 Great Place To Work For AllSummit is how organizationscan build upon their high-trust workplace culture to igniteInnovation By All.

What is Innovation By All?

In an increasingly volatile business climate and at a time when human capabilities are expanding, organizations must get all oftheir people involved in coming up with new ideas, spotting opportunities, and quickly adapting to changes. 

“Innovation By All” is Great Place to Work’s definition on the way organizations today must approach invention and agility. Put simply, it means everybody creates, is connected, and contributes.

Innovation By All requires a high-trust culture of inclusion. And it maximizes a company's human potential by tapping into the intelligence, skills, and passion of everyone, no matter who they are or what they do for the organization. Companies that build an Innovation By All culture generate more high-quality ideas, realize greater speed in implementation, and achieve greater agility—resulting in 5.5 times the revenue growth of peers with a less inclusive approach to innovation.

Our sessions at the Summitwill distill Innovation By Allintothreekey areas: 

1) People— Unleashing the power of human potential by understanding your employees and allowing them to bring their full creative selves to work.We are looking for sessions that will describepeople practices that engage ALL people in the organization in innovation, so they are inspired to generate new ideas for products or improvements and quickly identify and adapt to changes the business needs.

2) Leadership — Identifying, growing and sustaining leaderswhocreate high-trust, inclusive culturesthat fuel innovation.We are looking for sessions that share how to develop leaders across an organization, and how these programs and initiatives have helped the organization become more inventive and agile.

3) Partnerships— Optimizing the success of innovation activities by breaking down internal silos and reaching out to collaborators outside the organization. We’re looking for sessions that share how to identify and collaborate with key partners internallyor externally to propelan Innovation By All culture.

To view examples of our content and focus sessions selected from last year's Summit in San Francisco, please review our 2018 program.

Requirements of Focus Session Speakers:

• Senior leadersat Great Place to Work®-Certified companies (Director, SVP, VP or C-Suite levels) with experience implementing integrated people and business strategies.
• Subject-matter experts with equal parts strategic and tactical experience on the proposed topic.
• Adept at delivering big ideas with specific and concrete examples of how these ideas are applied within an organization.
• Experience speaking to senior HR professionals; director level and above (including C-Suite Executives), between 150 to 300 people.
• Skilled at balancing engaging storytelling with actionable insights forcreating a high-trust, inclusive culture.
• Passionate about sharing innovative and tangible approaches to workplace culture that deliver business results.Transparent about challenges and open to answering questions about how problems have been addressed.
• Willing to share their own personal stories/anecdotes as theyrelate to their company’s culture and business journey.

Criteria Checklist for submitting a proposal:

• FOCUSED: All Focus Sessions selected will support the Summit theme of “Igniting Innovation By All”.
• Does your proposal address one of the three key areas as it relates to our Critical Framework of Innovation By All: People, Leadership or Partnerships?
• ENGAGING: Attendees of the event are executive-level leaders with direct experience solving workplace challenges and with the ability to influence workplace culture. Presenters should be ready to walkthrough the specific steps taken to address the organizational challenges with the audience.We strongly recommend a significant amount of audience interactivity during sessions to maintain engagement and leave a lasting impact.
• Is your session innovative and experiential, providing tangible learnings beyond the basics and delving into the challenges your organization has faced?
• INSTRUCTIVE: Presenters should include examples of how their high-trust workplace culture leads to better innovation and business results.
• Does your session feature proven and clear case studies, best practices, and how-to’s,and does it connect these activities to business outcomes?
• FOR ALL: Focus sessions should maintain a balanced perspective so that attendees of any industry and company size will be able to leave with clear, concrete takeaways.
• EDUCATIONAL: Many of the sessions selected will meet the criteria for the HR Certification Institute (HRCI) Business Management & Strategy Credit and SHRM Bodies of Knowledge, which can be found in the HRCI PHR® and SPHR® Body of Knowledge and SHRM Body of Competency and Knowledge.

Important Logistical Information:

• Each session is 60 minutes: At a minimum, we would recommend speakers provide 15 minutes of Q&A time.
• Audience size will vary between 150-300 attendeesper Focus Session.
• Speakers who are selected will receive a Complimentary Summit passand are welcome to attend the full Summit.
• Travel and accommodations will NOT be provided for speakers.
• Each speaker will be provided a discount code for any staff who will be attending the Summit to support the speaker. Additional complimentary passes for staff will NOT be provided.

Additional Information

If this is your first time submitting a proposal to speak at a Great Place to Work® event, please carefully review our 2018 program for examples of sessions selected for the agenda. 

Please review the details and fill out the application below with your proposed session no later than Friday, August 10that 5:00 pm PST.

By Friday, September 28th, you will be notified if your proposal has been accepted as a session for the Summit. We will also keep your proposed session on file for future opportunities.

We appreciate your interest in our Summit and value your dedication to building a better world by helping organizations become Great Places to Work For All.

Should you have any questions, feel free to contact Jamie (Holt) Dowden, Program & Event Manager, directly at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the subject line as 2019GPTW4ALL Summit - CFS Inquiry.

Thank you!