Content Requirements

Your Commitment to Speak

It is an honor and a privilege to be asked to speak at an ASTD conference. By sharing your expertise, you make a valuable contribution to the profession's field of knowledge and to the individual learning of the participants.

If you are selected, please view this opportunity as a commitment like any other and ensure that you are able to deliver the session by securing the support of your organization and managing your workload and clients to keep this time open. We understand that things do happen and appreciate your advance notice in the event of extreme circumstances that prevent your attendance.

Visit the Speaker Orientation page for tips and resources to help you develop an outstanding session and proposal.

Target Audience  | Tracks and Topics  |  Learning Approach  |  Session Type
Session Development  |  Session Description  |  Learning Objectives  |  Delivery Methods

How to Submit a Winning Conference Proposal (PDF)

Target Audience

A majority of the conference participants are full-time training and performance practitioners, training directors, organizational development staff, government trainers, consultants, performance consultants, learning technologists, HRD managers, chief learning officers, and professors from around the world. The conference audience ranges from novice part-time practitioners to highly experienced full-time professionals. The expected attendance for the 2013 International Conference more than 9000 participants from 70 countries. Please ensure that your content is suitable for a diverse audience and include examples and research from beyond the United States.

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Tracks and Topics

In order to create a well-rounded conference program and respond to feedback from attendees, ASTD conducted a survey of attendees to plan the 2013 conference education program. The topics listed within the tracks are a result of this survey and committee and staff input.

ASTD is seeking proposals to cover most of these topics. Proposals for topics outside this programmatic framework will only be considered if the content substantially supports the overall program.

International submitters: Please ensure that your presentation of the topic includes the perspective of your own country/region.

NOTE: Tracks and Topics have been updated for the 2013 submission. Click here for a list of topics by track.

Seven Content Tracks:

• Career Development
• Designing & Facilitating Learning 
• Global Human Resource Development
• Leadership Development
• Learning Technologies
• Measurement, Evaluation, ROI
• Human Capital 

Three Industry Tracks:

• Government
• Higher Education
• Sales Enablement

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Learning Approach

You will be asked to select a learning approach that most closely defines your session proposal. This layer is designed to focus the program at a greater depth within each track. ASTD will select proposals to ensure that all learning approaches are covered by the offered sessions. If your proposal fits into more than one learning Approach, please select the one that is most relevant. See below for detailed descriptions of each.

Case Study
Core Topic
Experiential/Interactive Learning
Global Focus
Innovation/Trends
Research

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Session Type

The Call for Proposals focuses on two primary areas: Pre-conference Workshops which precede the start of the conference and the Concurrent Sessions which feature a range of subjects grouped by track. Concurrent sessions include 75 and 90 minute sessions, panels, and Innogizers.

When you enter your proposal you will be asked to select a Type from a list of choices which will include:

Pre-Conference Workshop
Concurrent Session
Innogizer
Panel

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Session Development

ASTD conference session are first and foremost, learning experiences.

This means:

• Content that is informative and relevant, with clear and immediate application to the learner’s work
• Minimal use of PowerPoint slides
• Includes interactive and/or hands-on methods to support the learning
• Corresponds to the Learning Objectives
• A session design that supports Learning Transfer
• Materials which reflect the content and are a resource for later use.

Your primary goal should be the learning of the participant rather than a showcase for your ideas, products, and services. You will gain exposure for those things by doing a good session with something tangible for the participants to take away. The more you can put yourself in their place in developing your session, the better your chances will be of being selected and of receiving good evaluations from participants who attend your session.

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Session Description

Please write your description clearly and concisely making sure to include all necessary information. The focus of the description should be on the content that will be delivered, not an editorial on the topic or an advertisement for the speaker or topic. Please write in the second person (you) and avoid references to the speaker and his/her published work by title. Good content with clear, learning objectives showing application to the job will “sell” the session, not a sales pitch. Please support your statements with appropriate citations of published works or studies

Commercial presentations for products or services may be delivered as Expo Demo and Lab sessions. For information on exhibiting click here.

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Application to the Job

The reason ASTD puts so much emphasis on how you write your learning objectives is to strongly encourage you to think deeply about the session you are proposing. We want these sessions to be top-of-the-line in terms of content, delivery, and applicability for the learner. Session participants evaluate sessions positively or negatively according to how much they can use the information back on the job. If you follow the tips below for writing your learning objectives and develop your session accordingly, you will have a premier offering! Your learning objectives will be a key factor in evaluating your proposal.

Make sure that you can deliver on the objectives you choose! We are expecting you to deliver a deeper level of knowledge/skill to ASTD learners.

Sample Learning Objectives (PDF)

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Delivery Methods

How you plan to deliver your session is as important as the content. ASTD is the leader in workplace learning and performance and we want the conference education program to reflect that leadership. Therefore, all speakers are being asked to partner with us to raise the bar on the quality of both content and delivery of sessions. Remember that this is a learning experience. Even if you aren’t a seasoned trainer or facilitator, you can still meet this requirement by researching and practicing some of the key strategies for facilitating learning. ASTD offers many publications such as Training for Dummies which can assist you.

This means:

• Limit your use of PowerPoint as a delivery method. Ideally a maximum of 25% lecture or presentation.
• Instead, design interactive means to engage with the participants and have them engage with each other.
• Make sure that your content supports the Application to the Job objectives.
• Model as many of the concepts you are delivering in the session as possible and practical.

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