Call for Session Proposals is Open
For the 2025 Annual Conference in Tampa/Hillsborough County, Florida, USA, we are soliciting innovative, future focused ideas for training workshops and educational sessions; leading ideas talks and roundtable discussions centered around innovations of today and future proofing for tomorrow.
Frequently Asked Questions
The International City/County Management Association (ICMA) Annual Conference is the largest gathering of local government professionals in the world and offers an abundance of educational, information-sharing, and networking tools to help local government management professionals manage their communities in today’s complex environment.
Local government management professionals of all career stages and backgrounds come to the ICMA Annual Conference each year. The audience includes encore (retired) professionals, chief administrative officers, chief executive officers, assistant/deputy managers, department heads/directors, analysts/assistants, students/interns, small community managers, county managers, senior/credentialed managers, and managers/local government staff from around the world.
Anyone! While nonmembers are encouraged to join ICMA to enjoy the benefits of membership, submissions are accepted by members and nonmembers alike.
All submissions must be in English and include the following:
- Session title (limit of 125 characters).
- Session type (i.e., discussion).
- Session track (i.e., leadership).
- Target audience(s), if the session applies to a limited audience. Do NOT check all audiences.
- Three learning objectives.
- Session submitter/speaker name(s), organization name, title, complete address, phone, and email information.
- Brief presenter biography, demographic information (i.e., community population, etc.), and headshot.
- Description of session (no more than 300 words).
Session information will be published on the ICMA Conference website, in the conference app, and other channels when available. All presentations must be noncommercial. At no time is it permissible for presenters to use their time slot to conduct a product demo or advertise or promote a product, service, or company. If a supplier company wants to promote a product, service, or company, a product theater can be purchased. Please contact msherman@icma.org.
ICMA reserves the right to cancel a session and/or change a speaker, if necessary.
All speakers MUST REGISTER for the 2024 ICMA Annual Conference and pay the appropriate registration fee. As a paid registrant, the speaker may attend and participate in all non-ticketed sessions and events held in conjunction with the conference. ICMA does not comp speaker registration.
It is an honor to present and speak in front of an audience of your peers, thus ICMA does not provide honoraria or reimburse for travel or housing expenses.
Session descriptions should include tool that attendees can take back to their communities and be future-focused. Ideas should be educational, non-commercial, and provide value to a wide-ranging group of ICMA conference attendees. Sessions should provide at least one take-away for the attendees and align with the Practices for Effective Local Government Management and Leadership.
Within the submission site, you will have the opportunity to identify which audience members your session is applicable to. Identify up to three target audiences. If your session applies to more than three, there is no need to identify them as it applies broadly.
All submissions will be reviewed by the conference planning committee, as well as by subject matter experts on the ICMA staff. Submitters will be notified by email in February as to whether their proposal is selected for inclusion in the conference program.
All selected submitters will be contacted with further information, including notification of all deadlines. Please note it is crucial to the success of the conference that all selected speakers, moderators, etc., adhere to all ICMA deadlines.
Idea or speaker submittal does not guarantee selection.
Yes. Within the submission system, you will be asked to invite the proposed speaker to the site to complete their biographical details and accept the submission. Please ensure they understand that if selected they will need to register for the conference at the applicable rate and that ICMA will not reimburse their expenses.
Yes. Please see presentation format descriptions. If your session includes speakers over and above the limit, ICMA staff will work with the submitter/moderator to determine which speakers to cut from the session.
ICMA will not contact speakers until after you have been notified of the session’s acceptance. Once you are notified by ICMA that your session is accepted, you should reach out to the speakers to let them know to expect an email from ICMA inviting them to speak and providing them credentials to access the speaker/session management site. Note: you will notify the speaker during the submission process that you have submitted their name with the session.
Yes. ICMA values the perspectives and practices of local government professionals from around the globe.
When you enter your information in the submittal portal, be sure to check the box indicating that you are a speaker for the session you are submitting. Failure to do so will prevent you from receiving crucial emails sent to speakers.
Prior to December 1, you may log back into the submission site to modify your submission.
After the session has been accepted, modifications to session descriptions and titles may be made up until a certain date. The date will be listed within the session/speaker management site. Only one presenter/speaker per session will have access to the task allowing these changes to be made. Late changes will not be accepted.
ICMA reserves the right to make recommendations and requirements for revisions of content and/or speakers within proposals as a condition of acceptance.
ICMA will hold speaker information/training sessions virtually prior to the conference. The meetings will be recorded for those speakers not able to participate. We have found that the quality of the sessions have improved since we implemented speaker trainings. As such, all speakers are asked to participate.
Yes. Registrants of the ICMA Annual Conference will have access to download session handouts and PowerPoint presentations within the conference app and via the on-demand platform.
For any session that is recorded, the recordings belong to ICMA and may be used in the future by ICMA for other educational/professional development opportunities for the local government community. Recordings can only be viewed by ICMA Annual Conference attendees within the Learning Management System. Recordings are not distributed to speakers.