2027 Call for Session Proposals

ICMA is holding a Call for Presentations for sessions to be held at the 2027 Annual Conference (September 25-29, 2027 Philadelphia, PA).

Proposals will be accepted October 1- November 13, 2026. No proposals will be accepted outside of these dates.

Have questions about the presentation submission process? Our frequently asked questions section are found below. For urgent inquiries, please contact conferenceteam@icma.org.

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 opportunities to help local government professionals manage their communities in today’s complex environment.

The Local Government Reimagined Conferences help public administrators innovate and adapt their leadership practices, management strategies, and operations in the name of more resilient and equitable outcomes for their work and their communities. Two conferences will be held in the Spring of 2027. Proposals for sessions will be via a separate process.

The 2027 ICMA Annual Conference begins on Saturday, September 25 and ends on Wednesday, October 29, 2027. This year’s annual conference will be held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA.

Local government 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). Please use correct capitalization/punctuation.
  • Session type (i.e., discussion).
  • Session topic (i.e., Financial Sustainability).
  • 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 optional 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. ICMA strives to provide a forum for objective presentation of ideas and knowledge free of commercialism—presentations are not meant to be sales pitches. The use of trade names, company identifications, or product names in oral and visual presentations, abstracts, and papers should be avoided. 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 conference at which they are speaking 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 provide complimentary registration to speakers, nor do we cover travel expenses.

Yes. You may submit up to 5 proposals for consideration. The use of multiple email addresses by the same submitter is prohibited.

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 information about the ideas, strategies, tools, etc. that attendees can take back to their communities. Descriptions should be educational, non-commercial, and provide value to a wide-ranging group of ICMA conference attendees. Sessions should align with the Practices for Effective Local Government Management and Leadership.

All submissions will be reviewed by the conference education 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. ICMA accepts approximately 20% of submissions.

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 is interested in panels that include diverse voices. If you are interested in a global perspective for your proposed session, we can help connect you to possible speakers from the US and other countries. Please contact Sophie Weyn, Program Manager at sweyn@icma.org.

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.

Yes

Prior to November 13, 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.

Sessions will be scheduled by ICMA on all days of the annual conference September 25-29, 2027. By submitting a session through the Call for Presentations system, speakers agree to be available to present on those days and times.

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. Speaker training for Lightning Talk sessions is mandatory.

Yes. Registrants of the ICMA Annual Conference will have access to download session materials and PowerPoint presentations within the conference app, provided the speaker(s) provides them to ICMA by the published deadline.