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Igniting Innovation By All

Each year at the Great Place To Work® For All Summit™, we learn from leaders across industries with the knowledge, experience, and passion it takes to create and sustain a great workplace for all employees. These leaders share their most effective tactics, trials, and triumphs with an audience eager to understand how to connect their people strategies with business results. It's all in the service of a mission that unites us: building a better world by creating Great Places to Work For All. At the 2019 Summit, speakers will uncover how their organizations are building upon their high-trust workplace cultures to ignite Innovation by All.

Important Dates 

SUMBISSIONS ARE NOW CLOSED

  • July 19 – August 17: Call For Speakers.  
  • August 17: Final day to submit proposals
  • September 28: Notification to all submitters of proposal status
  • February 26 – 28, 2019: Great Place To Work® For All Summit™, San Francisco

What is Innovation By All?

Innovation is top of mind for executives today. But the term has evolved over the past few years, taken on a new meaning as it has adapted with the pace of business amid ever-more global commerce, rapid technology shifts, and massive market consolidation and disruptions. Innovation now is as much about agility as it is about invention.

Innovation By All requires a high-trust culture of inclusion. Put simply, it means everybody creates, is connected, and contributes. 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 Summit will distill Innovation By All in to three key 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 specific examples of people practices that engage ALL people in the organization in innovation, creating an environment where everyone is free to generate new ideas for products, process improvements, etc.
  2. Leadership — Identifying, growing, and sustaining leaders who create high-trust, inclusive cultures that fuel innovation. We are looking for strategies that outline how to develop leaders across an organization and how these 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 stories that share how to identify and collaborate with key partners internally or externally to propel innovation and growth.

Speaker Requirements

  • Senior leaders at 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 they relate to their company's culture and business journey.

Submission Checklist

  • Focused — All Focus Sessions selected will support the Summit theme of Igniting Innovation By All. Be sure that your proposal addresses 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 who have 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. Be prepared to provide tangible learnings beyond the basics and detailed insight 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. Your session should feature proven case studies, best practices, and how-to's, and 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 of content and 15 minutes of Q&A.
  • Audience size will vary between 150-300 attendees per session.
  • Speakers who are selected will receive a complimentary Summit pass and are encouraged 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

Please submit the application below with your proposed session no later than Friday, August 17th at 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.

Questions? Contact Jamie (Holt) Dowden, Program & Event Manager, at  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Thank you!