2020 Great Place To Work® For All Summit™ Call for Speakers

Our Annual Summit is the largest gathering of executive leaders across hundreds of Best Workplaces that are actively engaged in elevating their business success through workplace culture. We offer data, guidance, knowledge sharing and thought-leadership to support organizations as they maximize their human potential.

This call for speakers is only for tactical, focused sessions. Mainstage is by invitation-only and we do not take proposals for mainstage sessions.

Important Dates 

CALL FOR SPEAKERS HAS NOW CLOSED. 

Following our final reminder email we received an overwhelming amount of requests for submission extensions thus have elected to keep our submission process open through Friday, June 28th. Please see below for updated important dates. 

  • Monday, May 20 – Friday, June 28: Call For Speakers Submission Period OPEN
  • Friday, June 28: Final day to submit proposals
  • Friday, August 2: Notification to all submitters of proposal status
  • March 3-5, 2020: Great Place To Work® For All Summit™, Marriott Marquis, San Francisco
2020 GPTW4ALL Summit Theme – For All Leadership

The 2020 Summit will showcase For All Leadership, the driving force behind companies recognized as a Great Place To Work FOR ALL, where innovation and leadership combine to produce results that are better for business, better for people and better for the world.

For All Leaders have unique abilities and characteristics. These include demonstrating humility and empathy, connecting diverse people to a common purpose, adapting to uncertainty, driving growth, and fostering trusting relationships within and beyond their teams. These qualities are essential to the agility and resiliency to go farther faster while navigating the impacts of emerging technologies, economic swings, and unforeseeable changes in communities.

What our Attendees want to Know about For All Leadership 
  • How do leaders effectively structure and support diverse teams? What practices, behaviors, and beliefs drive their success?
  • How do we get senior leaders to care and own it as their responsibility to role model and champion For All Leadership?
  • How can you be a For All Leader during times of change, uncertainty, layoffs, budget cuts, increased speed, on smaller teams?
  • How much time, money effort does it take to improve a leader and why does it matter for my business?
  • How do we help millennials, young, first-time leaders get ready at scale?
  • What are stories of leaders making the shift from average or bad to great? Are there commonalities in these shifts? What obstacles did they have to overcome?
  • What practices and programs are leading companies using to inspire and develop For All Leadership at scale?
  • What is the direct impact of leadership on KPIs and revenue? How has For All leadership benefited communities and the world?
What WE Know about For All Leadership 
  • To succeed in today’s market, companies need the right mix of leaders working to maximize the full human potential of all their employees.
  • Traditional leadership approaches aren’t keeping up with today’s business challenges nor the growing diversity of today’s workforce.
  • The face and style of leadership is evolving as the labor force changes and millennials increasingly fill leadership positions.
  • Effective teams provide their members with an environment where they can do their best work, develop, and feel a sense of belonging and pride.
  • New emerging mindsets and skills like humility, empathy, creating meaningful connections and learning agility are critical to For All leadership.
  • For All leadership is essential in creating a great place to work for all and driving innovation and agility for businesses.

Important Questions to Ask as you Draft your Proposal
  1. Do you have an IMPACTFUL and UNIQUE story to share where you’ve faced a challenge or solved a problem around fostering For All Leadership?
  2. Does your presentation address one or more of the questions list above regarding For All Leadership?
  3. Did you use data to help identify gaps in your leadership?
  4. If so, what kind of data did you use? And did you use your Great Place To Work data to improve those gaps?
  5. Is your session applicable to one or more of the following job focus areas?
    • Employer branding
    • Operational HR
    • Diversity & Inclusion
    • Employee Engagement
    • Data/Research
    • C-Suite Leaders
  6. Is your session applicable across all industries and company size?
  7. Does your session title accurately describe what your session will be about?
  8. Are your three key takeaways tangible enough that attendees can leave and apply them right away in their own workplaces?
Speaker Requirements
  • Senior leaders at Great Place To Work®-Certified companies are preferred (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); and to audiences of between 150 to 300 people.
  • Skilled at balancing engaging storytelling with actionable insights for creating 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 — Focus Sessions proposals will support the Summit theme of For All Leadership or will NOT be considered. Be sure that your proposal addresses one of the key areas as it relates to our critical framework of For All Leadership listed above. IMPORTANT: Your session description should have a very descriptive title, be no longer than 250-300 words total and have three very applicable key takeaways.
  • Engaging — Attendees of the event are executive-level leaders with direct experience solving workplace challenges and who have the ability to influence workplace culture. Presenters should be ready to walk through 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.
  • Instructive —  Attendees of the event are executive-level leaders with direct experience solving workplace challenges and who have the ability to influence workplace culture. Presenters should be ready to walk through 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.
  • 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
  • Your session description should have a very descriptive title, be no longer than 250-300 words total and have three applicable and extremely detailed takeaways.
  • The submitter will be the main point of contact in correspondence around the proposal process.
  • Each session is 60 minutes total - we recommend 45 minutes of content and 15 minutes of facilitated Q&A.
  • Audience size will vary between 150-300 attendees per session.
  • You'll be provided with a projector screen, laptop (with your presentation pre-loaded), lavalier mic and clicker to advance your slides on a laptop.  Confidence monitors will NOT be provided.
  • 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, June 28th at 5:00 pm PST.

By Friday, August 2nd, you will be notified if your proposal has been accepted as a session for the Summit. 

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, Senior Program & Event Manager, at  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Thank you!