Welcome to the presenter application page.
Thanks for coming to find out more about speaking or being a panelist at the Sustainable Strategic Planning Conference 2023. The theme is “Transcend Short-Termism | Build Long-Term Value.” At this point, if you haven’t understood the basics of the event, you can read it from the participant’s perspective by checking out these pages, What Is It?, How Does it Work? and Who Should Attend? pages.
You should know that this is a two-day conference which offers Premium Tickets and Free Passes. It will be held on June 22-23, 2023.
But a full understanding of the above may have spurred another question that brings you to this page: “What can I gain as a speaker?”
Your Opportunity
Our team of speakers, presenters and panelists is co-producing a transformative experience for attendees. Our goal for those who attend is ambitious:
- to be inspired to create sustainable strategic plans (an emotional outcome)
- to learn enough to start creating an interwoven short/long-term strategic plan (a practical outcome)
- to craft ways to share the difference long-term thinking makes in organizations (a hands-on outcome)
As you may imagine, this requires more than just an information dump.
The fact is, the world we face in 2023 is infected by short-termism at all levels. For example, there would be no need for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) goals if long-term thinking were a part of organizational life. In the past few years, thanks to COVID and other disruptions, more executives have come to think that the VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) world has meant the end of long-term thinking.
Our goal is to present a new point of view. As a speaker/presenter/panelist, you’ll be delivering a new way of creating the outcomes described above.
As such, you are someone who has a commitment to interwoven short/long-term strategic planning. You have put some thought into strategic planning activities, and the powerful outcomes they can deliver.
You could be an executive, manager, professional, consultant, facilitator, ESG activist – someone who cares about carving a new direction for people in organizations of all kinds. They are in for-profits, NGO’s, volunteer organizations, charities, educational institutions, government agencies, clubs, religious organizations…any groups which have plans.
You may agree…most organizations have short-term plans. But their members face obstacles when they start considering long-term direction.
Your presentation or panel should help them take concrete steps towards making interwoven short/long-term strategic planning a reality.
What is an interwoven short/long-term strategic plan?
When a strategic plan includes not only short-term tactics, but also long-term Big Hairy Audacious Goals, it may be interwoven.
Some companies treat these activities as separate. A few engage in Greenwashing, for example, where they only have long-term ESG targets…but what they really pay attention to each day is their short-term, problem-solving, maneuvers.
An interwoven plan is one that fully integrates short and long-term thinking into a seamless whole.
You may already know the topic of the message you want to deliver. If you’re not clear, keep reading or jump over to a page with some suggested topics here.
Your presentation will probably be a pre-recorded webinar-style video, custom-made for the conference. In some cases, we can help you arrange a pre-recorded interview with one of our conference speakers. It’s a suitable alternative!
However, you should know: we don’t pre-pay our speakers. Instead, we offer you a commission agreement based on ticket sales to your followers using a unique link. (We use a system called Gumroad which allows this to happen.)
How do we know this approach works? This is the ninth virtual, 2/3-day event we are conducting since 2020 and have paid out thousands in commissions to our speakers. But even if it works perfectly, you still need to determine: “How can my participation as a panelist and/or presenter help me reach my goals?
Your Goals
For just a moment, we’d like you to consider both your 1) personal and 2) commercial goals.
- Personal goals include the challenge of presenting your thinking to a savvy audience. They’ll want more than basic, introductory ideas they can get elsewhere. Stepping up to speak at the Sustainable Strategic Planning Conference is no ordinary, everyday undertaking.
- Commercial goals are related to your business or profession. What specific measurable results do you want to accomplish? Do you want revenue from sales of a program/coaching/consulting? Or more leads for strategic planning meetings? Or expert partners from around the world? Or a bump in your professional reputation? All the above?
The reason to be clear about your goals is that when you complete the application you’ll be asked to choose to engage in certain activities, each of which is designed to accomplish specific commercial goals. You’ll need a strategy in mind to make the most of this opportunity to speak at the conference.
At the moment, you may not be clear how you want to participate. Here are your choices.
- prepare a 20-40-minute pre-recorded, solo video. These are available for 24 hours each to ticket-holders, and included in their package of replays. Most (but not all) are available for Free Pass holders.
- join a live panel. These real-time sessions include Q&A interactions with a live audience. You could be a member of the panel or the moderator.
- be part of a live or pre-recorded interactive interview.
The first option is the most popular, and we will offer up to 30 pre-recorded videos. You should know that a lot of people enjoy the pre-recorded videos due to their convenience! Our attendees report them to be uniquely valuable. By contrast, the live opportunities are limited.
Over the years you have been thinking about interwoven short/long-term strategic planning, and maybe even sharing them with your audience. But you haven’t had a general audience of smart leaders to share with.
We want our audience to escape the “I have heard this before” feeling that bores audiences, but that’s only possible if you share your best ideas…not conventional wisdom, stale cliches or tired memes.
Beyond the presentations, we also want you to leave with some new additions to your professional network. We have set up a WhatsApp group to meet other presenters.
But above all, beyond the mechanics, we want to help you showcase your best ideas.
If you use these items skillfully, you’ll meet more of your personal and commercial goals. But it does take preparation. You may not be immediately familiar with all aspects of these five strategies. There’s a learning curve. After hosting hundreds of speakers, we have seen many make the most of the opportunity, while others floundered due to a lack of foresight and skill.
Virtual presenting has its own skillset, which must be mastered to meet your goals.
Do you have an idea of the topic you want to tackle? You may already be prepared to apply to speak! Even if you are sure you know, take a moment to read over our page of recommended or suggested topics.