Hello and thank you for considering leading a session at Directions EMEA. Speakers are critical to our events success and we are delighted that you are considering sharing your expertise with our community. We are particularly keen to encourage people who have not spoken before and that have fresh new ideas and perspectives to bring.

The 16th edition of Directions EMEA 2023 will take place at the Palais des congrès de Lyon, an impressive congress centre in Lyon (France) from 1st to 3rd of November.

We're expecting between 2500 and 3000 attendees and more than 200 sessions and workshops will be held. Last year we had three times the number of submissions that we had capacity to schedule and we expect similar this year.  

That means to have the best chance of getting your session onto our schedule,  you should consider carefully all the following guidelines and ensure you give us as complete and accurate submission as possible.
It’s critically important that you understand all the do's and don'ts to be a speaker at Directions EMEA especially our rules for promotion and ethics and that we have a clear idea of the topic you will talk about and the audience it’s applicable to.

New speakers
This is our speaker portal where you can manage everything around your session and presentation(s). In this tool you can find all the deadlines, speaker contact, bio, templates and tags, together with social banners to promote your session and the ability to upload your presentation(s).
Please ensure your bio has a picture of yourself and a link to your LinkedIn profile. If your session is accepted this picture and information will be used in the social banner for your session and in the speaker overview on our website and in our conference app.

Session title & description
Sessions are initially selected or rejected by reviewing just the title, description and target audience of your submission. Its therefore critically important that we can fully understand what the session will teach attendees and why this topic that is important for our Dynamics SMB partner community to learn.
We also limited the maximum number of sessions which can be submitted to four per person but we would suggest that is unlikely that we will have capacity to schedule more than two for any speaker.
Typically we get a large number of sessions submitted on similar hot topics and have to choose just the best one or two submissions. In previous years we have asked speakers with similar proposed sessions to collaborate and expect to do the same again. It is however true that session proposals that are unique but still relevant to Dynamics SMB partners have a higher chance of being accepted.
The session title and description, if accepted, will be published to our conference web site and app.  If you wish to add anything you do not what to be made public then please add it to the notes section only.

Target audience & product
The submission asks you to specify your target audience and the products it relates to. Please be precise and keep this to your primary targets, those that ‘tick too many boxes’ are likely to be instantly discounted.
Similarly we need to know what level of existing expertise will ensure an attendee gets the most form your sessions.  Is it primarily an introduction, deep dive or a what’s new aimed at existing experts?
People will attend your sessions based on these tags and we know that speakers get very poor ratings when they find it’s not substantially applicable to them.

Session type
We will be planning for  the following session types:
•    45 minutes General presentation sessions
•    105 minute Deep Dive technical sessions (Attention: Here we have only a very limited number)
•    105 minute Workshop sessions class room style
•    45 minutes Sponsor sessions (purchased as part of a sponsorship package)
•    45 minutes Q&A or Round tables Sessions

Session levels

Level 100: Beginner. Little or no expertise with topic and covers topic concepts, functions, features, and benefits.

Level 200: Intermediate. Minimum 100-level knowledge to provide a deeper view on the topic.

Level 300: Advanced. Minimum 200-level knowledge, in-depth understanding of the theme.

Level 400: Expert. Assumes a deep level of knowledge and experience and a detailed, thorough understanding of topic. Provides expert-to-expert interaction and coverage of specialized topics.

Except for in Sponsor Sessions, self-promotion or promotion of a product, service or any other offering of your or allied company, is prohibited. Any feedback of a ‘hard sell’ in other sessions can result in you being disqualified as a speaker at any and all future events.  

Ethical responsibility
The Directions 4 Partners team believes in the importance of a globally connected Dynamics community that advocates a diverse, inclusive, equal and fair industry based on the values of excellence, mutual respect, freedom of speech and progressiveness.
Therefore we do not tolerate any form of favouritism, hurtful language, discrimination, abuse, marginalisation or insulting behaviour on the grounds of gender, ethnicity, religion, background, skin colour, religious belief, sexuality, gender identity, socio economic class, caste, disability or age at or related to the conference and in the sessions. Please ensure that be aware of these polices and behave accordingly.

Expected timeline
•    Beginning of August = first speaker confirmations
•    End of August = end of call for speakers
•    Mid-September = final session confirmations
•    End of September = publish session schedule

Coverage of expenses
We will give free admission to Directions EMEA 2023 for every sessions main speaker. For co-speaker(s) we will also give free admission provided that co-speaker has/have an important  significant contribution within the presentation and has had to spend significant time preparing their content.  As one example we don’t expect panel members to qualify for free admission.
By exception, we will contribute to the cost of accommodation and travel for people who are selected to speak but cannot get their costs funded by any third party such as their employer and are struggling to cover them personally. Our budget to make these contributions is very limited and completely at our discretion. If you need this help we request that you inform us (Frank@directions4partners.com) when your session is accepted and we will review on a case by case basis.

Rejection of a session
If your session proposals  are rejected, we will inform you at the latest by mid-September and delete all the provided information.  Speakers who have submitted a proposed session but suffered rejection, we will offer the possibility to purchase a ticket at the super early bird price until four weeks before the event starts.