Thank you for considering leading a session at Directions US. Speakers are critical to our event's 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.

Directions North America 20204 will take place in San Diego, California from April 14-17.

We get an overwhelming about of submissions, so 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 North America - 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. It is 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 that can be submitted to four per person - it is unlikely that we will have the 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 parallel 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 website and app. If you wish to add anything you do not want 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 from 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 levels

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

Level 200: Intermediate. Minimum 100-level knowledge to provide a deeper view of 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 the topic. Provides expert-to-expert interaction and coverage of specialized topics.

Self or company promotion

Except for in Sponsor Sessions, self-promotion or promotion of a product, service, or any other offering of your 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 North America 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 favoritism, hurtful language, discrimination, abuse, marginalization or insulting behavior on the grounds of gender, ethnicity, religion, background, skin color, religious belief, sexuality, gender identity, socio-economic class, disability or age at or related to the conference and in the sessions. Please ensure that you are aware of these policies and behave accordingly.

Expected timeline

• End of January = end of call for speakers

• Beginning of February = first speaker confirmations

• Mid-February = final session confirmations

• Beginning of March = publish session schedule

Coverage of expenses

Directions NA speakers will be offered a complimentary pass if they are the lead speaker in 2 or more track sessions. All Speakers leading 1 track session or participating as panelists will be offered a discounted pass. A Panel session is defined as a moderator (lead) and no more than 3 panelists. The Board reserves the right to make exceptions or offer a discounted pass for special circumstances at their discretion.

Rejection of a session

If your session proposals are rejected, we will inform you at the latest by mid-February. For 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.