Join us in Amsterdam the week of November 30th - December 3rd (Pre-Conference tutorials November 30th).

Hello and thank you for considering submitting a session for ESPC26. Speakers are critical to our events success, and we are delighted that you are considering sharing your expertise with our community. 

It’s critically important that you understand all the dos and don'ts to be a speaker at ESPC, 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. The call for speakers will close EOD April 2nd. Feel free to share the link to the call for speakers with others in the community that we may have missed.

We are only looking for sessions or workshops that have a minimum of 50% new or fresh content.

Crafting a Compelling Session Proposal 🌟

• Carefully choose your session title to quickly grab attendees' attention and pique their curiosity. Feel free to add excitement while maintaining clarity, brevity, and allure.

• Be explicit about audience level and assumed knowledge, beyond generic labels. Do not just repeat the level, but state this information clearly, such as in the following: "You should already have a solid understanding of authentication flows and be familiar with PowerShell."

• Clearly define the key insights and practical takeaways participants will gain. What unique knowledge will they acquire? Use complete sentences, starting with phrases like "Discover insights into... learn... understand... uncover..."

• State what is intentionally out of scope, such as, “We will NOT cover deployment options, governance strategies or adoption roadmaps in this session."

• If submitting a tutorial, clearly label as "slides only" or "includes hands-on labs," and be prepared to submit any prerequisites straight away.

• Keep in mind that you must end your session with a clear summary or "key takeaways" slide and reserve designated time for Q&A. To account for this, please ensure you are reducing scope rather than compressing delivery.

• Demonstrate that your topic is tailored for a conference setting exclusively. If it's only suitable for a blog post, the programme committee might reject it. Outline how you'll make this experience unique for attendees, fostering their active participation during the event.

• Before submitting, seek feedback from a friend outside your industry. While they may not understand technical jargon, their fresh perspective can be invaluable. This practice is also helpful for rehearsing your presentation.

• Remember, sessions are meant to educate, not serve as sales pitches. Prioritise content that provides value by addressing specific issues rather than focusing solely on product showcases.

• Inject your passion into your proposal. Communicate your enthusiasm for your chosen topic. Share your excitement, explain your motivation for the subject, and elaborate on its personal significance.

ESPC is a professional conference. All sessions submitted must have at least 50% original content. We are really interested in receiving submissions that demonstrate real live business scenarios and case studies from partners and their customers.

Session type

We will be planning for the following session types:

60-minute general presentations (including case studies)

60-minute Inspire sessions

60-minute keynotes

Full day tutorials

Session topics

Present your knowledge on the latest innovations across Microsoft 365, AI, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Viva Engage, Power Platform, Copilot, Copilot Studio, Microsoft Azure, Governance and Security. Case studies are particularly well received at ESPC.

The conference is directed to six main audiences: IT Pros, Developers, Business Leaders, Makers, Consultants, and End Users and will cover levels 100 - 400.

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.

Please ensure that the session submitted is clearly in line with the level selected. We receive a lot of 100 – 200 sessions, if you have a level 300 – 400 then please submit this.

Ethical responsibility

The ESPC team believes in the importance of a globally connected Microsoft 365 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

• April 2nd - end of call for speakers

• Mid/late April- programme team evaluations

• Late April - notification to all speakers

• Early May – publication of programme

Coverage of expenses

We will be requiring all speakers to present one to two 60-minute sessions or in some cases, one full-day tutorial. Standard speaker session compensation includes €800 reimbursement (split if co-speaking), 3 nights hotel accommodation, and 1 * 3-day conference pass. Standard tutorial compensation includes €2000 reimbursement, 4 nights hotel accommodation, and 1 full conference pass.

Please note: Speaker compensation only applies to community speakers, and does not apply to Microsoft employees or sponsor speakers.

The call for speakers will close Thursday, April 2nd. Feel free to share the link to the call for speakers with others in the community that we may have missed.

Community Speaker Compensation - €800 per speaker (for 1-2 sessions, and split if co-speaking), €2000 per tutorial (split if co-speaking), 3 nights accommodation in speaker hotel and 3-day conference pass. NOTE: Speaker compensation does NOT apply to Microsoft speakers, as it is the standard policy within Microsoft that Microsoft speakers do not get compensated to speak at a Microsoft event.