Call for Papers - From conversations to transformations

[Notice: Deadline has been extended form the 20th to the 26th of October 2025]

Every transformation begins with a conversation, a question that sparks courage, a challenge that opens possibility, a moment of honesty that shifts the path. For 2026, we invite you to share the conversations that became turning points. Show us how words turned into action, how small sparks led to meaningful change, and how people, teams, and organisations grew because someone dared to start talking.

And don’t just tell us about past conversations, open new ones at the Gathering. Use your session to spark dialogue, invite challenge, and create the kind of exchange that can ripple far beyond two days in Cape Town.

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Tracks

This year, we are reintroducing tracks to help shape the programme, but with a twist: they are designed to provoke curiosity rather than box you in. When submitting, select the one that best fits your session.

Sparks at the Team Level: Where Change Begins

This theme focuses on the conversations, practices, and tools that ignite transformation within teams. It’s about small sparks that create big impact, from improving collaboration to embedding inclusion and psychological safety. Sessions could (but are not required to) explore:

• Feedback, reflection, and team-level metrics to improve outcomes.
• Building human-centred, neurodiverse, or cross-functional teams.
• Techniques for fostering psychological safety, curiosity, and trust.
• Experimentation, agile rituals, and continuous improvement in practice.
• Applying technical practices and frameworks (e.g., Scrum, Kanban, XP, DevOps) to drive team agility.
• Stories of how team-level dialogue and practice led to measurable impact.

The Leadership Reckoning: Agile Leadership in Action

This theme examines how leadership shapes the conditions for transformation. It’s for executives, managers, HR, and change agents who want to understand the levers of influence and inspire teams and organisations to thrive. Sessions could (but are not required to) explore:

• Leading through complexity and uncertainty with agility.
• Coaching and mentoring for impact and growth.
• Aligning strategy, purpose, and delivery in dynamic contexts.
• Using metrics, OKRs, or other frameworks to drive organisational decisions.
• Practical examples of leading transformations using frameworks like SAFe, LeSS, the Spotify model, or Flight Levels.
• Case studies of leadership decisions that enabled transformation.

Culture Under the Microscope: Organisations that Learn and Evolve

This theme explores organisational change, mindset shifts, and sustainable agility. It’s for anyone interested in creating environments where teams and leaders can thrive. Sessions could (but are not required to) explore:

• Scaling agility across multiple teams or departments with concrete frameworks.
• Breaking silos and fostering cross-functional collaboration.
• Embedding HR and people models that support agile ways of working.
• Sustaining transformation through wellbeing, inclusion, and diversity initiatives.
• Applying measurement, process frameworks, or agile maturity models to assess and improve culture.
• Stories of culture shifts that enabled tangible business or team outcomes.

Future-Proof or Future-Fiction?: Trends Shaping the Next Decade

This forward-looking theme examines innovations, trends, and experiments shaping the future of agile. It invites speakers to explore emerging practices and new approaches across industries and organisational contexts. Sessions could (but are not required to) explore:

• Emerging frameworks, hybrid practices, or new applications of agile.
• The intersection of technology (AI, automation, digital tools) and agile ways of working.
• Workforce evolution, generational shifts, and adapting to changing demographics.
• Innovation as a driver of organisational agility and customer-centric experimentation.
• Experimenting with measurable technical outcomes and performance improvements.
• Case studies of forward-looking experiments that challenge conventional practices.

Suggested Topics to Inspire Your Submission

While your session can fit within any track, we want to highlight some additional topics the Agile community is increasingly interested in. These are meant as inspiration; you don’t need to cover all, and your talk can explore other ideas as well.

People & Inclusion

• Neurodiversity in the workplace: designing processes and practices for different cognitive styles
• Integrating newer generations (Gen Z, younger millennials) into teams and leadership
• Cross-generational collaboration strategies
• Equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) initiatives in Agile teams

Technical & Process

• DevOps, continuous integration, and continuous delivery practices
• Technical debt management and refactoring in Agile teams
• Emerging frameworks and hybrid approaches (Disciplined Agile, SAFe, LeSS, Flight Levels)
• AI and machine learning applied to Agile (story generation, predictive planning, decision-making)
• Agile tooling and automation: digital boards, dashboards, and collaborative tools

Organisation & Leadership

• Agile beyond IT: marketing, HR, operations, finance, and other business functions
• Metrics for outcomes, not output: business value, impact measurement, and OKRs
• Adaptive leadership in times of complexity and uncertainty
• Agile workforce planning, HR policies, and talent development strategies

Innovation & Future Trends

• AI, automation, and digital transformation within Agile teams and organisations
• Hybrid and remote work practices for distributed teams
• Sustainability and Agile: aligning work with environmental and social goals
• Preparing organisations for the next decade of Agile practices

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Some considerations before submitting your paper

• What conversations have led to genuine transformation in your context?
• How can you use your session to open a new conversation in the room; one that invites dialogue, challenge, and exchange?
• How do we balance too much change with not enough, creating sustainability rather than fatigue?
• How can agile leadership evolve to unlock growth, adaptability, and human-centred ways of working?
• How do inclusion, neurodivergence, and new generations shape the next chapter of agility?
• What are the practices, experiments, or stories that genuinely shifted the needle in your context?

Points to guide you with your submission

• Your proposal aligns with our theme, From Conversations to Transformations, and adds depth or breadth to the community’s discussions.
• You can confidently deliver your session, whether you’re a seasoned speaker or a first-timer on the conference stage.
• Your session doesn’t just share knowledge, it creates space for new conversations.
• Attendees gain something valuable from the time spent in your session.
• Share any prior knowledge or experience that would help attendees get the most out of your session.

Audience Levels

• Choose the primary level of audience understanding your session is designed for:
• Foundational – 0–2 years of agile experience
• Intermediate – 2–5 years
• Advanced – 5+ years

Factors That Could Lead to Rejection

• Rehashing common or outdated topics without a fresh perspective.
• Thinly-veiled marketing or service promotion.
• Weak “golden thread” – if your why or through-line is unclear.
• Obvious lack of effort in crafting the submission.
• Please do not include any personally identifiable information (such as your name) in your submission as all reviews are anonymous.
• Ignoring these guidelines.

Formats

• Talk – 45 minutes (including Q&A).
• Workshop – 90 minutes, with at least 60% interactive activity.
• Lightning Talk – 15 minutes to spark ideas or conversations.

Successful Submissions

• All accepted speakers and co-speakers receive a ticket to the full conference.
• Please ensure you are familiar with the Code of Conduct and Speaker Terms & Conditions before submitting.

In addition to these guidelines, please review two past examples of successful submissions for a talk and workshop, respectively.

Example Talk

Example Workshop

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Timeline (Central Africa Time, UTC+2)

• 26 September 2025 – Call for Papers opens
• 26 September – 15 October 2025 – Support submission session available
• 26 September – 20 October 2025 – Submissions window open
• 20 October 2025 (midnight) – Call for Papers closes
• 24 October – 14 November 2025 – Paper reviews in progress
• 01 December 2025 – Final confirmation of speakers
• 12 December 2025 – Programme announcement

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Additional Information

(guidance for submitting a session)

A workshop versus a talk

A good guideline for a workshop is that your speaking time should be 40% or less of the total session duration, with the remainder dedicated to participant activities (such as exercises, group work, or interaction with other attendees). Workshops typically last 90 minutes, while talks are usually 45 minutes.

We pride ourselves on hosting a conference where all speakers respect one another and the audience, helping us to stay on schedule.

A lightning talk

Is short and punchy, just 15 minutes, including a brief introduction from the facilitator and any Q&A. A lightning talk doesn’t need to offer a solution; it can be designed to start a conversation, spark ideas, and get people thinking, or it could share something interesting you’ve experienced.

Successful Submissions:

All accepted speakers and co-speakers will receive a ticket to attend the full conference.

Please ensure you are familiar with the Code of Conduct and Speaker Terms & Conditions before making a submission.

By submitting to the SGZA 2026 system, you confirm that you have fully understood the content of both.

• Speaker Terms and Conditions
• SUGSA Code of Conduct

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Submission Guidelines

Read Carefully Before Completing the Call For Papers Fields

Attendees will see your title, description, and learning outcomes.

Session Title

Include a short, catchy title for your session.

Session Description

This will appear on the agenda. Consider what would motivate someone to attend your talk, what could draw their attention.

Talk Format

• A Talk should be 45 minutes including time for Q&A;
• Workshops should last 90 minutes; and
• A Lightning Talk is 15 minutes.

Levels

This is the expected level of experience of attendees you intend to target in the audience as mentioned above.

• Foundational: Focuses on attendees with 0-2 years of agile experience
• Intermediate: Focuses on attendees with 2-5 years of agile experience
• Advanced: Focuses on attendees with 5+ years of agile experience

Learning Outcomes

Please tell us what guests will gain from this session? What will they leave with or what might have changed for them as a result of attending your session?

State this in 3 to 5 bullet points.

Information for the Review Team

• Please do not include any personally identifiable information (such as your name or organisation) in this section.
• Please do an outline of how you will use the time and the structure of your talk or workshop (see examples of successful submissions for reference).
• Why will your session be relevant to the community?
• Provide any additional information that will help reviewers understand the value that participants will gain from your session.

Previous Talk Resources:

Please share any previous talks you’ve done, including links to recordings of these sessions if available. We strive for a balance of new and experienced speakers at each Gathering, so don’t worry if you don’t have anything to include here, SGZA26 may be your first, and we welcome new speakers!

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FAQs:

How do I add another submission?

• Select ‘My Events’ on your navigation bar/menu
• Select ‘Submit more’ under the heading ‘Sessions”

Am I going to get feedback on my submission?

• You may request feedback after the programme has been announced.
• Please note that we cannot guarantee that all submissions will receive reviewer feedback during the evaluation.