Municipal Finance Institute

Below are key presenter deadlines and a link to the Speakers Agreement. Please read and complete the required fields to acknowledge your acceptance of the League of California Cities’ presenter guidelines. Providing your digital signature allows Cal Cities to move forward in planning and promoting your session, as well as publish your name and affiliation on our website and in marketing materials. Your contact information will remain strictly confidential.

Should you have any questions, please contact the education department.

Important deadlines 

Our goal is to provide exceptional educational experiences, networking opportunities, and innovative tools that will make attendees and their cities more successful. Studies show that adults learn best when they are actively involved in the process rather than passively listening or watching. Most attendees are knowledgeable about the subject, and therefore are interested in hearing what others know and what their experiences have been. Accordingly, we urge you to plan your presentation with these suggestions in mind.

• "The presentation was a 'sales' pitch for a particular product or service."
• "I couldn't read the slides."
• "One speaker took so much time that the others were not able to give their full presentations."
• "I'd like more practical knowledge."

• Relevant content for experienced audiences that stretches thinking and provides new approaches.
• Content that is delivered in an engaging way and draws on the experience of the attendees.
• Examples and case studies of real success (and successful failures).
• Try to add stories, anecdotes, testimonials, or demonstrations that emphasize your point. We all remember a good story, and thus more easily the lesson with it.
• Provide tools and information that the audience can implement.
• If there are other speakers in your session, coordinate with them in advance to decide your speaking order and ensure that all presentations fit into the assigned time allotment. If you do not have the contact information for your co-presenters, please contact us at education@calcities.org.
• Selling from the podium creates conflict of interest problems. Cal Cities educational sessions should never be an advertisement. Therefore, presentations may not include any commercialism for specific products or consulting services.

Submitting Your Session Materials

The League of California Cities encourages our presenters to use the most engaging educational platform possible when speaking at the Municipal Finance Institute. We recognize that each session has a unique format and presentation style based on the preferences of the speaker(s) and content being presented, but the following three examples are provided as a general guideline in planning your session.

• Welcome
• Frame session
• Introduce speakers

• Summary of relevant experience
• Learning objectives
• Core session content
• Summary of key points

• Facilitate Q&A
• Final comments

• Welcome
• Frame session
• Introduce speaker

• Summary of relevant experience
• Learning objectives
• Core session content
• Summary of key points

• Facilitate Q&A
• Final comments

Who Can Submit

How It Works

Target Audience

• Is the topic new and/or critical for city government?
• Will it draw a wide audience?
• Will this issue stimulate action and further important discussion?
• Does the panel reflect the diversity of California cities (north/south, large/small, urban/rural)?

Tips for Successful Proposals

• Think big
• Vary the viewpoint
• Pare down the panel
• Speaker skills matter
• Plan for a crowd
• Try something new
• Interact with the audience
• Fill in the blanks
• Quality counts

Types of Proposals

• Keynote Speaker 
  Keynote speakers are high-profile and designed to bring everyone together for a general session / and may set the tone of the event. This format permits approximately 45-60 minutes of an engaging presentation by a single speaker. Depending on time restrictions, the presentation may be followed by approximately 15 minutes of questions and answers with the audience or a moderator. 
• Panel Discussion
  Panels consist of a moderator and a maximum of three speakers who participate in a 60 minute engaging presentation and discussion followed by approximately 15 minutes of questions and answers.
• Speed Sessions
  Fifteen minute bursts of information on one topic by one speaker followed by five minutes of questions & answers. Typically, these engaging presentations are based on focused projects or personal experience.
• Facilitated Group Discussion
  A 75 minute interactive conversation on a topic led by a single facilitator. You may include a maximum 15 minute presentation on which the issue/concern is framed and, then, guide a discussion among the attendees with prepared questions. At the conclusion of the discussion, the facilitator must spend time summarizing key findings, suggestions, and points. 
• Alternative Format
  Be creative! If your session does not fit one of the above formats, this is your opportunity to propose something different. Please be sure to provide the time, room setup, and other important details. Alternative formats will be accommodated based on interest level, space, and set-up availability.

Submission Requirements and Review

Successful Proposal Considerations

• Relevance - What are the practical applications of your ideas? Have you included reasoning and documentation to support your conclusions, recommendations and outcomes? Conference attendees prefer presentations focused on outcomes or results. Make the definition and background portions of your presentation brief. Highlight problems encountered, options available, choices made, documented pre- and post-change effects and lessons learned.
• Content expands attendees' knowledge - Will your presentation expand knowledge beyond entry-level basics? Most conference participants are elected officials, appointed officials, and seasoned professionals. In general, direct your presentation to an intermediate or advanced audience.
• Originality - Does your presentation advance existing ideas or present new ideas? Has this material been presented elsewhere? You might apply proven techniques to new problems or identify and apply new approaches, techniques or philosophies. Assess the degree to which an application is a new tool. Avoid highlighting a named product or service…focus instead on the general attributes, benefits and drawbacks of a given application, process or tool.
• Examples - Do you have an appropriate number of examples? Documenting comparative results convinces participants that your ideas have been tested in the real world.
• Timeliness - Will your presentation still be up-to-date and cutting-edge in six to nine months when the conference occurs? Will your topic have implications in the future? How relevant is your topic in the context of pending legislation, regulations and technology?
• Inclusion of good, solid insights - What attendees want to learn is the reality versus the hype, the positive and negative attributes, problems encountered but not often discussed, realistic expectations for the operational use and adaptability to a changing environment. They are searching for guidelines and models to simplify or manage their own application or installation.
• Logical conclusions - Are your conclusions supported by data? Attendees place a high value on supporting data in assessing the value and applicability of presentations. Include adequate and convincing details.
• Identification of outside resources - Have you included sources of information, benchmark data or other examples?
• Avoidance of product/vendor commercial - No commercials and/or proprietary information for particular products, services or vendors are permitted.
• Completeness of proposal - The quality, completeness and accuracy of the proposal will be considered during the session selection process.
• Preferred Speaker Qualifications - Panelists should reflect the diversity of California with a north/south, large/small, urban/rural representation when possible.
  • Five or more (5+) years of public presentation experience.
  • Two or more (2+) years of experience related to working in or presenting on the topic or idea.
  • More than two (2) successful speaking engagements to large audiences at a regional or state level in the past two years.
  • Must not pose a conflict of interest with subject/business area or must disclose such information in each speaker bio submitted.
  • No commercialism.

To ensure a variety of perspectives, Cal Cities policy limits the number of times an individual, group, business or organization can speak at a single conference. In addition, each panel should have no more than one panelist per city/county, firm, company or organization (exceptions may apply).

• Overall - In the end, you must make your case for the importance of this topic and its relevance to participants.

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