Proposed topics must align with the symposium theme of "Influencing without Authority" and should be compelling to the attendees. Presentations should be practical and applicable to individuals and organizations from a wide spectrum of organizations and backgrounds. Interpretation of this theme is encouraged, and presenters from any industry, discipline, or project environment are welcome.

Possible topic categories include the following: 

• Skills and techniques:   
  • What tips, tools, and techniques have you used to secure reliable commitments and motivate team members who report to other managers? 
  • Have you established strong relationships and trust among contributors having diverse backgrounds and loyalties? 
  • How have you involved peripheral contributors, managed conflicting priorities, and rewarded team performance? 
  • How do you effectively communicate and lead teams with diverse organizational, cultural, and experiential backgrounds?

• Case studies: 
  • Do you have practices to share for effectively motivating contractors or project contributors who report to others?
  • Have you successfully developed high-performing cross-functional teams? 
  • What can you share about your experience leading diverse project teams (both good and bad)?

• Methodology: 
  • What ideas and technologies have you found useful when dealing with cross-functional teams?
  • What concepts and processes do you find work best for leading project teams who report to multiple managers or organizations?
  • Have you applied Agile Methodologies while leading diverse teams? 

• Success Stories or valuable lessons learned:  
  • How have you used leadership practices to influence and motivate teams of people you do not directly supervise? 
  • What “war stories” can you share to help others achieve better outcomes?

Preference will be given to presentations that:

• Reflect leadership best practices in program and project management

• Emphasize on case studies and concrete examples

• Are from speakers having proven online presentation skills and extensive backgrounds
• Illustrate effective, evolving project management techniques or developments
• Provide practical value for our audience of seasoned project leaders from the Silicon Valley industries here in the San Francisco Bay Area
• Have not previously been delivered at other conferences.

If we have more excellent submissions than we can accept, and yours is declined, we still have good news.  Day Two is an Open Space, with many sessions across four time slots.  You can announce your topic on the day, and participants will still have a chance to hear from you.

Accepted presenters will receive the following:

Each presenter will have a total of 55 minutes to present, with 40-45 minutes to deliver content and 10-15 minutes for Q&A with the audience.

• Submission Date: Submit your proposals by July 9, 2021.
• All proposals will be reviewed by a committee and the selected presenters will be notified by August 2, 2021.
• Sample dry run for presentations might be conducted between late August 2021 depending on speakers' experience.
• Final presentations are due on September 11, 2021.

• The symposium will be conducted over the Zoom platform.
• There will be Zoom experts present during each session to help the speaker and facilitate the webinar.

If you have any queries regarding Theme or need any further details, please contact us at symposium_paper@pmisv.org.