The U.S. conference is taking place September 21–24, 2020, at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California.

The European conference is taking place 17-19 November 2020, at the Bella Center in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The deadline to submit for the U.S. conference is 5:00 p.m. PT on Friday, March 6, 2020.

The deadline to submit for the European conference is 17:00 CET on Friday 17 April 2020.

Yes, you may submit your session proposal to both conferences. You will need to go through the complete submission process for both the U.S. and European conferences. Please note the different submission deadlines for each conference.

Due to the high volume of submissions, we cannot accept all session proposals. The Content Review Committee will select the best session proposals based on the guidelines outlined on this website.

One speaker is allowed per breakout session. If you’d like to add a co-presenter, please provide your rationale during the submission process. All approved speakers will be provided a complimentary pass to Workday Rising. Speaker passes are not transferable. If you have questions regarding speaker passes, please contact risingspeakers@workday.com.

Workday Rising is organized by broader content categories aligned with audience experience paths. Select the track that is most relevant to your session proposal, even if your content works for multiple tracks. If your session proposal is selected, Workday may change your track to better suit our curriculum design. View this year’s tracks.

Workday Rising offers attendees the opportunity to learn how Workday solutions can meet the needs of unique industries. Content, sessions, and peer-to-peer networking will be featured in these industries:
 

• Financial Services & Insurance
• Healthcare (U.S. only)
• Higher Education (U.S. only)
• Professional & Business Services
• Public Sector (U.S. only)
• Retail & Hospitality
• Tech & Media

If you’ve reviewed the guidelines on this website and have your information ready, it should take about 15 minutes or less to complete the submission process. You can also save your partial session proposal and complete it later before the Call for Presentations closes. If you don’t complete your session proposal by the deadline, it will be marked with a “Partial” status and will not be considered for selection. You will receive an email confirmation that includes your session proposal details once it has been successfully submitted.

In addition to your session’s title, description, track, learning level, learning objectives, and speaker information, you should be prepared to answer the following questions as part of the submission process:

• This content is most relevant for which business size?

• This content is most applicable to which deployment stage?

• What level of Workday user will benefit most from this content?

• This session most closely aligns with which track?

• What other information, such as documents that help to tell your story, would you like the Content Review Committee to consider?

• Has your session content been used for a Workday webinar in the past year?

• Would you be willing to present this content at other Workday events?

You will be able to select from several options in the submission tool for many of these questions.

Consider short, straightforward titles that clearly describe what your session will cover. Clever titles might be fun, but remember that you’re vying for the attention of the Workday Rising Content Review Committee along with hundreds of other submissions. If your submission is selected, it will be published in the Session Catalog so make sure your title is clear and concise. There is a 100-character limit (including spaces) for the title.

See recommendations here.

Keep your session description short and simple. Articulate the value of the session, what you will cover, and what attendees can expect to learn. Include keywords that you think your target audience would search. Should your submission be selected, it will be published in the Session Catalog so it's important that your description matches the content that you will present. There is a 400-character limit (including spaces) for the description.

See recommendations here.

• Small enterprise: Fewer than 999 employees. For example, is your content for a lean team, for colleagues performing multiple roles, or for a quickly scaling business? 

• Medium enterprise: 1,000 to 3,499 employees. For example, is your content meant for companies experiencing accelerated growth, responding to risk, or leveraging new technology?

• Large enterprise: 3,500 to 29,999 employees. For example, is your content for established companies seeking to drive efficiency, ensure compliance, make data-driven decisions, or build a smart business?

• Major/mega: 30,000 employees or more. For example, is your content geared toward companies with very complex, global deployments?
• Not applicable: For example, does your content cover a pressing business topic or opportunity applicable to all business sizes, such as diversity and inclusion, responding to GDPR, and so on?

• Pre-deployment: The company is preparing for deployment.

• In deployment: The company is actively deploying Workday.

• Early deployment: The company has been live on Workday for one to three years. Content might include information on team organization, setting up data, defining projects and business processes, or setting priorities.
• Mature deployment: The company has been live on Workday for more than three years. Content might include how to assess feature adoption, use analytics to derive more business insights, or explore expansion into other areas of the business.

• Professional/daily user: A person who uses Workday products in their functional role on a daily basis in support of operational objectives. 
• Workday deployment administrator: A person in a technical role who facilitates ongoing Workday production and integration throughout their company or team.
• Director/business leader: A person responsible for strategic decision-making on behalf of their team or organization.
• Enterprise developer: A person chartered with developing custom extensions on Workday for their company.

Introductory: An overview of basic use cases, features, and benefits for people new to Workday or to specific features.

Intermediate: The audience has some knowledge of the subject matter but needs additional information on technology, design, deployment, or troubleshooting.

Advanced: More-detailed use cases are covered so users should be experienced and have a deep understanding and knowledge of Workday features, configurations, and integrations.

All Levels: These sessions are relevant to anyone and include Workday best practices, customer case studies, new features, and business processes.

View example sessions for each of these learning levels.

Provide three key takeaways attendees will gain from your session. Use action verbs to describe the skills, benefits, or knowledge they will learn about. For example, “How to…” “The benefits of…” or “Learn about…”

Yes. If you need to make edits, select the Edit icon next to the section you want to update.

Read the U.S. speaker agreement here and the Europe speaker agreement here.

Presenting takes a considerable amount of time and effort. Because you become part of the attendee experience, we want you to be aware of the commitment required to be a speaker.

• Call for Presentations opens February 6, 10:00 AM PT/19:00 CET

• Call for Presentations closes March 6 at 5:00 PM PT for U.S.; 17 April at 17:00 CET for Europe

• Acceptance notifications sent week of April 13 for U.S.; week of 8 June for Europe

• Early Bird registration opens June 9, U.S.; 30 June, Europe

• Final presentation due August 6, U.S.; 1 October, Europe

Note: Deadlines are subject to change.

No, you will not be able to edit your session proposal or have access to the submission tool once the Call for Presentations closes. If you have an incomplete session proposal (“Partial” status), it will not be included in the selection process.

The Content Review Committee plans to send notifications in mid-April for the U.S. conference, and mid-June for the European conference.

Workday will not reimburse travel or lodging, or provide other financial compensation for speakers. 

Unfortunately, we are unable to accept your session proposal if you change companies. Your session will be canceled and removed from our conference program.

Our support team is here to help with all technical issues. Email risingspeakers@workday.com with any questions or concerns.

You can visit www.workdayrising.com/us for more information about the U.S. conference or www.workdayrising.com/europe for more information on the Europe conference. Check back for more details on each conference as we get closer to registration launch.