ATD HOUSTON 2025 TALENT DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE AND EXPO

Mark your calendars for the upcoming ATD Houston Talent Development Conference, a key event for professionals in the talent development field. Scheduled for Thursday, September 18, 2025, the conference will be held at the West Houston Institute, located at 2811 Hayes Rd., Houston, TX 77082.  

You are invited to send in your proposal to present at the ATD Houston 2025 Talent Development Conference and Expo, Houston’s premier talent development event to be held on 9/18/25. This request provides you the information to submit your proposal and share your knowledge and experience with the talent development influencers in Houston and the surrounding region. 

Submission Timeline

• Jun 23, 2025 (11:59pm): Proposals are due.
• Proposals must be uploaded by that time. https://tdhouston.wufoo.com/forms/2025-td-conference-speaker-application/
• July 21, 2025: Those submitting proposals will be notified of the final decisions.
• Aug 29, 2025: Final date for selected presenters to provide the presentation and participant materials to the ATD Houston Conference Committee. (More info about this submission process will be provided if you are selected to present.)

Reasons to Submit Your Proposal

• Receive a complimentary event registration if selected to present (one per presentation).
• Earn Speaker points towards your APTD or CPTD.
• Make your gifts and talent visible to your peers.
• Promote your personal theories and ideas that have resulted in success.
• Give back to the community that has helped you grow.

Tips for Being Selected

• Make sure your presentation, activities and Q&A fits within the 60-minutes you’ll be given.
• Clearly demonstrate how you’ll enhance attendee capabilities in one of the conference tracks.
• In your submission, describe how you will engage the attendees to participate in the discussion and learn in real time.
• Convince the reviewers that attendees will be able to apply something nearly immediately as a result of that learning from you.

Conference Tracks

Below are descriptions of the four tracks for the ATD Houston 2025 conference. The track descriptions are broad categories, but they all focus on the conference theme, Future Ready Talent — Resilience in Action.

Track 1: Functional Leadership

Empowering leaders to guide teams with clarity, empathy, and adaptability in fast-changing environments.

Sample Topics:

• Adaptive leadership in a disrupted world
• Coaching for resilience and emotional intelligence
• Managing burnout and change fatigue
• Evolving leadership structures

Ideal Speakers: Executive coaches, CHROs, people leaders, transformation consultants

Track 2: Skills That Stick

Building skill-focused strategies that develop agile, future-ready workforces.

Sample Topics:

• Power skills: adaptability, creativity, critical thinking
• Learning agility as a core competency
• Internal talent mobility and personalized learning
• Cross-generational mentoring

Ideal Speakers: L&D leaders, talent strategists, workforce futurists

Track 3: Designing for Impact

Modernizing instructional design to create scalable, engaging, outcome-driven learning.

Sample Topics:

• Hybrid and mobile learning design
• Gamification, simulations, and scenario-based learning
• AI and automation in instructional workflows
• Agile and rapid content development

Ideal Speakers: Instructional designers, digital learning experts, learning engineers

Track 4: People First — Building Cultures for Tomorrow

Fostering inclusive, human-centered cultures that drive resilience, connection, and engagement.

Sample Topics:

• Embedding positive leadership into learning strategies

• Mental health and emotional intelligence in learning environments

• Storytelling and identity as tools for connection and resilience

• Navigating organizational change with a human lens

Ideal Speakers: DEIB leaders, culture consultants, employee experience strategists

The ATD Capability Model

We emphasize use of the ATD Capability Model. Reviewers will reference that model when evaluating your submissions.

Several ATD Houston members made their first conference presentations with less than five years’ experience. All you need is something worthy to share and a great way to share it. That said, here’s an offer to those of you who have never presented. If you desire a pep talk or coaching session to get create a submission, send an email to pastpresident@tdhouston.org.

Those with questions related to this RFP may also email speakerconferencechair@tdhouston.org for answers to those questions.

Remember That Due Date

• June 23, 2025  (11:59pm): Proposals are due.
• Proposals must be uploaded to by that time. https://tdhouston.wufoo.com/forms/2025-td-conference-speaker-application/
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