Call for Speakers
We invite practitioners, leaders, educators, researchers, and change-makers from across sectors to contribute to SDGC26 under the theme “Beyond Boundaries: Enabling Solutions That Shape Tomorrow.” This year’s conference explores how service design enables organizations and communities to move past today’s structural, cultural, technological, and environmental limits to create more resilient and meaningful futures. Join us from October 28–30, 2026 to share fresh perspectives, practical insights, and real cases that help navigate complexity and drive lasting change.
Key Dates
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Call opens: Wednesday, March 04, 2026
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Submission Deadline: Sunday, April 12, 2026
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Acceptance notification: Mid-June 2026
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Conference dates: October 28-30, 2026 (in-person + online)
Beyond Boundaries: Enabling Solutions That Shape Tomorrow
The SDGC26 theme, "Beyond Boundaries: Enabling Solutions That Shape Tomorrow” explores how organizations in the private and public sectors and communities are enabled to move past today’s limits and shape more resilient and meaningful futures through service design.
Across sectors, organizations are facing challenges that are structural, cultural, technological, and environmental. Overcoming them requires more than expertise in a single field—it calls for new ways of working, collaborating, and making sense of complexity.
Service design plays a key enabling role in this context. By bringing people together across disciplines, gathering relevant insights, enabling meaningful conversations, translating insight into action, and shaping solutions around real needs, service design helps organizations navigate transitions and create the conditions for lasting Change.
The conference will continue with its 3-day format, starting on October 28 with workshops, followed by two full days of a brilliant program around the theme: “Beyond Boundaries: Enabling Solutions That Shape Tomorrow”.
Whether you’re an industry veteran or an emerging voice, your insights matter. Join us in exploring how we can enable meaningful change, navigate complexity together, and shape resilient futures through service design.
Who Should Apply
We welcome proposals from practitioners, leaders, educators, researchers, and change-makers working across private and public sectors, as well as in communities and cross-sector collaborations.
Whether you are driving transformation within large organisations, experimenting with new models in smaller teams, advancing service design in academia, or working at the intersection of policy, technology, and society, your perspective is valuable.
We encourage both experienced speakers and emerging voices to apply. If your work demonstrates how service design enables meaningful change, navigates complexity, or contributes to more resilient and inclusive futures, we would be glad to hear from you.
Contribution Formats
Each speaking slot is 30 minutes in total: a 20-minute presentation followed by a 10-minute Q&A session. If any adjustments are needed, we will inform you as soon as possible.
Depending on the overall program content, speakers may also be invited to take part in panels, roundtables and discussion groups.
If you have a workshop idea, you can reach out directly to sdgcspeakers@service-design-network.org. Note that we prioritise workshops proposed by partner organisations. Once those are confirmed, we assess how many slots remain for non-partner proposals.
What We Value in Proposals
When preparing your submission, consider the following:
1/ Think about structure and language
Consider how you will present your session and how you will address the audience. You can adopt a traditional structure – outlining a problem and a solution space, and building a chronological sequence of events, ... – or you can think of new ways of sharing your voice. As for the language, please consider the diversity of the global community you will be speaking to and focus on making your presentation inclusive.
2/ Fresh perspectives
The audience is always looking to learn from new perspectives - think about what insights, viewpoints, or unique experiences you can bring to the table that will offer a fresh take on familiar topics. Consider how your talk can challenge existing ideas or introduce innovative concepts that spark curiosity and discussion.
3 / Practical insights and real cases
Include concrete examples, cases, or practical insights that help translate ideas into action. What can participants take back to their own practice? Share lessons learned, methods that worked (or didn’t), and tangible outcomes. Clear take-aways ensure your session creates lasting value beyond inspiration.
4/ Thought-through connection
We are also looking for a thought-through connection to the conference theme, ensuring that your talk not only resonates with the overarching narrative but also adds depth and relevance to the theme.
5/ Make it engaging
The conference is a great opportunity for fostering interactions among participants. Plan for discussion time, and think of ways you can connect to your audience. We welcome ideas to actively involve the audience during your talk - this enriches the experience, and makes the event more insightful for everyone.
All submissions are evaluated based on four criteria:
Uniqueness
Does the topic bring a fresh perspective or cover well-explored ground? We look for original insights that will captivate and inspire attendees.
Quality
Is the talk well-structured and clearly communicated? Strong storytelling and a logical flow are key to an engaging presentation.
Relevance
Does the talk align with the conference theme and address important trends or challenges in the field? It should resonate with our audience and contribute to meaningful discussions.
Presence
Can the speaker engage the audience effectively, whether in person or online? Confidence, clarity, and the ability to connect with attendees are essential.
What Selected Speakers Can Expect
Onboarding and support from the team
Accepted speakers will, as a first step, receive a confirmation email. Shortly after, we ask you to sign a speaker agreement. We will be with you along your speaker journey all the way up to the conference, during the conference, and also afterwards. To know in more detail what to expect from SDGC26, we will provide all speakers with an onboarding document. Please be prepared to have a call with our speaker team prior to the conference, which will be a chance for you to connect with the team, get answers to remaining questions, and make sure your content and the theme of the conference are aligned and match attendee expectations.
Speaker agreement
By submitting the information to present at SDGC26, and if your proposal is accepted, you agree to the following:
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Attend speaker onboarding and rehearsal calls before the conference
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Provide presentation materials to event organisers by the designated date (more information will be provided)
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Present your content as submitted and approved by the event content team
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Deliver your content in person at the conference venue
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Maintain your allotted presentation time window
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Promote the event through your social/professional networks
Participation in broader program
Depending on the program structure, speakers may also be invited to take part in panels, roundtables and discussion groups.
Benefits (ticket, membership, honorarium)
Speakers will receive a free conference ticket, a one-year professional SDN membership and a honorarium of 300 EUR (paid after the conference). Please note that in case of co-presented talks, we are able to provide these benefits only to 1 speaker per presentation.
The conference ticket includes attendance only to the conference days and doesn't include the workshop day. Registration for workshops will be open at a later stage.
Travel policy
Accommodation and travel expenses unfortunately cannot be covered.
Additional FAQ
What happens after my submission?
Once the call for speakers is closed, our team begins reviewing submissions. We ask for your patience, as every year we receive a large number of brilliant proposals and it takes a few weeks to review them all. After all proposals are processed, our team will get back to all submitters with an update on the acceptance status. Please expect an answer by mid-June, 2026. If you are not selected as a speaker, you will still be able to purchase an Early Bird ticket to attend the conference.
Can you provide feedback on why my proposal wasn’t accepted?
Due to the large number of submissions and our speaker team supporting the conference as volunteers, we unfortunately can’t provide feedback on every non-accepted submission. The reason doesn’t necessarily need to be related to the topic, but also to the limitations of the conference program. As much as we would like to incorporate all of the fantastic proposals we receive, this is unfortunately not possible. We hope for your understanding and are looking forward to your future submissions.
Thank you for being part of this community! We truly appreciate your time and support in helping it grow and thrive.
Keynote Speakers
Keynote Speaker
Peter Merholz
Consultant and Author focusing on Organizational Effectiveness and Leadership Development
Keynote Speaker
Jesse James Garrett
AI transformation strategy consultant and leadership coach
