Cal Cities is seeking thorough, thoughtful, and complete proposals that tell how your session can help city attorneys improve their knowledge on a wide range of topics relevant to their roles within their city. Submissions from individuals, groups, businesses, or organizations on any topic are welcome. The call for proposals for the 2027 City Attorneys Spring Conference is open through Friday, November 6, 2026.
Accepted proposals must prepare a paper to accompany the presentation that meets the State Bar of California MCLE requirements, plus a PowerPoint presentation. Timing for accepted sessions will be determined by the City Attorneys Department Executive Committee.
Who Can Submit
Submissions from any individual, group, business or organization are welcome through Friday, Nov. 6. Please remember that all sessions require a well-conceived presentation, good visuals, and a great deal of rehearsal!
How It Works
Only proposals submitted online through the proposal form will be considered. When submitting your proposal, please keep proposals to a maximum of 300 words. Please be aware that some formatting, like bullet points or bolded text, may not transfer well when submitted.
Target Audience
This educational event is designed to keep city attorneys up to date on important issues to them and their cities.
Securing a spot on the program is highly competitive, with approximately 25 percent of proposals being accepted. You can increase your chances by preparing thorough, thoughtful, and complete proposals that tell how your session(s) would help city leaders and those who work within city governments to improve their careers and communities. When preparing your proposal(s), consider the following elements:
- Is there at least one peer of the audience on the panel?
- Is the topic new and/or critical for city attorneys and staff?
- Does the session apply to both seasoned and new city attorneys?
- Will it draw a wide audience?
- Will this issue stimulate action and further important discussion?
- Does the description clearly state what city attorneys and staff will learn from attending the session?
- 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
- Explain the "why" of your proposal
- Quality counts
Types of Proposals
More than 95 percent of each year's conference programming comes directly from the open call for proposals. Sessions may be scheduled as a general session or concurrent session at Cal Cities' discretion. Select one of the available formats listed below that best fits your topic and desired outcomes or propose an alternative session format.
All submissions for the City Attorneys Spring Conference will be considered as Legal Issues Sessions and are subject to modification by the City Attorneys Department Executive Committee.
This is a 20-60 minute session with one or more subject matter experts on the topic proposed. Speakers will create a whitepaper on the topic presented, and a presentation (PowerPoint or other) to accompany their session. Moderators will be assigned by the City Attorneys Department Executive Committee.
Panels consist of a moderator and a maximum of three speakers who participate in a 45-minute engaging presentation and discussion followed by approximately 15 minutes of questions and answers.
Facilitated Group Discussion More Details
A 60-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.
While several established session formats are available, you’re encouraged to propose a creative alternative if your idea doesn't fit one of the listed types. Include suggested length of time, room setup, and key details—accommodations depend on interest and logistics. Some examples are:
- Demonstration: A 60-minute session showing how to use a tool or concept (not hands-on).
- Professional Development Workshop: 45-minute, In-depth, longer-form learning with activities and real-world cases.
- Roundtable: 30-minute presentation + 30-minute discussion focused on shared learning.
Requirements, Review, and Policies More Details
Submission Requirements and Review
Submissions will be reviewed by the City Attorneys Executive Committee.
Cal Cities reserves the right to modify accepted proposal session titles, descriptions, presenters or other elements as necessary to insure balance, quality and enhance marketability. If an originally accepted speaker cancels, the session may be disqualified. Additional speakers not included in the original proposal are not permitted to be added without review and approval.
If your submission is accepted, please see the deadlines below for session materials to be submitted to Cal Cities:
- First Draft Papers: Wednesday, March 10
- Moderator Feedback: Wednesday, March 31
- First Draft Presentations: Monday, April 12
- Final Papers: Wednesday, April 14
- Moderator Feedback: Friday, April 16
- Final Presentations: Thursday, April 22
Successful Proposal Considerations
The following criteria may be considered during the review of submissions:
- 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 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 years of public presentation experience.
- Two or more years of experience related to working in or presenting on the topic or idea.
- More than two 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.
- Overall - In the end, you must make your case for the importance of this topic and its relevance to participants.
To ensure a variety of perspectives, Cal Cities may limit the number of times an individual, group, business, or organization can speak at a single conference. In addition, we recommend each panel have more than one city/county, firm, company or organization represented (exceptions may apply).
Registration and Speaker Policy
The League of California Cities is unable to provide full complimentary registration or any reimbursement of expenses, travel, or other compensation. Speakers on accepted proposals will receive a discount on full conference registration. We recognize and deeply appreciate your interest and commitment. The success of our program depends on the efforts of practicing professionals willing to volunteer their time to professional education.
Privacy Policy
We value your privacy and will never share any of your personal information nor sell your e-mail address to an outside party.