Main Street Now 2027 Call for Proposals
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Thank you for your interest in presenting at the 2027 Main Street Now Conference, Main Street America's annual conference and the largest national gathering of local leaders working to advance preservation-based economic opportunity in downtowns and neighborhood commercial districts. The conference will be held in Detroit, Michigan with education sessions taking place Monday, May 3 through Wednesday, May 5, 2027.
The 2027 Call for Proposals opened on Wednesday, July 22, 2026 and will close on Friday, September 4, 2026 at 11:59 pm CT or until we reach the 250 cap. After the deadline or cap is reached, we will no longer accept session proposals.
Here are some quick tips to craft a winning proposal:
1. Start With a Strong Title - Choose an engaging and concise title that clearly describes your session – we recommend 8 words or less!
2. Stick to Your Session Description - Attendees invest a lot of time in selecting sessions that meet their learning needs based on session descriptions, and they express disappointment when the session content doesn’t match. Please take care in crafting an accurate description that gives attendees a clear idea of what to expect. If selected, you’ll have an opportunity to make fine-tuned edits before we publish the agenda.
3. Be Complete and Comprehensive - To make your proposal more compelling, avoid saying "TBD” or including placeholder information. Provide adequate details about your session content and speakers so the review committee can understand your vision.
4. Think About Format - Main Street Now Conference attendees love practical, interactive sessions. Use the “About” section to tell us how you’ll deliver your content. Consider including techniques and activities you will use to engage the audience.
5. Skip the Commercials - Education sessions may not be used to self-promote or sell anything. We welcome product experts and consultants, but we do not allow commercial content or presentations containing endorsements for products or services. We encourage you to focus on sharing knowledge and building skills. Consider inviting a Main Street practitioner to speak with you and demonstrate how your product/service has worked on the ground.
6. Quality Over Quantity - Please only send us your top two, strongest ideas. This helps ensure top-quality session content for attendees and an enjoyable conference experience for speakers.
7. Don’t Delay - we can only take 250 proposals, so make time to submit early for your best chances of being accepted!
8. Be Polished - Make sure your proposal is publication-ready by reviewing for clarity, completeness, and spelling and punctuation errors.
9. Don’t Skip the Fine Print! - Read the Submitter Terms and Conditions carefully – they contain helpful information about what the review committee is looking for and what to expect as a Main Street Now Conference speaker.
10. Stay in the Loop - Before you submit, make sure your Submittable account has your correct name and email address. Then, add notifications@email.submittable.com to your contacts to receive updates about your proposal. Otherwise, emails sent via the submission portal may end up in your junk folder!
If you would like a Word version of this application to assist in the gathering of content and speaker information prior to submission, you can download it here. Please note that applications must be submitted through this online form to be considered. The committee will not accept applications in the form of the Word document above.