SHAPE THE FWD+ORGANISE AGENDA

Want to speak at FWD+Organise, run a session or just to share an idea of what you want to see on the agenda? You’ve come to the right place!

FWD+Organise will bring together campaigners, communicators, digital change-makers, and community organisers from across the country and Aotearoa - to hear from inspiring and innovative changemakers around the world and get fired up to win systemic change.

Through our programming, we want to create a space centred around hope, courage and actions you can take the next day.

Submit your ideas for the FWD+Organise program below.

WHAT MAKES A GREAT WORKSHOP?

Successful case studies and workshops are practical and skills-focused, and range from beginner/basic to expert/advanced level.

We are looking for workshop sessions that are relevant to:

  • Grassroots activists, both newbies and activists with more experience

  • Professional campaigners and organisers, folks who work for small to large progressive campaigning organisations

The focus streams for FWD+Organise are organising, digital and messaging. We’d love to receive submissions on the following topics, but don’t let this list limit your creativity:

  • Effective messaging strategy, including Race Class Gender Narrative

  • The future of online organising and digital campaigning

  • Persuasion and frameworks for building community power

  • Building and nurturing alliances and coalitions

  • New media tools, digital advertising and social media

  • Using data to win campaigns and measure success

TIMELINE

  • Shape the agenda and session pitches open: September

  • Shape the agenda/session pitches close: 10th November 

  • Team review: November/December 

  • Response emails sent out: January 

  • Full agenda announced: Early March 2027 

  • FWD+Organise 2027: 4-5th May

OTHER INFORMATION

  • We receive hundreds of suggestions; roughly 1 in every 5 become a session. 

  • We often receive multiple pitches on similar topics - so if your idea doesn't get up, it doesn’t mean we’re not covering it somewhere else in the program.

  • We remain hands-on to help develop impactful and interactive programming. We may merge ideas, make changes, suggest additional or different speakers or change the format, etc.

  • We will rarely hand control of a session fully over to a proposer/organiser - not that we don’t think you’re all excellent, but with so many ideas and proposals, we find this is the best way to ensure impact across the whole event. 

  • Please be patient in expecting a response to your submission; we’re a small team receiving a large number of suggestions. 

  • For vendors or businesses serving the non-profit sector, we're open to sponsorship. You can get in touch at info@australianprogress.org.au. 

  • FWD+Organise is focused on sharing ideas, tools and innovations, so be mindful of self-promotion and focus on the impact of the movement. 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

  • The majority of the sessions will be training workshops (one or two presenters). We are also accepting submissions for expert briefings, case studies, creative projects or other formats, depending on where your creativity takes you.

    Ideal case studies of current or past campaigns draw out lessons that are applicable for other campaigners, organisers and communicators. These lessons can be wins, fails and everything in between. We rarely accept workshops that are pitches of live campaigns.

    We won’t be screening films at FWD+Organise, but if your documentary is about a campaign or community win, or if you’ve used film screenings as a tactic to organise, we’d be open to exploring the campaign/tactic.

  • The team at Australian Progress will review all submissions and make decisions on programming based on the objectives of FWD+Organise. In developing the agenda and conference objectives, we will have hundreds of conversations with advocates and change-makers across the sector. These conversations will then inform the way we select and design sessions. We also look at past conference agendas and what’s happening in the sector more broadly: have we included something similar at a recent event? Is FWD+Organise the best place for this conversation? In the context of where our movements will be in 2027, what topics are particularly urgent or timely?

  • to expert/advanced levels. We want attendees to be able to walk away from a training session and say, “I learned this skill,”“Tomorrow I will do x differently…” etc.

    When describing your trainers, tell us why their expertise makes them a good fit for your session.

    Think about how your session will empower others to take what they’ve learnt and apply it in their own work. The best sessions will be interactive and draw from the experience and expertise of people in the room.

  • Our priority is content focusing on the intersection of racial justice, gender, class, disability justice, environmental justice/climate change and economic justice; not every case study or example will draw from these fields, but it will shape the way we select content across the program as a whole.

    Please consider inclusivity and accessibility as you submit your ideas; we prioritise sessions that include speakers from affected communities and speakers with lived experience, and are looking for speakers from a diversity of backgrounds (ethnicity, gender, age, lived experience and organisation, etc).

  • Workshop sessions will be up to 90 minutes.

  • If selected, your session will take place on either the 4th or 5th of May. We will confirm exact timing when the program is locked in early 2027.

  • Yes. You can indicate that on the form.

  • Yes. Australian Progress relies heavily on registration fees to fund the conference. With over 80 speakers, we ask that everyone purchase a ticket for the event.

    However, we do not want the ticket cost to be a barrier that keeps a vital voice from being heard, so a limited number of discounted and scholarship tickets will be available for First Nations people, people with disability, people of colour, young people (under 21), refugees and people seeking asylum, as well as unwaged activists/people with low income.

    Once sessions are selected, information on how to request a discounted or scholarship ticket will be provided.

  • The majority of speakers are expected to cover their own travel and hotel accommodations. We have a limited budget to support the travel and accommodation of speakers who are First Nations people, people with disability, people of colour, refugees and people seeking asylum, as well as unwaged activists.

  • Yes, the email will come from info@australianprogress.org.au.

  • If you need to add additional information, please email info@australianprogress.org.au.

    Please email in the same thread as your confirmation of submission to help us keep details organised. 

  • We will get back to all submissions by January 2027.

  • Most of the information is just for our team to have or so we can get in contact with you if we have questions. If your session is selected, we will post your session title and description, but you will have a chance to revise/update before publishing.

    At the actual conference, we will have librarians from the Commons Social Change Library on hand to document the program and lessons shared. You can always opt-out of having your session shared on the Commons Social Change Library.

  • Email us at info@australianprogress.org.au .