SOMSA Speaker Selection Process

Topics for Next Conference—April 2024

For the 2024 conference, we are developing an educational program covering the following topics:

• Adapting to the changing HR landscape in an industry that requires in-person jobs
• Engaging employees across departments, locations, and roles in order to retain staff
• Lonely leadership, how to thrive when we keep giving and giving and making (what feels like) no one happy
• How to train and provide instructions/education effectively, and how we are perceived by employees during instructional sessions.
• How to interact with employees effectively (potentially workshop style session)

Speaker Selection Process

Before sending us an unsolicited email pitching yourself or your speaker, please consider the following.

• We rarely select speakers based on the unsolicited emails because they rarely connect with our educational goals.
• Know your audience. Our attendees are not general dentists or staff; they are oral surgery practice administrators. They make or influence many decisions for their practices. Please make sure your proposal is aimed at our attendee population.
• If you would like to pitch yourself or your speaker for the next SOMSA conference please do not do so before August 1. By then, we will have identified the desired topics and programs for the following year for both our Education and Conference committees and this page will be updated to include those topics (see above).
• These committees work hard to determine the educational needs of our members based on various needs assessments, and if your speaker cannot present on our focused range of educational topics, we will not respond to your email.
• That also means that if your email does not list potential presentation topics, you will never hear back from us. Do not continue to spam us if you don’t hear back. Unless, of course, your subsequent emails are updated to include the following information.

How to Submit a Speaker Profile for Consideration

If your speaker can present on our requested topics, please send an email with links or attachments to presentation outlines, and include the following

• headshot
• bio
• session titles
• session descriptions
• session learning objectives (required for us in order to offer AGD PACE continuing education)
• videos of previous presentations or sizzle reels

We are unable to consider speakers who do not include descriptions of potential presentations, including at least a title and a summary of the presentation. You will not receive an email back if you do not include this in your initial email. We cannot contact all those who submit proposals to us. If you don’t hear back by November 1, please hold tight and check this page next August.