CDI National Conference 2026: Call for workshop proposals
2 & 3 December 2026 | The Burlington Hotel, Birmingham
Submit your proposal on this form by Monday 14th September, 5 pm.
Introduction
We are delighted to be hosting the 2026 CDI National Conference on 2nd and 3rd December at The Burlington Hotel, Birmingham. This headline event in the career development calendar is unique in bringing together professionals from across all areas of professional practice, throughout the UK, to discuss strategic issues facing the country and the profession, as well as to share tangible experience and insights to inform policy development, research and practice.
The conference is a fantastic opportunity to showcase your work by hosting a workshop, raising the profile of yourself and your organisation, engaging peers in valuable discussion, and exploring new ideas and approaches. As always with our conferences, the CDI is keen to hear from both established and new voices, to continue to widen and enhance the visibility of work across the sector.
A career-ready UK: Ensuring young people and adults can thrive throughout life
This year's theme explores what it means to build a career-ready UK through lifelong learning, career management and essential work skills. We will focus on how career readiness can be developed across education and adulthood, while championing it as a key goal and highlighting the value of professional career development.
Workshop proposals
We are keen to hear from practitioners, researchers and policymakers who wish to lead workshops related to this theme. Workshops will be 40 minutes long and should be designed to be interactive, with no more than 20 minutes of presentation material.
The style of workshops can vary depending on the content – such as a presentation then discussion, a panel style approach or other interactive format.
Why submit a proposal?
.JPG) | Presenting a workshop at the CDI National Conference is not only an excellent opportunity to showcase your work, it's also brilliant CPD in its own right, building your experience, and confidence, in public speaking in a supportive environment. It's a wonderful way to raise your own profile and that of your organisation, plus speakers find it enhances their experience of the conference through engagement with a wider group of attendees. Successful workshop hosts receive one free ticket for the day of the conference on which they are presenting and a discounted rate for the second day's attendance. Workshops that have two presenters will also receive a discounted rate on the second ticket for one or two days. We do not pay workshop hosts for travel or time to deliver the workshops, other than in exceptional circumstances. If you require such support, please do let us know in your submission and we can discuss it if your application is successful. |
Workshops will be selected by the organisers based on alignment with the conference theme, the interactivity of the session and to achieve a balance of sessions that reflect the breadth of career development work.
To submit a workshop proposal please complete the form by 5pm on Monday 14th September.
If you have any questions, please contact Luiza de Oliveira.