Call for proposals has now closed. Submissions were accepted Thursday, November 14 through Monday, November 25, 2024.
Thank you to all who submitted a proposal, we aim to let you know if your submission has been accepted in February 2025. If selected, you must confirm your participation and all session details by March 21, 2025.
Questions? Get in touch at summit@codeforamerica.org
We want to hear from you
We welcome submissions from anyone whose work touches government technology and civic innovation. Whether you’re a government employee, a technologist, an academic, or anyone else in the civic tech space—if you’re doing the hard work of improving peoples’ lives through technology and government, your knowledge and passion has a place here.
Summit is the place where experts and leaders learn from newcomers and beginners, and vice versa. We invite anyone to share their story, regardless of career stage or level of experience.
Based on attendee feedback from previous years, we’re encouraging more session submissions that dive into technical or advanced content for Summit 2025. This will help meet the demand for deeper insights and skill-building opportunities among our attendees.
Theme
Designing for change,
delivering for the future
We’re at a defining moment where the civic tech community has proven that longstanding systems can be changed. We must keep pushing forward—not just to create better outcomes for everyone today, but to build a stronger, more resilient government for tomorrow.
Conference tracks
Policy + Administration
In many ways, policy and technology are two sides of the same government coin. Policy is how the government creates the guardrails for our society, and technological implementation is how those policies are brought to life. But there’s often a disconnect between the intention of a policy and its impact when implemented. This track focuses on bringing policy and administrative decisions closer to their desired real-world impacts.
Service Design + Delivery
This track focuses on the end-to-end design and delivery of government services, which are at the core of what matters most—where people experience government. Delivery of services, technical or non-technical, was once viewed as an afterthought to policy decisions. Today, we know that a just and equitable government must get implementation right.
Emerging Technology + Innovation
It’s critical we leverage the latest advancements to build more equitable and efficient public services. Emerging technologies like artificial intelligence have the power to transform government services, but we must ensure that they are deployed thoughtfully and ethically. This track showcases the latest technologies and forward-thinking strategies that are driving positive change and reshaping the future of civic technology.
People Power + Community
Over a decade ago, Code for America was founded on the belief that government can work for the people, by the people, in the digital age. This track is for anyone who believes that our best creative problem solving comes from bringing people together. It spotlights change agents and innovators who influence government to better serve all people.
Why apply to present at Summit?
Show what’s possible
Let’s face it, this is hard work—work that doesn’t always get recognized or appreciated. Summit is your opportunity to show others what’s possible, but also an opportunity for you to learn about what your peers are doing across the country.
Teach others
Have a really interesting problem that you, your team, or your organization solved in the past year? Share your story, and show others how you made it happen. Chances are that if you had a challenge and struggled with something, someone else did too.
Increase broader visibility into your work
Raise up your organization or agency to a national audience. Whether you’re hiring or looking to build your profile and your brand, you’ll find the right people at Summit.
How to submit your proposal
Follow these easy steps to apply.
Step 1: Review our submission guidelines and tips
Check out our helpful FAQs on Summit submissions to help make your proposal stand out from the hundreds we receive annually.
Step 2: Submit your proposal
We encourage you to provide information about your co-presenters in the submission form, as this will assist our Content Committee in evaluating your submission. Our goal is to select content that reflects the diverse perspectives and experiences of our attendees.
Call for proposals has now closed. Submissions were accepted Thursday, November 14 through Monday, November 25, 2024.
Thank you to all who submitted a proposal, we aim to let you know if your submission has been accepted in February 2025. If selected, you must confirm your participation and all session details by March 21, 2025.
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where is Summit 2025?
Code for America Summit 2025 will be an in-person experience May 29–30 in Washington, D.C. Breakout sessions and lightning talks will be held on both Thursday, May 29 and Friday, May 30. You will be able to select which day(s) you are available and we will do our best to accommodate your selections.
How should I structure my session?
Breakout sessions last one hour, allowing for at least ten to fifteen minutes for questions and answers. We strongly encourage no more than three or four presenters per panel, including the submitter. We’re eager to see how you would structure your session—we encourage sessions with an interactive element to engage your audience. Please specify how you’ll use the time to deliver quality, engaging material.
Lightning talks are short but impactful five-minute talks with a limited slide presentation given by one individual. Selected lightning talks will be delivered one after another, in a time slot concurrent with breakout sessions.
Virtual webinars last an hour, allowing for at least ten to fifteen minutes for questions and answers. Like breakout sessions, we strongly encourage no more than three or four presenters per panel, including the submitter. Webinars will take place on Zoom in the months leading up to Summit as a part of our Find Your Summit series.
Will my session be on the Summit mainstage?
Sessions submitted through the call for proposals process are for breakout sessions, lightning talks, or virtual webinars, and will not appear on the mainstage. Mainstage content is not selected via the call for proposals process.
Who is the Summit audience?
Code for America Summit is open to anyone and everyone whose work touches government technology and civic innovation.
What should I know about Summit attendees?
Our attendees represent a wide range of local, state, and federal government, as well as civic tech practitioners from across the country. They include public servants (both technical and non-technical) who are involved in delivering government services, representatives of technology vendors who work with governments, nonprofit advocates, and other change agents.
Approximately 40% of our 2024 registrants worked in government while the other 60% worked in nonprofits, the private sector, philanthropy, and other fields.
Usually, about 60% of our attendees are new to Summit. When submitting your proposal, please think about whether your content is introductory level or more advanced.
What’s the key information to include in submissions?
For your submission, you’ll need to let us know:
- About you: Your name, contact information, title, organization, and demographic information
- About your submission: Your target audience, your chosen track, your session or lightning talk title, description, and format
- About your co-presenter(s) (if applicable): Their name(s), title, organization and demographic information
What happens after I submit?
- The submission deadline is November 25, 2024, 11:59 p.m. PT.
- We aim to inform you if your submission has been accepted in February 2025.
- If selected, you must confirm your participation and all session details by March 21, 2025.
How are sessions selected?
We’ll be curating dozens of sessions across the two days of Summit. All submissions are reviewed by our content committee, made up of your peers in the government technology and civic innovation community. We review submissions based on the quality of title and description, how well they fit in with our tracks and other submissions—and, most importantly, for diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Read about last year’s content committee, submission selection process, and DEI statistics.
How is Summit prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion?
At Code for America, we strive to foster a diverse, equitable, and inclusive attendee experience that meets our vision and values.
We prioritize this vision at the Code for America Summit because government must work for everyone, especially the most marginalized. That starts with having inclusive conversations about this work.
Please note that we may reject submissions based on DEI criteria, especially for larger panels where all speakers are demographically homogeneous. We strongly encourage you to include a wide range of perspectives in your proposals.
If our committee finds that your submission topic is relevant to our attendees but doesn’t meet our diversity, equity, and inclusion goals, we will reach out to make sure the session is representative.
What do I receive if my session is selected?
All session speakers (breakout sessions, lightning talks and webinars) will receive one complimentary in-person ticket for Summit. Additionally, we are pleased to offer each breakout session and webinar speaker a $250 honorarium and lightning talk speakers a $150 honorarium which will be processed after Summit, though we understand all may not be able to accept (government employees, for example).
Will my session be recorded?
Virtual webinars on Zoom will be recorded and in-person breakout sessions and lightning talks may be recorded. All recordings will live on Code for America’s YouTube channel.