Got a fabulous idea for a conference breakout session? We’d love to hear it! Here are a few things we look for in a conference session that may help hone your ideas a bit:

1. Is there a company involved? For those of you who know us well, go ahead and skip to #2. But for those of you that are new here, this is important! We’re laser-focused on best practices in corporate/cause partnerships that engage consumers and/or employees. If there’s not a company involved with the cause initiative you’re thinking of sharing with us, it’s not right for us, sorry!
2. Show us the brands. We get many, many emails and phone calls from agencies and other service providers wanting to present at the conference. If you’ve been to the conference before, you know our focus is always on the corporate, cause or social entrepreneurial brand. We love our agency community but when it comes to sessions, our audience wants to hear directly from the brands. If you’re an agency looking for visibility, a sponsorship may be right for you! Drop us a line to learn more.
3. What’s the practical lesson? We love a good case study and definitely want to hear what’s working in the field. When it comes to conference sessions, however, our community wants to hear what you’ve learned along the way so they can take your lessons and apply them to their own work. Double points if you can share what hasn’t worked as well and what you’ve done to iterate and improve. Share with us what the audience will learn from your presentation – be specific!
4. What’s the business case? When it comes to strategically incorporating social good into a business, there has to be a business case in order for the initiative to last more than a few sales cycles. Our community loves a good business case and is always looking for real-world examples to bring back to their own teams to show that doing good is good for business too.

If you have an idea that meets the above criteria, drop us an email and share your ideas in a short paragraph or two. Be sure to spell out what ‘lessons learned’ our community will gain from hearing your remarks. The good news is that we’re always looking for content year-round, so even if your idea isn’t a fit for the conference, there may be another opportunity!

This year, on its 15th birthday, the Cause Marketing Forum is getting a makeover.

This field of companies and causes doing well by doing good together has changed enormously since 240 souls gathered at the first CMF conference in 2003. There’s still a huge way to go, but corporate social initiatives are becoming more long-term, integrated and strategic than the more promotional efforts we focused on back in the early days.

In keeping with that evolution, we’re excited to share we’re changing our name from the Cause Marketing Forum to Engage for Good. It’s a brand that better reflects our mission of helping companies and causes succeed together by engaging consumers and employees in a variety of ways.

Although our name is changing along with the logo, we’re still laser-focused on providing you with practical lessons learned, convening a group of savvy professionals and cultivating a spirit of sharing and generosity at this year’s event.

We’ll be coming out with the 2017 program soon, but rest assured it will be filled with amazing speakers from top corporate and nonprofit brands focused on sharing best practices that you can use to further your own efforts at the intersection of cause and commerce.