The 30th Annual Futures conference will be held on Tuesday October 23rd to Thursday October 25th
at the Blue Mountain Resort in beautiful Collingwood, ON.

3-days of Professional Development and Networking Building
400 + delegates
100 + organizations, agencies and funders

2018 THEME:

Building upon the theme of Leading a New Narrative, we recognize as a sector that we have passed the point of planning for the future of work. WE are the leaders of youth workforce development and this conference will showcase the best approaches and opportunities to advance youth workforce development for all young people.

2018 Conference Learning Track consists of the following thematic areas:

1. Strengthening the Core: How do we enhance the current employment ecosystem to build a foundation of core skills, competencies, or mindsets for youth that supports their long-term social and economic success in a changing world of work?

2. Building a Highly Skilled Workforce: How do we prepare youth for transition to the workforce and for the demands of today’s rapidly transforming global economy? Highly-barriered youth are high potential youth. How can we better identify, nurture and match potential? What role can data and technology play to facilitate this work?

3. Enterprising & Earning: Precarious work is now being referred to as the “gig-economy”. How can we better prepare young people to access and leverage opportunities in the growing gig and information economies? How can we better equip staff to assist youth in this realm? How can policy be enhanced to recognize and support the development of opportunities in this realm?

4. The Leadership Challenge:What are the current issues of the day that challenge leadership to effectively design, develop and grow successful programs for youth and industry? Here we explore challenges and opportunities from a Provincial, National and/or Global Context.

If you are a Practitioner, Storyteller, Speaker, Expert, Motivator, Leader, or Innovator in Employment, Youth Development, Academia, Education, Youth Justice, Economic Development, Government, Industry, Human Resources and Talent Development, Evaluation we invite you to join us.

A variety of presentation formats are encouraged including:

• solo presenters,
• co-presenters,
• panel discussions,
• experiential learning labs

Sessions are 60 minutes in length, including introduction, presentation and Q&A. Please note that panel presentations are limited to three (3) speakers and must include a moderator and two (2) subject matter experts. Speakers can submit more than one proposal for consideration. Presenters are encouraged to collaborate with peers and members of other industries to share new concepts and practices that could lead to learnings and innovations in our sector.

The Review Committee seeks presentations that are engaging, creative, fun, useful and informative. Effective use of statistical and analytic benchmarking, research, and delivery methodologies and use of appropriate media are encouraged for presentations. The Committee will review all submissions received by the deadline.

Submissions will be evaluated for its relevance, educational significance and contribution to the respective subject, unique value to participants, presenter knowledge and experience, and actionable learning objectives. The selection process involves a review of every complete presentation submitted by the deadline. Incomplete submissions will not be considered. Please note, submission is not a guarantee of selection.

Submissions will be accepted until May 23rd, 2018.
Send Submissions and/or Questions to: accelerateON@firstwork.org