NALP and ALI-ABA Professional Development Institute 2010
Request for Proposals

The Professional Development Institute 2010, co-sponsored by NALP and ALI-ABA, in collaboration with the Professional Development Consortium, will be held December 9-10, 2010 in Washington, DC. The Professional Development Institute delivers timely and substantive programming for all involved in lawyer training and professional development. Submitting a conference proposal is your opportunity to share your expertise and tap your creativity by developing an original program for presentation at the event.

Attendees at the Professional Development Institute

• Attendees are responsible for lawyer training and professional development. In 2009, around 60% of attendees worked in professional development full-time, 40% part-time.
• Attendees seek to increase their knowledge and skills in lawyer training and development, and learn what others are successfully doing in this area.
• Attendees’ levels of experience vary, although the majority is experienced in this field. In 2009, 39% of attendees had at least 8 years of experience in professional development; 27% 4-7 years experience; 34% 0-3 years.

Proposal Selection Criteria
Each proposal will be carefully reviewed by the Professional Development Institute Planning Committee. The committee will review proposals based on:

• The extent to which the proposal targets and is relevant to PDI attendees
• Definition and focus of the topic
• Practical application of material
• Timeliness and importance of topic
• Overall program quality

In addition each program proposal should:

• Encourage active learning (indicate in the proposal what active learning strategies you will use to engage the audience in the session instead of having them passively listen to information; some possibilities include case study exercises, role playing, small group discussion, facilitated brainstorming, action plans, quick quizzes, etc.);
• Demonstrate innovative thinking;
• Present ideas, best practices, and/or relevant research for positioning attendees as leaders within their organizations;
• Present strategies for effective implementation of information learned once attendees are back at their offices; and
• Include presenters who have significant expertise in the topic area and can speak successfully in front of large groups.

Although PDI programming each year includes sessions at different levels, our biggest challenge is getting strong programs at the advanced level. If appropriate, consider how your proposed session can be targeted at a high level.

The proposal form will ask you for a program description, learning objectives, and instructional methods. In providing this information, please provide enough detail so the planning committee can understand how the session will be structured and what key issues will be covered.

Incomplete proposals will not be considered.

Note: In recent years we have had a very high response rate of quality programming proposals through our RFP process. In 2009, less than one-third of the proposals received were accepted. We therefore encourage you to review these guidelines carefully to ensure your proposal is a serious contender.

Additional Guidelines for Consultants
We receive many proposals from consultants who offer great expertise and valuable outside perspectives. Each year, PDI’s programming has demonstrated this group’s valuable contributions. At the same time, we tend to receive many more proposals from consultants than there actually is space for, and often need to make some difficult decisions in selecting amongst them. We encourage you therefore to carefully consider both the above tips and the following:

• Successful sessions usually teach how PD professionals can implement a program/service/etc., at their own firm, without necessarily hiring consultant assistance. Ultimately attendees might decide to hire someone outside the firm to facilitate or implement a program, but selling your services should not be the focus of the program.
• In some cases, consultants have successfully paired with PD professionals to present a session. This is particularly effective when it gives attendees “how-we-did-it” advice from someone in their position.
• Ideally, proposals should reflect content targeted for PDI attendees. Proposals that appear to be an existing program for a different audience, such as practicing attorneys, are evaluated less favorably.
• To target your proposal and refine the topic focus, consider speaking with clients and/or past PDI attendees to get their feedback.
• Participants do not react well to out-right marketing of someone’s services during conference education. An indirect approach to marketing will be much more successful. A well-received session, where participants have gained from your particular expertise, is often the very best way of positioning yourself in the market.

Requirements for Speakers

• Commit to the presentation of a program at designated times during the conference, December 9-10, 2010, in Washington, DC.
• Grant permission for hard copy distribution of supplemental resource materials.
• If you wish to distribute copyrighted information in your supplemental resource materials, it is your responsibility to obtain the necessary permission. Such materials will be distributed only if they are submitted with the publisher’s written permission attached.
• Presenters must provide handout materials. The materials must be submitted in electronic form by November 22.

Travel Support
Limited travel funds are available for speakers. In consideration of our not-for-profit status, we encourage PDI speakers to support some or all of their travel. The proposal form asks you to indicate the number of speakers who will request travel support funds. For planning purposes, this number cannot increase after program acceptance. Please note that if this field is left blank, we will assume that there are zero requests for travel support, and will plan and budget accordingly.

Important Dates

• May 14 — proposals due
• July 21 — all applicants will be notified about the status of their proposal
• December 9-10, 2010 — Professional Development Institute in Washington, DC

Your Next Steps: Links for Submitting a Proposal

Download a Word version of the proposal submission form: The on-line RFP system does not allow you to save a copy of your work. We recommend you download a copy of the proposal form in Word and then type your proposal in word processing software. You can then copy and paste the text into the online system. This will allow you to save a copy of your work, in addition to using spell check and word counts.

Submit proposals on-line: All proposals must be submitted using the online system.

Descriptions for sessions in the 2009 PDI brochure (PDF): If you are new to PDI, you may want to see which sessions were ultimately accepted and/or created for the 2009 conference.

Ideas to Get You Thinking (PDF): To provide some initial ideas on possible topics, members of past Professional Development Institute planning teams were asked what topics they would like to attend. This list is provided as a beginning, and will hopefully spark interesting ideas as you consider submitting a proposal to speak at this exciting conference.

Note: You are welcome to submit more than one proposal but must complete one on-line submission before beginning another.

NALP’s Annual Education Conference

NALP’s 2011 Annual Education Conference will take place April 27-30, 2011, in Palm Springs, CA. If you would like a program of yours to be considered for this conference you may do so in one of two ways:

1. The PDI proposal form asks submitters if they would like their proposal to be considered for NALP’s Annual Education Conference, if it is not accepted for PDI. If you select this option, you must be available to participate during the April 27-30, 2011 conference dates.
2. Submit a separate proposal — see the NALP Annual Education Conference Request for Proposals page for more information.

Please note: you should not submit the same session twice via the online submission form for both PDI and the NALP Annual Education Conference. Please choose the conference that is most appropriate, or submit your proposal using the online submission process for the PDI conference and indicate that you would like your program to be considered for either conference.