Your work deserves the spotlight: Elevate ’26 speaker applications are open
- Whether you’re an individual contributor, middle manager, or senior leader, speaker selection is based on impact, not where you sit on an org chart.
- A 60-second pitch video or a clip from a previous talk goes a long way, especially when Elevate stages welcome anywhere from 150 to 400+ attendees.
- The strongest proposals open with something specific, like “cut project intake time from 2 days to 4 hours”, not sweeping transformation language that could mean anything.
- If selected, you’ll enjoy access to the VIP Speaker Lounge, an exclusive opening dinner, and more special perks during the event.
- Applications close June 7th, 2026, with notifications going out by July 7th, just in time to prepare for the October 28th–29th event at the Javits Center in New York.
Every year at Elevate, the same moment plays out in nearly every customer story session. A speaker wraps up walking through the exact board structure, automation, or AI workflow that solved a real problem — and the energy in the room shifts. Hands shoot up. Phones come out to capture the screen. Hallway conversations stretch long after the session ends because attendees want every detail.
Those speakers earned their spot the same way: they built something worth sharing, and brought proof.
Applications are now open for practitioners who’ve done exactly that. If you’ve built something real with monday.com, scaled AI workflows, rebuilt creative operations, cut project intake time in half, this is your stage. Elevate brings together an ambitious community of 5,000+ attendees who show up ready to learn, and they’re hungry for the kind of honest, hands-on insight that only comes from someone who’s lived it.
Want to go deeper? Our complete speaker overview deck covers audience demographics, past speakers, and everything else you need to decide if Elevate is your stage. Take a look →
What makes an Elevate session worth attending
The sessions that hit hardest at Elevate? Attendees leave with something they can build the second they’re back at their desk.
- Actionable takeaways
The best sessions hand attendees a framework, a workflow, or a decision-making approach they can adapt to their own context. A session succeeds when someone can return to their desk and immediately start building what you just showed them. - A real business challenge with a before-and-after story
Walk through a specific problem, the solution you built on monday.com, and the numbers that prove it worked. That story structure gives attendees something real to steal. - Honest lessons learned
Share what broke, what required iteration, and what you’d do differently. Attendees learn as much from what broke as what worked, which makes your story more credible. - Specificity over generality
This audience responds best to specific, actionable examples. The strongest sessions show the how: the actual board setup, the automation logic, the workflow structure that made it work - Engagement over lecture
Sessions should feel like a conversation with the room. Speakers who prompt discussion and invite questions deliver more value than those who just click through slides.
Ellen Webb, VP of Shopper Analytics & Insights, took the stage at Elevate ’25 and walked the room through how PepsiCo took monday.com from a handful of teams using it their own way to a company-wide standard that got leadership bought in. What made her session stick? She didn’t just talk about transformation; she showed the actual rollout strategy, shared real adoption numbers, and explained the organizational changes that made it all work.
Watch Ellen’s full session“From the second we got the call to the opportunity to do this, the team at monday has been super helpful in terms of getting us prepared, helping to curate our story, but tell it in a PepsiCo way, which has been great.”
3 stage formats to match your story
Elevate offers three ways to participate, each built for different content and presentation styles. Pick the format that matches your story best.
| Format | Session length | Audience size | Best for |
| Customer and product spotlight stage | 20-30 minutes | 400+ attendees | Deep product case studies with a clear before-and-after narrative |
| Roundtable | 40-minute moderated discussion | Up to 100 attendees | Domain experts who can present a focused topic and guide group conversation |
| Demo stage | 15 minutes | 150+ attendees | Real-world workflow and board demos showing actual implementation |
This is the deep-dive format for case studies that walk through a business challenge, the solution you built on monday.com, and the numbers that prove it worked. This format works best with a polished presentation focused on ROI, team adoption, and how your organization changed. Be ready to explain not just what you built, but how it changed your team’s work and what results it delivered.
This is the discussion format for experts who want to lead a conversation on a specific industry challenge. Think: managing creative operations in distributed teams, scaling AI adoption across departments, or building cross-functional alignment on work management practices. You’ll present a clear point of view and then lead a real conversation with attendees.
This is the hands-on, show-your-work format. You plug in your laptop and screen-share. Show a specific board setup, a complex automation sequence, or a custom integration that solved a major bottleneck. Show it. Don’t just describe it. Attendees want to see the actual environment and figure out how to steal your setup.
Not ready to apply? Come experience the stage yourself.
Submission checklist for Elevate speakers
Elevate stages are built for people who’ve done the work, measured the results, and can teach a room full of peers what actually worked. You’d be joining a stage that has hosted organizational psychologist and New York Times bestselling author Adam Grant, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, and practitioners from PepsiCo, Google, LinkedIn, and OpenAI. The common thread? Every speaker brings something that moved the needle, and leaves attendees with something they can take back and apply immediately.
Before you hit submit, run your proposal through these five questions:
- Can you name exactly what changed? You’ve built something on monday.com, tracked the impact, and have the numbers to back it up. Strong sessions show what actually changed — not just what you tried. If you can name a specific outcome (cut intake time from 2 days to 4 hours, scaled a workflow across 12 teams), you’re in good shape.
- Is there a framework someone can walk away with? The best sessions give attendees something they can act on immediately — a workflow, a decision-making approach, a rollout strategy. If your session has a structure someone can steal and adapt, that’s a strong sign it belongs on the Elevate stage.
- Are you honest about what didn’t work? Audiences trust speakers who share the full picture. What did you get wrong before you got it right? The iterations, the failed attempts, and the unexpected obstacles are often what attendees learn from most.
- Can you own a room? Elevate stages seat 150 to 400+ attendees in high-energy, high-production environments. You don’t need a TEDx credit, but you should be comfortable commanding a room. Include a previous talk clip or a 60-second pitch video with your application — it goes a long way.
- Are you working with AI in a real way? Whether you’ve built workflows using monday sidekick, experimented with AI agents, automated processes that used to eat your team’s time, or just started testing what’s possible — sessions grounded in actual AI experimentation are a priority for this program. You don’t need to be a technical expert. You need to have done something real and learned from it.
“The quality of what’s being presented at Elevate is really high. There are presenters prompting discussions and like-minded people exchanging ideas. There was real learning happening.”
— Jeremy Griggs, Director, Program Management, Five9
Perks of taking the stage
Getting selected comes with a package designed to maximize the value of your participation and extend your reach well beyond the live event.
- Complimentary 2-day pass to Elevate ’26, including all sessions, networking events, and on-site experiences.
- Your session gets featured across all Elevate channels, including On Demand, amplifying your reach to thousands of professionals worldwide.
- High-resolution stage photography and a custom speaker kit for social media promotion.
- Support from our program team to help you refine your presentation and tell your story in a way that resonates with the Elevate audience.
-
May 4th, 2026
Call for Participation opens
-
June 7th, 2026
Submission deadline
-
July 7th, 2026
Selected speakers are notified
-
October 28th – 29th, 2026
Elevate ’26 at the Javits Center, New York City
The room is waiting for your story
Picture this: you’re standing in front of 400 people who do work like yours, face the same challenges, and are hungry for the exact solution you’ve already built. When you finish, they line up to ask how you did it.
The practitioners who take this stage become the people everyone calls for advice. They build connections with peers solving the exact same problems. They leave with a network that lasts long after the two days in NYC.
The Elevate ’26 application window is open. The stage is ready. And 5,000+ attendees are waiting to hear what you’ve learned.
Frequently asked questions about speaking at Elevate
-
I’m not a professional speaker. Can I still apply?
No speaking resume needed. Elevate stages have hosted first-time speakers and seasoned presenters alike. What matters is that you’ve built something worth sharing and can walk a room through it clearly. If you’ve got the story, we’ll help you shape it for the stage.
-
Can I co-present with a team member or monday.com partner?
Yes. Co-presentations and partner sessions are welcome. Just make sure there’s one clear narrative thread running through the whole session, the best co-presentations feel like a conversation, not a handoff.
-
Do I need deep AI expertise to be considered?
You don’t need to be an engineer or a product expert. That said, AI is the core focus of Elevate ’26, and sessions that bring real AI use cases to the stage — whether that’s a workflow you built, an experiment you ran, or a rollout you’re still figuring out — are what this program is actively looking for. You need to have implemented something real and be able to speak honestly about what worked, what didn’t, and what you’d do differently.
-
Can the program team help refine my session?
Yes! Selected speakers get support from the Elevate program team to sharpen their narrative, tighten their structure, and make sure the session lands. You’re not on your own once you’re in.
-
What if my session is placed in a different format than I selected?
The program team may suggest a format that better fits your content and audience size. A 20-minute Main Stage and a 45-minute roundtable serve very different purposes, if a change is suggested, it’s because it’ll make your session stronger.
-
What happens after I apply?
Applications close June 7th, 2026. Selected speakers will be notified by July 7th and paired with an Elevate team member to begin session development ahead of the October 28th–29th event.
