Speak at CiderCon®/ Education Session Proposals

CiderCon® educational program is designed to provide attendees with actionable takeaways that improve production operations and business performance.

The educational program at CiderCon® has three main goals:

Connect: Foster relationships and peer learning through interactive and experiential formats that strengthen both individual businesses and the industry as a whole.

Educate: Deliver world-class knowledge and practical skills, presented by trusted industry experts, that address key topics affecting current craft beverage producers.

Inspire: Spark new ideas, highlight opportunities, and motivate meaningful progress in the craft beverage industry.

CiderCon is designed for professionals across the entire beverage alcohol community. This includes cidermakers, orchardists, owners, and tasting room staff, as well as mead producers, brewers, distillers, and others involved in beverage alcohol production and business. It’s an industry-only event, not open to the public.

The majority of CiderCon attendees are in production and/or business operations roles: head cidermaker/ cidermaker, orcharding, director of operations, owner, CEO, general manager. 

Additionally, CiderCon has a significant number of attendees in sales roles: sales manager, director/head of sales. Other notable attendee groups include roles in marketing and hospitality.

For CiderCon 2027, we will prioritize content that helps cideries…

Improve their product by:

• Advanced fermentation perspectives
• Quality Assurance
• Fruit Processing
• Tools and Equipment
• Packaging
• Product Innovation
• Production Best Practices

Flavor/ Terroir/ and Tasting for:

• Regional Expression
• Practical Blending Applications
• Consumer Education
• Orcharding and Varietal
• Production Practices

Orcharding Practices such as:

• Orchard management
• Horticulture
• Fruit Quality
• Sustainability
• Pest Management
• Climate Resilience
• Growing Practices

Although we are seeking proposals that are tailored to one of these topic priorities, we will consider other topics that are highly relevant and meet our selection criteria.

We plan to have varied session room and stage formats at CiderCon 2027, set up strategically for specific session types and time slots. 

*Session types, room and stage setups, and time slots are all preliminary and subject to change.

CiderCon attendees highly value conference education with firsthand experience, data, and research-based insights and actionable takeaways. We prioritize accepting sessions with visual content and/or hands-on or interactive elements over panel discussions that do not include a presentation.

For a proposal to be reviewed, it must be complete and submitted via the online proposal form before the call for proposals closes. Proposals will be reviewed and selected on a rolling basis.

Key dates:

The call for proposals will close on September 30th, 2026

Submitters will be notified of their proposal decision by November 18, 2026

As the CiderCon call for proposals is a rolling process, it is in your best interest to submit proposals early if possible. 

No additional submissions or changes will be accepted after the call for proposals closes.

We accept proposals from:

Producers across the beverage alcohol community who are subject matter experts and have direct experience in the proposed topic area

Suppliers across the beverage alcohol community who are subject matter experts and have direct experience in the proposed topic area

Subject matter experts from food and beverage membership organizations, educational institutions, or media and insights firms

Subject matter experts in topics relevant to small business owners

Supplier Submissions

Supplier proposals for traditional Education Sessions are welcome when balanced approaches and solutions to industry issues are presented and they do not reference specific products or services by name.

It is highly recommended that supplier submissions include a cidery or other producer/customer representative as a speaker/s.

Suppliers wishing to present specific information on their products or services should consider a Supplier Education Session or Sponsored Session. Contact Ellen to learn more about these sponsorship opportunities.

We select session proposals based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to:

Content is directly related to at least one of the 2027 topic priorities or a related topic with similar/adjacent goals.

Content is relevant to today’s craft beverage industry and the CiderCon target audience.

Content has not been presented widely elsewhere or is new or unique to the CiderCon target audience.

Content provides timely, practical and actionable takeaways that attendees can implement directly to improve their production and/or business operations.

Session type—including format and time slot—is creative, appropriate, and impactful in an in-person learning environment.

Content is devoid of overt and covert commercialism (except in the case of pre-approved Supplier Education Session content).

Session incorporates audience engagement; interactive or hands-on activities, take-home handouts, templates, or resources; and/or other experiential elements.

Speaker/s have public speaking experience or demonstrate ability to present professionally in an educational setting.

Speaker/s are knowledgeable, engaging, and have direct experience with the proposed topic.

Proposal is well-written and meets overall submission guidelines.

Content: All proposals must include a title, description, and learning objectives, as well as answers to questions about the session type, target audience, and topic areas.

The content submitted with each proposal should accurately reflect the proposed presentation.

If selected, the title, description, and learning objectives will be used on the public event website and in the conference program and mobile application to promote the session.

Any changes to the session content or details after a session has been accepted are subject to review and approval by event staff and the CiderCon Working Group.

Speakers: Be prepared to provide contact information, a short biography, and a headshot for ALL proposed speakers associated with each proposal.

Due to time and space constraints at the live event, we have set a maximum of 4 panelists per panel and up to 1 moderator (a moderator is optional). That means no proposal should include more than 5 speakers in total.

We prefer to accept panel proposals with well-rounded speaker representation. Please avoid including more than 1 speaker from the same company in panel-style presentations. 

For lecture-style sessions, we will allow up to 2 maximum speakers from the same company.

You can begin filling out the proposal form and save it at any point to complete later. 

However, once a proposal is submitted, you will no longer be able to make additional changes.​

NOTE: It is highly recommended that you keep a copy of your proposal content and speaker information in a Word document or other external file in case of any errors during the submission process.

Before you submit your proposal, please make sure:

That you and/or your proposed speakers have pre-established authorization from your/their employer (if applicable) to present onsite at CiderCon 2027 in San Antonio, Texas.

That you/your speakers have travel expenses covered.

That you/your speakers agree—if accepted—not to cancel other than for medical or family- emergency reasons. 

Submitting and agreeing to speak is a professional commitment to be taken seriously.

Only the submitter (known as the Proposal Contact) will be notified of the proposal submission. The proposal contact is required to confirm the speaker/s’ interest and availability to present prior to submitting the proposal. If the proposal is accepted, event staff will reach out to the proposal contact and each speaker directly to begin session planning and logistics.

All educational proposals are reviewed and recommended for selection to the American Cider Association by the CiderCon Working Group and Cider Institute Production Group. 

The content and format of selected sessions are subject to revision requests from these groups. All final selection decisions are made by American Cider Association staff.

All speakers associated with accepted proposals are required to agree to the terms outlined in the Speaker Agreement provided upon acceptance, including acknowledging and committing to important deadlines and requirements, agreeing to follow ACA policies, consenting to audio or video recording of their live session, and other related terms.

In order for a accepted session to be considered confirmed, all associated speakers must submit a Speaker Agreement by January 8, 2027.

Selected speakers are required to follow a deliverable timeline (listed below) to prepare their content leading up to CiderCon. Deliverables are specific to each session type and will be defined at the time of acceptance. Examples of assigned deliverables include a PowerPoint presentation and a discussion outline.

All deliverables will be reviewed by the CiderCon Working Group and feedback will be provided to presenters. Presenters are expected to make suggested changes to their content based on this feedback.

Selected speakers should be aware of the deliverable timeline and able to commit to submit deliverables on time. Selected speakers who do not adhere to the deliverable timeline are subject to removal from the conference schedule.

Session Deliverable Timeline

January 22, 2027: Deliverable 1 due

February 26, 2027: Deliverable 2 due

March 26, 2027: Final deliverables due – No changes allowed onsite

April 5-7, 2027: CiderCon 2027 in San Antonio, Texas

Accepted speakers receive a complimentary All Access registration to CiderCon. 

Speaker registration is non-transferable.

Speakers are responsible for their own travel and lodging expenses. All speaker hotel accommodations for CiderCon 2027 must be booked through ConferenceDirect, the official housing provider for the conference. Through this partnership, we have secured preferred rates at the conference hotel exclusively for conference participants.

Accepted speakers for CiderCon 2027 will receive additional details about hotel accommodations, including an exclusive housing link specifically for CiderCon. We encourage accepted speakers to book promptly once accepted, as hotel availability is limited and rooms are expected to fill quickly.

Selected speakers for CBC are provided with a full complimentary conference registration in lieu of a speaker fee/honorarium.