Session Topics

ProductCamp St. Louis session

The 13th annual ProductCamp St. Louis is coming on Saturday, March 28, 2026. Register now (for free!) on the ProductCamp St. Louis 2026 page on Eventbrite.

Unlike traditional conferences, anyone interested in leading a session at ProductCamp St. Louis can submit a topic. Then, everyone in attendance gets to vote on which sessions they would like to see, and the most popular choices get on the schedule.

On this page:

Submitting a Session

We expect to have 30 sessions offered at ProductCamp St. Louis: six simultaneous sessions during five time slots. Each session is 45 minutes long.

Attendees will vote for the sessions they want on the morning of ProductCamp and the top sessions will be chosen.

There will be a form provided to submit your topic; it will be available in early 2026. In the meantime, to help you prepare,  please read the following guidelines:

  • You are welcome to submit up to 5 sessions for ProductCamp.
  • Make sure all of your information is correct, and ensure that the session title and description accurately reflect the content. Once submitted, we will not allow any changes to any of the sessions. (With typically 60+ sessions submitted in total, it’s too much work for us to worry about tracking edits.)
  • You should be prepared to lead all sessions that you submit—even though you don’t know if yours will be picked.
  • Do NOT promote a specific product or service during your session —that’s not at all what ProductCamp is about, and attendees have reacted negatively to sessions that they felt like the presenter was giving a “pitch.” It’s okay to mention that you have a product/service, but the main focus should not be on your product/service, and attendees should get value out of the content without having to buy anything from you.
  • You must plan to be at ProductCamp by 8:20 AM that morning.  It is your responsibility to find the Presenter check-in table when you arrive and let the volunteers there know you are present. If you haven’t checked in, your session(s) will not be included on the agenda even if there were enough votes.
  • You are welcome to publicize your sessions in advance, but only those in attendance at ProductCamp are able to vote.
  • The deadline to submit session topics is Friday, March 20, 2026 at 11:59 PM. No additional sessions can be submitted after that time.

Proposed Sessions

No sessions have yet been proposed. However, you can look through the sessions that have been submitted (and made it on the schedule) at Past ProductCamps for ideas about what topics to submit, or to give you an idea of the types of topics that generally make it on the schedule.

Session Categories

While it is not required that a session topic falls into one of the categories listed below, it’s a helpful guide for some of the topics that may be covered.

  • Strategic Product Leadership (Prioritization, Stakeholder Management, Product Visioning, Product Mindset Leadership, Product Management Frameworks, Finding Product-Market Fit)
  • Product Development Execution (Agile Processes, Requirements Gathering, Product Delivery and Operations, Automation, Reinventing Legacy Products, Total Cost of Ownership)
  • Data and Analytics (Data Product Management, Product Analytics, Journey and Empathy Mapping, Market Research and Intelligence)
  • Customer and Market Focus (Customer Centricity, Product Adoption, Product Research, Transforming Creativity into Commercialism: Aligning innovation with market demands.
  • Design and Collaboration (Product and UX Optimization, Design Thinking and Human-Centered Design, Product Design, Ecosystems)
  • Marketing and Go-to-Market Strategy (Sales Enablement, Positioning and Messaging, Lean Canvas, Business Cases)
  • Team Management and Operations (Team Dynamics, Idea Intake, Organizational Focus)
  • Startup Ecosystem (Funding, Investors, New Ventures)
  • Specialized Areas (Manufacturing, Patenting, Non-Consumer-Facing Products)
  • Other

Session Formats

In general, the most enjoyed and talked about sessions are those that have been very interactive. That said, you can structure a session however you wish. To help align expectations of the session leader and participants, we offer a list of format descriptions. This list is intended to be a guide but not intended to be limiting, so feel free to be creative.

  • Presentation – The speaker presents on a specific topic, followed by opening the floor for expansion, comment, questions and general discussion.
  • Roundtable Breakout – Similar to a presentation, except that audience breaks out into small groups and typically shares findings, comments, or team responses with the room at the end of the session.
  • Workshop – In this format, the audience is actively involved, collectively or in groups, in an exercise or application of a technique or process which has been presented by the session leader. The description should mention the portion of the session spent in the exercise and what the attendees will produce. Proposers are encouraged to have knowledgeable assistants to help answer questions and support the exercise.
  • Panel Discussion – Popularly seen, this format has several people qualified to talk about the subject of the session, preferably from diverse or even counterpoint perspectives or roles. A moderator facilitates questions from the audience or a series of prepared questions for the panelists, but a significant part of the session is still interactive Q&A with the audience.
  • Ask the Expert – This format is most successful with a recognized authority on a subject of wide interest, or a direct participant in some particularly interesting event or phenomenon. The expert or a moderator introduces the topic and frames some appropriate discussion and then opens the floor for questions, including those that might be somewhat specific as long as they are applicable to more people than the individual questioner.
  • Demonstration – Formal presentation on how to use or apply a tool or concept. This may can also include providing hands-on experience.

For Session Leaders: Logistics

If you are proposing a session, and it gets chosen, then you should be prepared to lead the session. Here are some details to help you make sure you’re prepared. There will be computers and projectors in each room. You can either…

  • Bring your laptop or other device to present off of, along with any connectors you may need to hook up to a projector (especially for those with Mac laptops or tablets). Most rooms should have an HDMI connection and VGA connector.
  • Or, store your slides online using a service like DropBox or Google Drive and then use the computer in the room to your presentation from there.
  • Or, bring your slides on a USB drive and load them onto one of the computers in the room.
  • Or, more than one of the above. (Things do go wrong, after all.)

We will have volunteers on hand to help with A/V as needed, and we have tested all of the equipment out in advance. That said, it’s always a good idea to have a backup plan in case you can’t get your slides to present.  We’ll do the best we can to help, but no guarantees. If you need something specific, bring it with you; for example, if you want to play a video and want people to be able to hear it, we suggest bringing your own speakers.

The rooms will be set up “classroom style” with tables and chairs facing the front of the room, most likely in rows. For simplicity and logistics purposes, we won’t be able to accommodate other setups (e.g. arranging chairs into a circle). If you want to do something interactive, for example, you can ask people to pair up or get in small groups — that will be possible without moving furniture around, but we ask that you don’t move equipment or furniture otherwise.

If you have specific logistics questions, contact Sarah Ramrup.