COHORT-BASED VIRTUAL PROGRAM
Design a conference session that lands.
A 4-week intensive that prepares presenters, sponsors, and training companies to design and deliver conference sessions for audiences who don't know them yet.
4 weeks
January 2027
Live Sessions: Jan 13, 20, 27, 2027
3 virtual workshops
90-min deep dives into designing for unfamiliar audiences
1:1 Coaching Session
Personalised, focused feedback on your proposal or session
Conference-Ready Output
Leave with a submission-ready session design, pressure-tested ahead of time, and the confidence to deliver a meaningful experience.
Presenting to a room of strangers is a different game.
You know your content. What's harder is designing for a room where trust needs to be built quickly and you're not even sure who is going to turn up.
Most presenters — educators and company reps alike — are experts in what they do. Few have been taught how to design specifically for a conference audience: mixed experience levels, no shared history, one shot to land the message. The result is sessions that feel generic, or proposals that don't get accepted in the first place.
Facilitation Academy: Conference Prep Edition is a short, focused programme designed by PD Academia's master practitioners to help you build a session — and a proposal — that works for people who've never met you.
This edition is for conference proposal prep specifically: whether you're a sponsor, a presenter, or an educator, and you either haven't had the experience of presenting to an unfamiliar audience before, or you want to explore how a session needs to look different when it's not for your own team.
Good conference facilitation blends instinct with design.
Here’s what that looks like:
It’s Not Just Theory
You don't just learn principles — you design your actual conference session or proposal, from hook to close.
Engage–Explore–Extend Framework
The same repeatable, non-gimmicky scaffolding behind Facilitation Academy — adapted for one-off sessions with audiences who share no prior context.
1:1 Personalised Coaching
A dedicated, personalised coaching session to pressure-test your specific session or proposal before you submit or deliver it — not generic group feedback.
Cross-Sector Perspective
A cohort mixing educators and company based presenters, comparing notes on what it takes to land with a room of strangers.
See the Craft in Action
Before you apply, get a feel for what you'll actually build. These are real, educator-facing resources from past Facilitation Academy cohorts — a preview of the tools, templates, and thinking you'll walk away with.
Facilitation Academy (Apr 2026)
A strategic design guide exploring how to improve adult professional learning by identifying and enforcing a singular, distinct purpose for individual workshops. This resource addresses the common pitfall of over-engineering training sessions and outlines how to sequence professional learning over time rather than attempting to achieve alignment, knowledge building, and implementation all at once.
April 2026 | Virtual Program
A comprehensive synthesis of live sessions, coaching circles, and cohort reflections detailing how to design effective adult learning. This resource guides educators in shifting from traditional content delivery to true facilitation centered on participant needs.
Core Focus: Transitioning from output-based presentations to outcome-driven learning experiences that respect adult expertise, lower participation barriers, and reframe resistance as design feedback.
Key Insight: "Focus on participant needs, not just content. You don't need more charisma; you need sharper design and deeper listening. Stop trying to prove you can lead the room. Trust the silence... The real work often happens in the pause, not the slide."
Practical Tools: Includes the 10/70/20 framework (Engage, Explore, Extend), the three core adult reflection questions ("So What?, Now What?, What If?"), choice boards, and low-barrier engagement strategies like paired case sorting and the "pass without penalty" rule.
Best for: Professional development coordinators, and anyone leading adult learning.
Who is this for?
For the Presenter
This is for you if you're a sponsor rep, trainer or educator who:
Is preparing (or wants to prepare) a proposal for an upcoming conference or call for proposals
Has mostly presented to familiar audiences — your own team, your own school — and hasn't designed for people who don't know you
Wants more than "know your content" — you want to understand how to read and design for a room with no shared context
Wants expert and peer feedback on your actual session, not hypothetical advice
For the Company or Training Organisation
When you send your presenters through this programme, your organisation gains:
Stronger, more credible proposals — sharper session designs that are more likely to get accepted by conference organisers
A consistent presenting standard — everyone representing you on a conference stage works from the same design principles
Reduced risk in high-visibility moments — fewer sessions that fall flat in front of the audiences that matter most to your brand
A trained bench of external-facing presenters — not just people who know the content, but people who know how to design sessions that build relationships and convert into opportunities
Partner With Us
Are you a education related company, conference sponsor or education group? If you're interested in sending your team through the Conference Prep Edition of the Facilitation Academy, we'd love to connect.
Reach out to Claire Peet at claire@pdacademia.com to start a conversation.
How it works
Week 1
Designing for Strangers
What makes a conference audience different from your own team. Reading a room with no shared context. Crafting a hook that works cold.
Live Session 1: Jan 13, Tue, 3:30-5:00PM GMT+8
Week 2
Purpose & Structure
Designing your session's core message. Building the Explore phase for people you've never met. Navigating mixed-experience rooms.
Live Session 2: Jan 20, Tue, 3:30–5:00PM GMT+8
Week 3
Submission-Ready
Designing a takeaway that sticks after a one-off session. Handling unfamiliar Q&A and resistance. Finalising your proposal or session outline.
Live Session 3: Jan 27, Tue, 3:30–5:00PM GMT+8
Week 4 Onwards — 1:1 Coaching Session
Personalised Coaching
A dedicated session with Claire to pressure-test your specific proposal or session design before you pitch or deliver it.
Meet Your Facilitator:
Claire Peet
Claire Peet works with international schools to strengthen the quality and coherence of professional learning. With over 16 years of experience in international education, she specialises in helping schools move beyond fragmented workshops toward well-designed, purposeful adult learning.
Her work focuses on the craft behind the scenes - facilitation design, professional learning architecture, and building internal capacity so schools are not dependent on external speakers to drive change.
Claire has supported schools across Asia and beyond to design internal conferences, develop middle leaders, and implement sustainable change initiatives. She is also the voice behind the Women in Leadership Newsletter, where she explores the realities of leadership in international education.
Select Your Enrollment Path
Super Early Bird ends October 31, 2026.
Early Bird runs from November 1, 2026 to December 31, 2026.
Individual Leader
US$495 pp
US$375 pp
Best for solo presenters, sponsor reps, or educators preparing a proposal.
✅ 3 live workshops
✅ 1 Personalised Coaching Session
✅ Session Design Toolkit & Templates
✅ Post-cohort resources
Small Team Pass (Group of 3-5)
US$420 pp
US$319 pp
Ideal for company teams or department groups preparing multiple sessions.
✅ Full program access for each member
✅ Shared framework for team alignment
✅ Individual coaching session per member
Strategic School Pass (Group of 6+)
US$370 pp
US$281 pp
For organisations building a consistent, credible presence across multiple conferences.
✅ Full program access for each member
✅ Shared framework for team alignment
✅ Individual coaching session per member
✅ Additional discount when registering 10+ presenters
Ready to Step In?
The Facilitation Academy is a practice-based lab. To ensure the best experience for the cohort, we look for three things:
1. A Real Opportunity
You need an upcoming conference session, call for proposals, or pitch you're actively preparing to use as your case.
2. Live Attendance
This is a collaborative programme, not a webinar series. Live participation is required for all 3 workshops and your coaching session.
3. A Brief Application
We'll ask for your current role, your goals, and a quick description of the session or proposal you're working on.
How to Apply?
Individual Applicants: Click "Apply Individually" to start your brief application.
Company & Organisation Teams: Once we receive your organisation's initial inquiry, each presenter will be sent a link to complete their own short form.
Places are allocated first-come, first-served. To keep coaching personal, we cap the cohort at 30 participants.
Your Questions, Answered
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An upcoming call for proposals or target conference works as your case — as long as you're designing for a real, unfamiliar audience by the end of the programme.
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No.
This program relies on active participation, peer-to-peer feedback, and live design work. Live attendance is mandatory. We limit the cohort to 30 to ensure everyone is an active participant, not a passive viewer. -
Not at all. This is for anyone preparing to present to an audience that doesn't know them yet — whether you're pitching your first proposal or refining a session you've delivered before, only ever to familiar rooms.
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Outside of the 90-minute live sessions, set aside time for design work between sessions — this is the actual work of building the session or proposal you'll submit or deliver.
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No. While your team shares a common framework, each presenter designs and refines their own individual session or proposal.
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Once we reach 30 participants, we'll open a waitlist. Those on the waitlist receive priority registration for future cohorts.