Music Mark 2026 Conference – Call for Content
23rd March 2026
The call for content for Music Mark’s 2026 Conference is now open, and we welcome proposals for 45-minute breakout sessions.
The Music Mark Annual Conference is a key point in the UK Music Education calendar each year, and we are delighted to launch the 2025 conference with details of the date, venue and theme.
Following the success of our 2025 conference, this year’s conference takes place at The Spine, Liverpool, on Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th November, and will be based around the theme ‘Inclusivity and Relevance’, one of the Arts Council Investment Principles. To help with your submission, please see the details below outlining how we will assess proposals.
Criteria for Content Submission
Submissions must demonstrate how they will meet the following three criteria:
- Meaningful learning that can be implemented in the work of conference delegates
- Clear links to inclusivity and relevance
- Demonstrable practical applications within music education
Feedback from previous conferences has identified certain features that create the most rewarding and high-quality sessions. Please outline in your submission which of these features you will bring into your session and explain how this will be achieved:
- Interactive and/or participatory activity
- Opportunity to engage with the session through debate/discussion
- Tangible takeaways and learning
- Hearing from a diverse range of people, especially young voices and marginalised groups
- Learning from outside of music education
How to submit your proposal
Please read the following information and complete the submission form linked below by 6pm Monday 5th May 2026.
We are open to applications in alternative formats such as video or audio, which can be submitted via the same form. This should be no more than 5 minutes long and not exceed 25MB. If you have any queries about this, please contact info@musicmark.org.uk.
Proposals will be shortlisted by an internal panel and assessed against the above criteria. The shortlist will be shared with stakeholders to make final selections. To support transparency and fairness, names and organisation details will be removed during selection; however, we do appreciate that other information within the submission may identify organisations involved in the proposal.
Important information:
- Music Mark will provide a maximum of 2x day speaker tickets for each successful submission, for the day of the session.
- Tickets for any additional speakers and attendance at the rest of the conference must be purchased separately.
- This will be made available at a preferential rate for a limited period after the programme has been confirmed for those participating in the programme.
- Please see our Speaker Payment policy for further details.
All sessions will have access to presentation screens with audio and appropriate speaker amplification for the size of the room. If you anticipate a more complex set-up being required, please provide details of this in your submission.
Breakout rooms will be in theatre, classroom or cabaret layout, please advise on your submission any preference and maximum number of delegates if relevant.
Timelines:
- Call for content open: 23rd March to 6pm Monday 5th May
- Submissions confirmed: w/c 1st June
- Deadline for session information: 13th July
- Final presentations submitted: Friday 6th November
Our 2026 Annual Conference will take place at The Spine, Liverpool, on Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th November.
