February 28 - March 2, 2027 | Louisville, KY
From Uncertainty to Excellence: Leading with Agility and Resilience
Quality professionals today face an unprecedented convergence of pressures. Supply chain volatility, rapid technological change, workforce disruption, and economic uncertainty are forcing practitioners, and their organizations to rethink how they operate, compete, and sustain performance. Against this backdrop, lean and Six Sigma methodologies maintain an unyielding relevance and value. This year’s Lean and Six Sigma theme, “From Uncertainty to Excellence: Leading with Agility and Resilience” addresses the opportunities that professionals at all career levels have to push past boundaries, silos, and basic tool application and toward enterprise-wide transformation that is built to sustain a culture of continuous improvement for the long term.
The Language of Leadership
The Language of Leadership
Build credibility and visibility to drive change from wherever you stand in your organization. Leadership goes beyond job titles, and learning to communicate effectively, translate data into executive action, and build a coalition of invested peers who will ensure that your quality expertise will be valued, in your individual career and across the organization.
Session topics may include: communicating impact in business terms, influencing organizational strategy, executive-level communication, soft skills, professional mentorship, effective meeting management, building a compelling Lean ROI story
From Strategy to Execution
The real challenge facing organizations today is not a lack of improvement tools, but the inability to scale, sustain, and embed continuous improvement across the enterprise. As a team or as an individual, learn how to take processes from strategy to successful execution. Learn how to design scalable processes, benchmark maturity, develop the next generation, and move beyond isolated wins and ideas to an organization-wide improvement system.
Session topics may include: breaking down silos, governance, complex problem solving, building internal coaching capabilities, benchmarking and diagnosing organizational maturity, case studies, metrics that matter, connecting tactics to strategy
High Impact Methodologies
No matter how far into your lean and Six Sigma journey you are, being able to identify, implement, and maintain the right methodology is what creates lasting success. Deepen your understanding of existing tools, explore innovative case studies, and apply lean thinking to real pressures organizations face.
Session topics may include: advanced kaizen, root cause analysis (RCA), using existing tools in innovative ways, case studies, automating processes, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), supply chain resilience, how to choose the right tools
CALL FOR REVIEWERS, SUBMISSIONS AND SESSION TIMELINE
| Call for Reviewers Opens |
Friday, June 26, 2026 |
| Call for Reviewers Deadline | Friday, July 10, 2026 |
| Call for Proposals Live | Friday, June 26, 2026 |
| Call for Proposals Deadline | Friday, July 17, 2026 |
| Selected Submissions Notified | Wednesday, September 2, 2026 |
| Declined Submissions Notified | Wednesday, September 9, 2026 |
| Presentations due to TPC | Monday, January 11, 2027 |
| TPC Review Complete | Monday, January 25, 2027 |
| Final Presentations Uploaded | Wednesday, February 10, 2027 |