We opened up early speaker submissions before we announced our April 6-7, 2013 dates and response was excellent. Enough to run a WordCamp already. Although we desire for speakers to submit sessions focused on their passions and experience, we’ve been asked to “spitball” some possible topics to get the people who are on the fence on what to talk about… well, off the fence.

First off, if you are interested in speaking you should check out this informational page first. There aren’t many rules and guidelines, but there are some. It’s important to note that during this two day WordCamp we are planning on several different formats:

• Standard Sessions – Approx. 30 minutes with some time for questions.
• “Miami Lightning” – You get 5 minutes and a handfull of slides to talk in between other sessions. Unconference style and great for brief-but-fun-and-right-to-the-point topics.
• Workshops – Several speakers give detailed and coordinated talks about a subject in a single block of time, or even a dedicated track.
• Panel – We don’t have a panel session yet, but willing to consider it if several speakers want to get together.

Business And Front-End Development

Based on recent surveys, WordCamp Miami attendees are very interested in business/freelance topics and front-end development (including HTML, CSS, Javascript, UI/UX, design).

Ideas For Sessions

Again, just because we get submission on these doesn’t mean your submission will be approved. We are hungry for unique and interesting presentations from a variety of speakers, but hopefully these will inspire you:

• Responsive Design – Unless you’ve been living under a rock, mobile and tablet devices are defining how people view sites. Many WordPress sites are responsive, but a great deal can be taught and discussed on this topic (I could talk about CSS frameworks for an hour alone). How to code responsive sites, how to test, pitfalls, etc.
• UI/UX, Theme Design – Many designers attend WordCamp Miami – some code, some not so much – looking to learn about latest design trends. What works, what doesn’t. Etc.
• Freelance / Business – There are so many possible topics in here, it’s possible to create a whole track on them. Best to read Chris Lema’s excellent post for inspiration. Each of these could be it’s own session:
  • Staffing
  • Client selection
  • Pricing
  • Contracts
  • Scheduling
  • Communication
  • Project Management
  • Execution
  • Relationships (post-deliverables)
  • Branding
• WordPress Functions And Code – There is so much goodness in WordPress code that many people aren’t aware of. WP-Cron, WP_Query, Hooks (Filters and Actions), and the image manipulation functions of WordPress are just examples of things that experienced developers can share.
• Source Control – Regardless if it’s SVN or Git or whatever, more developers should be doing this right?
• General Blogging Topics – Don’t forget general bloggers come to WordCamps, especially in Miami. Non-coding topics that can cover how to write or legal areas of blogging might be a good area to start thinking about. WordCamp Miami does these every year, so the more unique and interesting the better.
• Beginner’s Topics – This goes hand-in-hand with the general blogging topics, but every year we have workshops or tracks devoted to those just learning about WordPress for the first time. 101 topics, if you will. Finding great themes and plugins, or just even learning some great ways about the latest version of WordPress could be beneficial. Again, the more interesting and unique the presentation the better.
• Using WordPress For [Fill In The Blank] – Using WordPress in an interesting way or a unique industry? Share what you’ve learned. The pros/cons, the decisions you made, mistakes learned, etc. Real Estate, Government, Education…
• WordPress Frameworks – There are a number of these out there and questions come up in our meetups about what they are and what’s the pros/cons of each popular framework?
• WordPress Multi-site – Those who already know this don’t need a reason to talk about it, the possibilites and uses of this are endless.
• BuddyPress – We are VERY interested in those with experience in BuddyPress coding to talk it at WordCamp Miami this year.
• Ecommerce – Always a favorite topic at many WordPress conference and events.
• Scaling and Caching – Another development track topic favorite.

Need More Inspritation?

Check out wordpress.tv to see what others have spoken at previous WordCamps. Who knows? You could be on that site after WordCamp Miami this April!

If you want to make sure you don’t miss an update, make sure you signup on our mailing list. We try to keep updates to a minimum so not to spam you, but we do expect more frequent updates as the event draws closer.

There’s a few nice perks for those on the mailing list. You’ll be the first to know about when tickets go on sale (and the first to know about any early bird discounts, if we offer those again this year), even before we released this information via the website or via Twitter/Facebook. We did pass the 100 people mark in our first week (woot!) so we will be giving away some WordCamp Miami tickets to those who signed up at some point soon.

So what are you waiting for? Signup here, fellow WordCampers.

I’ve run into a few WordPress and back-end developers lately with years of experience. But when asked, they haven’t given much thought to speaking at meetups or WordCamps. Reasons seem to be varied – the thought hasn’t crossed their mind or they were naturally a little shy (at least when it comes to public speaking) were reasons. But universally the “what i know most others already know” seemed to be a recurring theme.

When it comes to speaking at conferences, meetups, and similar events – but ESPECIALLY at WordCamps – you should never hold back if you have something to teach and communicate to others. Even if you think what you have to say is “too basic” for the audience. I stumped upon this quote from Laura Kalbag as I was reading Rebecca Murphey’s javascript post:

The point I’m trying to make is that we shouldn’t be fearful of writing about what we know. Even if you write from the most basic point of view, about something which has been ‘around for ages’, you’ll likely be saying something new to someone. They might be new to the industry, you might just be filling in the holes in someone’s knowledge.

When we look at a lineup at a WordCamp or conference, sometimes we can intimidated a bit when we see household names (or at least household names for our industry). That’s wrong. Experienced speakers are fine but (in the case of WordCamps) there are many (and in many cases a majority) of beginners or experienced developers that haven’t heard what you have to say. Or worse have forgotten it.

WordCamp Miami has opened speaker submissions for 2013. While there are guidelines to speaking at these events, the guidelines say nothing about your experience and what you should share. Even if you aren’t selected to speak, it won’t be for these reasons. WordCamp Miami loves speaker virgins. 🙂 In the past, some of the best sessions i’ve attended have been given by first-time conference (or WordCamp) speakers.

Best advice for speaker virgins applying for WordCamps (Miami or otherwise): get over the fear and take your best shot. Start with smaller meetups (even if you have more confidence than some) and go from there. Speaking in smaller groups allows you to be more comfortable with an audience with you learning the best way to talk, gesture, move around, etc. It can also allow you to know when you are losing your audience.

Ever year WordCamp Miami has at least a few speaker virgins, and in 2013 we hope again to be able to bestow the privilege of having WordCamp Miami be the first step toward a rewarding and self-gratifying path toward speaking and sharing your knowledge with others.

Official dates are set for WordCamp Miami 2013. April 6th (Saturday) and April 7th (Sunday) 2013. Yep, we really mean it this time.

We are a while away from posting any schedules, but Saturday will be our traditional multi-track event with a variety of speakers. Topics will vary, but all follow some general themes (such as topics for WordPress beginners). You’ll have to wait what we have in store for Sunday. 🙂

If you have been following along, we had some difficulty securing a venue this year. We were originally shooting for a date in February, to close out a big tech week in Miami. However, once we got the venue there was simply not enough time to plan, get sponsors, etc. Plus we are going into our 4th year and wanted to try some things differently. One of those things will be a brand new venue, Ai Miami International University of Art & Design. We can’t wait to share the other different things we have in store for you.

With a date now set, lots of things can start moving now. For us here on the planning and organizational end of things, we can now reach out to sponsors, speakers, and volunteers. And book places for parties. Woot. As for you – potential WordCamp Miami attendee – you can mark the dates on your calendar (and if you are out of town, start thinking about your travel plans).

About 10 days ago, we put up a survey of some out-of-box topics to see which what possible “workshop” or multiple session topics people might be interested in. 10 days isn’t alot of time for a survey, but we have gotten literally a mountain of responses (which is a good sign people are generally interested in a second day of a WordCamp Miami, although we already knew this from last year when we had standing room only at our Friday workshop sessions).

I won’t release numbers here, or the degrees of interest. Since we are letting the survey run as we accept speaker submissions, we don’t want to taint any responses. But on the other hand, we definitely see a trend. Here are the topics in order of interest as of now:

How To Build A Better Freelance / WordPress Business
Front-End Development
BuddyPress Mini-Camp
WordPress For Beginners Workshop
WordPress For Kids

Now, some interesting things about this ordered list. First the negative – I was sad to see WordPress for Kids bringing up the rear. I guess it makes sense that this would only interest you if you had a child and a child old enough to bring… and although we’ve gotten a ton of responses those factors would reasonably not make up many from a statical viewpoint. Perhaps we need to confirm by offering better targeted surveys. But for this type workshop we don’t need a large group at all. In fact, just the opposite. My wife is a teacher, and has personally explained how smaller class sizes with students allow you to give the one-on-one attention. Like I really needed that explained, of course. So all would we would need to about 20 kids, and compared to a 400-500 attendee WordCamp, that’s not large at all.

The beginners workshop is a bit of surprise, but might also be a factor of just happening to have more advanced developers fill out the survey. We are getting enough beginners and newbies signing up to our mailing list (which is approaching over 200 people in almost two weeks, so it’s not a small number) for us to definately not forget about anyone wanting to learn about WordPress for the first time, or get some reminders. I met a few of these personally during my time at Code Miami this past weekend.

Although it’s in the middle of the list, i’m stoked that BuddyPress has gotten many of those “i’m highly or somewhat interested” in responses. Could there be a potential for a BuddyPress Mini-Camp? BuddyPress is a niche, but it’s popularity is growing. A challenge might be to get qualified advanced speakers, since many of these are scattered across the globe, but at any rate i’m happily surprised at the responses.

The big story is the freelance business and front end development interest. These were practically tied in order of interest, with interest in freelance and business beating out front-end development by a narrow margin. I’m beginning to see this as more of a trend at WordCamps, both large and small. Started seeing a session or two appear about how to treat clients or about managing your own projects. Now i’ve seen sessions devoted to building WordPress businesses (and many of those suggestions and tips could easily be applied to any freelance tech business), even at the San Fran WordCamp in 2012.

So while WordCamp Miami is going to cover alot of bases – especially on it’s Saturday multi-track day – i’m excited and interested to see if these trends also appear in more WordCamps in 2013. More people are getting comfortable with WordPress… they aren’t beginners anymore. They want to start to learn about plugins like BuddyPress, become better designers and front-end developers to build better themes, and strengthen their freelance skills and business that they are using WordPress more heavily in.

If you are a designer, front-end developer, or have unique insight or experience in freelance (or own your own WordPress business) you might want to consider submitting a proposal to speak at WordCamp Miami 2013 this year. This is an educational event and there could be alot of people that could benefit from your knowledge and experience.

We talked about this briefly in our last WordPress South Florida meetup, but now you have the chance to give us your feedback on the upcoming WordCamp Miami 2013. Let us know what interests you so we can schedule our conference days better.

WordPress for Beginners Workshop: A few hours running you from hosting, domain name registration, to the beginnings of how to setup and post w/ WordPress.

WordPress for Kids: A couple of hours in the morning devoted to just teaching WordPress to youngsters and getting them to start and run their first blog. If they can type, they can use WordPress.

BuddyPress Mini-Camp: A few sessions devoted to BuddyPress, a social networking plugin for WordPress. Sessions to be delivered by experienced BuddyPress developers and will cover a range of beginner and advanced topics.

How To Build A Better Freelance / WordPress Business – A collection of sessions devoted to the business and legal side of WordPress and your freelance business. If you want to sell a theme, plugin, or be a better freelancer (even if you don’t do WordPress), then this would be suited for you.

Front-End Development Workshop – Sessions devoted to HTML/CSS and other front-end subjects.

Click here to take the survey. The more people fill out the survey, the better!

If you want to make sure you don’t miss an update, make sure you signup on our mailing list. We try to keep updates to a minimum so not to spam you, but we do expect more frequent updates as the event draws closer.

There’s a few nice perks for those on the mailing list. You’ll be the first to know about when tickets go on sale (and the first to know about any early bird discounts, if we offer those again this year), even before we released this information via the website or via Twitter/Facebook. Secondly, if 100 people signup for this list we will give away some WordCamp Miami tickets to those who signed up (and if you bought a ticket, we’ll simply give you a refund or you can donate the ticket to someone else).

So what are you waiting for? Signup here, fellow WordCampers.

Although event dates in April are not officially confirmed (please read our post on this), there are some that wish to submit speaker submission requests as soon as possible. These are usually fairly sure they will attend WordCamp Miami – either they come every year, or they live close to the area. In either case, we are opening up speaker submissions now. Once dates are confirmed, we will send out a notice to everyone who submitted a proposal.

All the information you need to know – including the link to submit a speaker proposal – is located here.

We welcome back anyone who has attended and spoken at WordCamp Miami in the past – repeat speakers welcome! On the other hand, we are looking especially for those who might not have spoken at WordCamp Miami before – or perhaps those wanting to make WordCamp Miami their first speaking conference!

We are looking for unique and interesting topics that beginners, advanced users, or both would be interested in (and that relate to WordPress in some way – read this page).

When submitting proposals, please assume at this time you will have 30 minutes for your session, plus some brief time to answer questions. Also assume your talk will be recorded, so you will have to sign a media release before giving your presentation.

At this time, deadline for speaker submissions in February 12th, 2013.

Update: We have closed comments here because we want people submitting proposals via our official form rather than anything official in the comments section. Thanks!