Speaker Submissions

 

Some Ideas To Help You Get Started:

First off, if you haven’t yet go watch some videos of past talks at WordCamp Miami. Notice how the talks are given by knowledgeable people without self-promotion.

Recent feedback and polls have allowed us to share some possible topics that might help you guide your consideration. Here are some suggestions for topics:

– Content Creation (Writing, Strategy)
– Journalism / Podcasting Topics
– Security
– Building Themes
– Freelancing / Business Topics (Dealing w/ Clients, Best Practices, Hiring Developers, etc.)
– Web Design / Theme Design / UI / UX
– Learning About PHP Not Directly Related To WordPress (PHP 7, etc.)
– Advanced WordPress Development Topics (Coding Themes, Plugins)
– Case Studies (“What We Did Wrong”)
– E-Commerce Topics (Building E-Commerce w/ WordPress)

A few things to keep in mind about presenting at WordCamp Miami:

• We look for speakers that are experienced BUT we also look for young or new speakers as well (in the past we have had speakers as young as 14 years old).
• Being a professional speaker is NOT required HOWEVER you must know what you are talking about. In your speaker submission, let us know how your talk can relate to WordPress or the WordCamp Miami audience.
• Your session is not primarily to promote your own theme, plugin or business. If your session is to detail how you used WordPress code to build some really great aspect of your theme, plugin or business, and you’d like to present that as a sort of case study, go ahead and submit your session, but know that we’re not going to allow for a sales pitch at any point.
• You have to know how to spell WordPress. And respect the WordPress logo/trademarks.
• You can submit multiple speaker submissions for different talks.
• Please be prepared to submit speaker slides or review your presentation with a WCMIA organizer PRIOR to the event if asked.

Talk Lengths:

We are planning on talks to be 25 minutes long with 5 minutes for questions. All speakers who want to answer further questions can proceed to the Happiness Bar with those who want to discuss further. We also might be planning several lightning talks and will let you know which session format is chosen if your talk is approved.

Selection Process:

All selections and submissions are collectively reviewed by our committee. We cannot accept all submissions, and in fact the majority are NOT selected. Factors we look for in presentations are the degree of uniqueness and popularity of the topic, the speaker qualifications and experience (past speaking experience is NOT required though, since we do have first-time speakers at WordCamp Miami), hometown of speaker (we try to keep a certain percentage of speakers local), and other factors. If your submission is not accepted we will notify you although we might not be able to personally respond to each submission or applicant.

Finally, there’s been a lot of talk about variety of speakers at technology conferences. Our general policy is that we don’t consider the race, sex, religion, or any other factor of the speaker to play a part in our selection process. That being said we encourage EVERYONE to submit talk proposals – including women and other groups that may not be represented traditionally well at tech conferences. EVERYONE has a story and you can reach out to us privately at miami@wordcamp.org if you have any questions – please consider submitting a proposal!