Speaker Submissions

Welcome! Please Read About Our Changes For 2019!

WordCamp Miami has hosted hundreds of speakers in the past decade. Some have been as young as 10. Some have joined us from all over the globe such as India, Brazil, England. Some have been long-standing members in the community, many have been first time speakers. We pride ourselves in diversity – but alot of this relies on our speaker submissions.

We have already taken surveys from our local community and we have a roadmap. Next comes those who want to join us. Please read this page before submitting EVEN IF YOU HAVE SPOKEN at WordCamps or at WCMIA before.

Submission deadline is Midnight EST on Thursday January 10th, 2019 extended to Sunday January 13th, 2019 (Midnight EST).

First Time?

If you are considering to apply to speak at WCMIA for the first time it’s highly recommended you contact us so that you have the opportunity to speak at a local meetup first, if you are from the area. Also we encourage you to watch some videos of past talks at WordCamp Miami. Notice how the talks are given by knowledgeable people without self-promotion.

Things To Keep In Mind

NEW! This year our schedule will be a bit different compared to the past. More lightning talks are being planned and we might increase workshops DURING the weekend. If you are submitting an application for a talk consider spinning that off into one or more lightning talks that focus on a more specific topic from the bigger talk.
We always on the lookout for new speakers of ALL ages and backgrounds, especially young ones!
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 product 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 topics.
Please be prepared to submit speaker slides or review your presentation with a WCMIA organizer PRIOR to the event if asked.

Kids Panel

It’s likely we will have our 4th annual “Kid’s Panel”, so if you know someone who blogs, codes, works with WordPress – please wait for our speaker call for this.

Talk Lengths

This is still being finalized. Standard talk times will be approximately 30 minutes. Lightning talks are usually 10 minutes.

Happiness Bar

All speakers (with exception of speakers that speak last or right before lunch) are being asked after their talk to proceed to the Happiness Bar for post-talk questions that couldn’t be answered during your talk.

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!