WordCamp Birmingham 2020 speaker submissions are open! Now is the time to brainstorm interesting topics you can present with confidence to the WordPress community.
We are expecting around 250 attendees this year at WordCamp Birmingham (a.k.a. WP Y’all). Share your wisdom, insight and expertise with a diverse audience on all levels of the spectrum, from enthusiastic beginners to hotshot masters. WP Y’all offers tracks for all interests and proficiencies.
Talks for all skill levels will be considered, and a presentation on things you learned setting up your very first website can be just as valuable as a technical walk-through of how user capabilities and roles are implemented within WordPress.
What We Look For
You do not need to be famous, or “expert,” or a programmer, or specifically credentialed, or anything like that. If you haven’t spoken at a conference before, don’t let that hold you back! All we ask is that you be able to present your chosen topic passionately and respectfully. Our selection committee will be looking for:
- Quality of submission and description of talk — more than one sentence, please
- The more specific the topic the better, avoid general or broad topics
- Crystal clear topic description — if the organizing team isn’t sure what you’re talking about, no one will be
- Degree of uniqueness and popularity of the topic
- A range of speaker qualifications and experience — first-time speakers are encouraged to apply
Your talk should be…
- directly related to WordPress, or immediately applicable and relevant to our audience
- respectful of the WordPress community, the WordCamp Code of Conduct, and the GPL
- something that interests you, that you want to share!
- deliverable to either a live audience or an online audience in the event the conference must move to an online platform due to concerns regarding COVID-19.
We’ll have four tracks for speakers this year:
- Content (bloggers, copywriters, etc.)
- Business (business subjects for website owners)
- Developer (design and technical subjects)
- Workshops (from any of the topics areas above)
Some suggested themes:
- WordPress Basics
- Blogging and Content Creation
- Custom Website Development
- Themes and Front End Development (HTML/CSS/JS, Etc…)
- Design and User Experience
- Backend Development, Frameworks, Workflow,etc…
- Marketing and Branding
- Running a WordPress Based Business
A few things you should know before submitting a talk:
- All talks must be focused on WordPress and tie into using or working with WordPress.
- Your session is not primarily to promote your own theme, plugin or business. This is not the time for self promotion and no selling from the stage or front of the room is allowed.
- Personal or business branding (including logos, social media handles, web addresses, etc.) can be on your opening and closing slides only.
- Understand that you must know what you’re talking about well. Your topic can range from beginner to advanced, just be sure you know it inside and out.
- Please spell WordPress correctly and respect the WordPress logo and trademarks.
- While we do advocate for diversity and variety among speakers, 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.
- We will request presentation slides for review a few weeks before WordCamp. Make sure you can meet that deadline.
- Speakers get a free ticket to WordCamp Birmingham and an invitation to a VIP dinner prior to the event, but are not otherwise compensated.
- We have a Code of Conduct which applies to all participants at all WordCamp Birmingham events.
- In the event that the conference can not be conducted as a live event due to concerns regarding COVID-19, the conference would be moved to an online platform. Speakers should plan their topic and course materials accordingly.
Session Details:
- Talks will be a total of 35 minutes, but expect to leave about 10 minutes for Q&A.
- Talks will be scheduled throughout the weekend on either Saturday, August 15, 2020 or Sunday, August 16, 2020.
- We plan to record all talks and post the videos to WordPress.tv. Speakers will need to sign an A/V release form prior to giving their presentation.
- Speakers will be offered free admission to WordCamp Birmingham, but will not be otherwise compensated.
Timeline:
- The Call For Speakers will close at 11:59pm CDT on May 31, 2020.
- The organizing team will review submissions and select the talks.
- Speakers will be notified of selection on or before June 7, 2020.
- Selected speakers will need to confirm their spot no later than June 12, 2020.
Speaker Submission Form
If you’d like to propose multiple topics, please submit the form multiple times, once for each topic. If you need ideas for your talk, check out some previous WordCamp presentations.