We received 96 presentation submissions from 81 different potential speakers for WordCamp and narrowing the selection was tough, but…
We have an incredible lineup of 50 speakers for this year’s WordCamp Sacramento. Some speakers are local to the Sacramento area, and several others are traveling from throughout California and across the country to be at WordCamp, share their wisdom with you, and answer your questions.
Before WordCamp arrives, there are a few thing you need to know about our speakers…
WordCamp Speaker Quick Facts
- They took action: Our speakers took a big step, put themselves out there, and applied to speak. They stepped up to create a talk, craft a compelling description, and submit it for consideration all because they want to give back to a community that has helped them.
- They are volunteers: Every speaker is is volunteer who gives their time to create their presentation, practice it, and deliver it. They are not paid and are doing this to help you.
- They pay their own way: All speakers, whether they are semi-local or coming from across the country, pay for their own travel expenses, including hotel, airfare, food, and anything else associated with coming to WordCamp.
- They have a range of skill levels: Every speaker’s skill sets are different and their knowledge of WordPress ranges from beginner to advanced. We believe everyone at every level has value to add to our community and unique perspective.
- They are not professional speakers: None of our speakers are professional speakers, but they are professionals in their areas of expertise. Speakers were selected for the quality and focus of their talk topic and how it would benefit our local community.
- They are nervous: Public speaking is the number one fear in the world. It is very scary for many people, including many of our speakers. We have speakers who are presenting for the very first time, seasoned speakers who speak regularly, and those somewhere in between. Many of our speakers are stepping out of their comfort zones big time to present at WordCamp, so please give them grace and show your support.
- They are introverts: Not all, but many of our speakers are introverts — it’s the nature of our industry. Please say hello in the hallways and between sessions. Introduce yourself, chat them up, and ask questions. Some of these speakers charge hundreds of dollars per hour to hire or aren’t available to be hired, and this is a golden opportunity to tap their brilliance.
Get Your Ticket Today!
WordCamp Sacramento, the only WordCamp in Northern California, is a truly inclusive community event that invites and welcomes anyone and everyone who is interested in or who uses WordPress in any way to come together for a weekend to collaborate, share, converse, learn, and grow.
This year we’re bringing you 42 sessions and a full day beginner curriculum that will teach new WordPressers how to use the software, update, and maintain their websites. Of those sessions, we have 41 educational learning sessions, including a panel discussion on blogging monetization moderated by yours truly.
We’re also introducing an entirely new type of session… This year we’re testing a speed networking session, designed to help you meet as many people as possible while at WordCamp.
We all are so excited about WordCamp Sacramento 2017 and we want YOU to join us.
Yay, for the speakers! There would be no WordCamp without you all, so thank you.
It’s nice that you mention these features about your speakers, but there are also a lot of speakers who you did not select and it would have been nice to include more speakers since a lot of the speakers who applied to speak at WC Sacramento did not get selected.
Mike — We wish we could have accepted every talk that was submitted and given everyone an opportunity to speak at WordCamp, too! Unfortunately, with almost 100 talks submitted, that’s just not possible. We couldn’t find a venue in budget to support that.
I’m not sure if you’ve ever tried to organize a large event… it’s hard work and A LOT of work — all volunteer work — and the hardest parts are finding a venue that can accommodate the event size and working within a fixed, sponsor-supported budget that must be approved in advance by WordPress Community Support. We don’t just get to do whatever we want.
Most WordCamps are 1-2 days and feature 10-30 speakers. WordCamp Sacramento, with 50 speakers is already bulging and pressing the limits of the event space that is available within budget. There are actually very few (almost none) event spaces in Sacramento that can accommodate an event of our size that has multiple large rooms available to allow us to run multiple tracks. With three tracks of sessions, we’re maxing out our space as it is.