Posted on by Jose Castaneda

Call for Speakers

Call for Speakers open for WordCamp Sacramento 2018

WordCamp Sacramento is the only WordCamp in Northern California, attracting more than 500 attendees from throughout the state, across the United States, and even other countries. We are excited to once again showcase the passion, talent, and skills of our WordPress community—and we want you to be a part of it!

The Call For Speakers is officially open and you are invited to apply!

We are looking for speakers to share their WordPress knowledge, skill, experience, and personal stories with our welcoming community at WordCamp Sacramento, happening September 21-22, 2019 at the Falls Event Center in Roseville, CA.

Important Speaker Submission Dates:

  • Submissions close May 6, 2019
  • Selections will be made by May 10, 2019
  • All applications will receive notification of their application status by May 15, 2019
  • Applicants must confirm their spot as a speaker no later than May 23, 2019 or the spot will be given to an alternate.
  • Speakers will be announced the first week of June

Please understand that we are all volunteers and may not be able to personally respond to each submission with a detailed response.

What You Need To Know If Applying

Talks for all skill levels and topics will be considered.

We do not require you to be famous, an expert, or a developer, 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, clearly, and respectfully, that the materials is accurate, and that it relates to WordPress.

  • WordCamps are volunteer-driven events and speaking is a way of volunteering. As a speaker, you are volunteering your time to create and deliver the presentation and you will pay for your own travel expenses.
  • Presentations will be a mix of approximately 40-minute full sessions and 15-minute lightning talks.
  • You must spell WordPress correctly (capital_P_dangit) and respect the WordPress logo and trademarks.
  • If you are distributing any WordPress derivatives which include WordPress Plugins and Themes, they need to be 100% GPL.
  • Every attendee must be respectful of the WordPress community and the WordCamp Code of Conduct.
  • 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 only consider the talk title and description.

Your Role As A Speaker

  • .Speakers will be offered free admission to WordCamp Sacramento and an invitation to the VIP WordCamp Kick Off Dinner, but will not be otherwise compensated in any way. Any guests of speakers must purchase a ticket to attend WordCamp.
  • We do expect speakers to be present and to participate in the entire event (Saturday and Sunday).
  • Speaking at WordCamp is not an opportunity for self promotion or to promote your own theme, plugin, service, or business. No selling from the stage or front of the room is allowed.
  • Be prepared to submit your presentation slides in advance or to review your presentation with a WordCamp Sacramento Organizer prior to the event.
  • All speakers must provide organizers a link to their slide deck no later than September 16, 2019. This is the live link we will use to provide the slides to attendees during the event — this is not optional.
  • We plan to record most sessions and submit the videos to WordPress.tv. By applying to speak you agree to having your session recorded and published on WordPress.tv.

Tips for a Great Speaker Application

  • Use your real, full name (first and last).
  • A clear talk title is better than a clever one—don’t make attendees work to figure out what your talk is about. Plus, if we don’t clearly understand the topic, we won’t select it.
  • Enter a detailed presentation description. Descriptions that are vague, unhelpful, or incomplete may not be considered—explain what attendees will learn or get out of the session.
  • Submit your proposed topic title, description, and your bio in third person, as if it were the final version to be printed or posted on the website.
  • Please do not include notes to the organizers in your presentation description.
  • Please do not submit a presentation that is already on WordPress.tv or you have given previously in the Northern California region.
  • Your talk should be directly related to WordPress, or immediately applicable and relevant to our audience.
  • Skip the hype, talks about making money, six-figures, and “killing it.” Focus on helping people do more with WordPress and do better with WordPress.

Topics WordCamp Sacramento Is Interested In

WordCamp Sacramento will be offering a carefully-planned two-day beginner track as well as two mixed tracks of sessions across Saturday and Sunday. For our mixed tracks, we are open to all topics focused around WordPress, we’re specifically looking for talks on (in no particular order):

  • Web design/UX/UI
  • eCommerce
  • Membership sites
  • Online courses and learning management systems
  • WordPress Multisite
  • Third-party integrations
  • Performance
  • Typography
  • Gutenberg
  • Blogging
  • WP REST API
  • WordPress security
  • WordPress performance
  • Plugins and tools

NOTE: If submitting a talk on plugins and tools, please understand that we’re looking for talks that give the audience exposure to multiple options so they can choose what is best for them. For example: Pick a focus like “form plugins” and compare/contrast/cover multiple options like Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, WP Forms, Contact Form 7, etc. If covering premium/paid plugins, remember to add at least one free option as well.

Application Process

We do want to feature our local WordPress talent and users, so preference will be given to local speakers. To those outside the Northern California region, don’t let this discourage you! Each submission will be thoroughly read and discussed.

Preference will also be given to talks directly tied to WordPress, WordPress plugins, WordPress-related tools and resources, and/or helping attendees use, leverage, or do more with WordPress.

Submit A Speaker Application

If submitting multiple talks for WordCamp Sacramento, please complete a separate submission application for each talk.

A/V Release

By submitting and talk and participating in WordCamp Sacramento 2018, you understand that portions of the event will be photographed and/or audio/video-recorded for use by the WordPress Foundation.

As a speaker, you agree that WordPress Community Support has the right and permission to use and publish such media — which may include your name, likeness, voice, city/state of residence, or photograph — for any purpose in any format, online (including, but not limited to, WordPress.tv and WordCamp.org) and/or offline, now and hereafter without further compensation, permission, or notification.

You understand that all official recordings from the event are the exclusive property of the WordPress Community Support, PBC, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license for general use, and do not ask for nor expect compensation or notification of the use of official recordings or photographs in which you appear or speak.

Speaker/Volunteer Release

  • I agree that WordCamps are meant to benefit the local WordPress community through live events and the broader WordPress community through the sharing of online video and other materials.
  • I agree that a WordCamp is a casual, local, volunteer-organized event, focused on WordPress and reflecting the local WordPress community it represents.
  • I understand that WordCamp organizers, speakers, sponsors, and volunteers are expected to support the WordPress project and its principles.
  • I agree that WordCamps are not-for-profit events, organized with budget and funding transparency.
  • I agree that WordCamps should be accessible to as many people as possible, regardless of financial status.
  • I agree that I am not an employee of the WordPress Foundation or any subsidiary of the Foundation, and am participating in WordCamp exclusively as a volunteer.

I understand that the principles of the WordPress project include:

  • no discrimination on the basis of economic or social status, race, color, ethnic origin, national origin, creed, religion, political belief, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, age, or disability
  • no incitement to violence or promotion of hate
  • no spammers
  • no jerks
  • respect the WordPress trademark
  • embrace the WordPress license; If distributing WordPress-derivative works (themes, plugins, WP distros), any person or business officially associated with WordCamp should give their users the same freedoms that WordPress itself provides: 100% GPL or compatible, the same guidelines we follow on WordPress.org
  • don’t promote companies or people that violate the trademark or distribute WordPress derivative works which aren’t 100% GPL compatible

Let’s Keep It Clean

This is an event for WordPress users of all ages. Your presentation must be clean and free of offensive verbal comments related to gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, disability; inappropriate use of nudity, profanity, or sexually explicit content. This applies to all text, images, videos, or content.

Application Form

  • Submissions close May 6, 2019
  • Selections will be made by May 10, 2019
  • All applications will receive notification of their application status by May 15, 2019
  • Applicants must confirm their spot as a speaker no later than May 23, 2019 or the spot will be given to an alternate.
  • Speakers will be announced the first week of June

Speaker applications are now closed as of May 7, 2019. Thank you all who submitted.