Update 9/7/2018: Speakers will be announced once all speaker applicants have been notified of the status of their talks and invited speakers have accepted their invitations. All speaker applicants should receive an email in the next 2 weeks regarding the status of their talk(s).
We’re excited to announce WordCamp US is officially accepting speaker applications for our event on December 7-9, 2018 in Nashville,Tennessee. It’s our second year here in Nashville and we need your help to make it a phenomenal one. Apply to speak!
WordCamp US is a chance for WordPress enthusiasts from around the globe to share their varied talents and perspectives. Developers, project managers, content creators, designers, support professionals, and more come together to talk about all things WordPress. This shows not only the incredible diversity of the WordPress community, but also the versatility of WordPress itself.
What we’re looking for
Don’t submit a talk on what you think we want to hear; offer to speak on something that you are passionate about. Everybody has a unique WordPress story to tell, and we want to hear yours.
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- What are you uniquely qualified to speak about?
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- Have you used WordPress in an interesting or innovative way?
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- Was WordPress the foundation for creating something meaningful in your community?
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- How has WordPress helped you grow your business?
- What was your experience updating your code for the latest WordPress release?
We can learn so much from others who haven’t traditionally spoken to our community. All voices are welcome here. If you work on other Open Source projects or web design and development in general, and think the WordPress community could benefit from your story, we want it told at WCUS.
Looking for more inspiration? Check out presentations from last year’s event and our recommendations from last year for how to make your speaker submission stand out.
How we select speakers
We are lucky enough to receive hundreds of speaker submissions. Want to stand out? Here are some tips on how the selection process goes when the call for speakers closes.
We hide names during our review process to be as unbiased as possible. Please write your title and description knowing your name will not be part of the decision process. We’re choosing for content and variety. It’s helpful to not leave us guessing what your talk will be about.
Selected speakers may only have one talk. If you submit more than one talk, we’ll choose what we believe is your strongest presentation that caters to a large audience and contributes to the diversity of our topics.
We’re looking for attention to detail.
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- Make sure your description is detailed but succinct. Both too short & too long make it difficult for organizers to choose. 2-3 paragraphs about your talk should be sufficient.
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- Make it clear what people will learn & why it’s important. The background on your talk is important, but so is telling us how you’re going to get to the finish line.
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- Make it engaging. Why will someone want to listen to you talk for 10-40 minutes?
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- Make sure you are prepared. If you’ve had a problem in the past with showing up for a talk unprepared, acknowledge it & show us you’ve improved (ideas: send a clear outline or {gasp} your slides).
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- Share your past experience with this topic. If we receive 20 submissions for the same topic (e.g. Gutenberg), it helps to see what you can offer or bring to the topic.
- If you are submitting something that is directly related to your business, acknowledge the potential for a conflict of interest or for it to turn into a sales pitch, and show us why it won’t.
Apply before July 1st!
Please use the application website below to share your ideas with us. We encourage potential speakers to upload more than one talk proposal, but no more than three submissions will be accepted from an applicant. If you choose to submit more than three, the first three will be the only proposals considered. If you run into problems submitting your application, please contact us.
Apply to Speak
You can apply to speak at wcus-speakers.org. All applications must be submitted by July 1, 2018 at 11:59pm CDT (-5 GMT).
Featured Photo Credit: David Needham