Submit a Session

Do you have a presentation idea or topic that you want to share with the attendees of WordCamp Columbus 2013? If so, please complete the form below, and a member of our team will contact all of our speakers within a few days of the selection deadline (March 30th, 2013) and notify you if you have been selected as a speaker.

Please take a few minutes to read the notes below. They’re important.
The link to submit your session is at the end of this page, I promise.

A few things to keep in mind about presenting at WordCamp Columbus:

  • Speakers at WordCamp Columbus aren’t compensated in any way except with fame, glory, the thanks of the WordCamp Columbus community, and a free dinner or two the weekend of Camp. Travel and/or hotel costs are not covered.
  • Being a professional speaker is NOT required HOWEVER you must know what you are talking about, and the subject must be related to WordPress in some way. Subjects like front-end development, how to manage freelancing, social media etc., will be accepted as long as you can talk in light of how they relate to WordPress – make sure you note this in your submission. WordCamp Columbus is not simply a technology or internet marketing conference. Every session must specifically deal with WordPress.
  • Your session is not to promote your own theme, plugin 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 case study, awesome! Go ahead and submit your session. But…know that we’re not going to allow for a sales pitch at any point.
  • You should know how to spell WordPress. And respect the WordPress logo/trademarks. You’ve got to embrace the WordPress license. Note: this is one step above simple compliance, which requires PHP code to be GPL/compatible but allows proprietary licenses for JavaScript, CSS, and images. 100% GPL or compatible is required for promotion at WordCamps when WordPress-derivative works are involved, the same guidelines followed on WordPress.org.
  • You can submit multiple speaker submissions for different talks. However most speakers will only be allowed one talk per entire event, so submit your best.
  • Be prepared to submit your slide decks and/or videos used for your presentation PRIOR to the event. Once your session is accepted, you’ll also need to share with us a bio for yourself, and a kick-ass description we can use to draw the masses to your session. No last minute talk preparations (unless of course you were notified last minute or some other sort of emergency). First time speakers might need to submit slides for a general review.

WordCamp Columbus 2013 will cover two days again this year:
Friday, August 2 + Saturday, August 3.

Friday will a be full-day workshop for absolute beginners, “WordPress 101.” We are not looking for speakers for this workshop at this time. “WordPress 101” is not a series of 45 minutes talks by various speakers on different subjects, but rather a cohesive curriculum presented throughout the day. Guests will attend the entire workshop. As such, the curriculum is already created. No other sessions will be held on Friday. Keep in mind when submitting your talk for Saturday that we covered a TON of stuff for beginners on Friday (How to install WordPress, what is a theme, what is a plugin, etc…) so if you think your session leans towards absolute beginners, you might want to hit us up on Twitter @wordcampcbus and ask if we’ll be covering it on Friday.

Saturday, the WordCamp experience most guests are used to will begin. Four rooms filled will a variety of topics throughout the day, presented by speakers like you!

Here are several formats of talks to consider as you think about yours:

  • “Standard” Sessions: Approx. 35 minutes with 15 minutes for questions.
  • Workshops: Several speakers give detailed and coordinated talks about a subject in a single block of time (1-2 hours)
  • Lightning Talks: You get 5 minutes and a handful of slides to talk unconference style. Great for short, right-to-the-point topics and show-offs.

We might suggest a format if there is interest in your submission. We might also suggest a different topic if yours has already been taken or we think you are able to present a topic we know our guests would be interested in. The safest bet is to plan on the standard session.

Remember that guests like live demonstrations and case studies (showing someone HOW to do something is one thing, showing them WHAT to do with it afterwards and WHY makes the HOW even more impactful).

Selection Process:

All selections and submissions are reviewed by our Speakers committee. We cannot accept all submissions. 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 Columbus), hometown of speaker (we try to keep the majority of speakers close to home), and other factors. If your session is not accepted, you will be told why.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST IN BEING A PART OF WORDCAMP COLUMBUS 2013!
WE CAN’T WAIT TO SEE WHAT YOU HAVE FOR US THIS YEAR!

Click here to submit your speaker submission.

7 thoughts on “Submit a Session

  1. Ian Dunn

    Hey guys, I’m a plugin developer and I’ve created two presentations on integrating best practices into WP plugin development. One is on implementing the Model-View-Controller design pattern, and the other is on designing object-oriented plugins.

    I gave a combined version of the presentation earlier this week at the Seattle WordPress Developer’s Meetup and people seemed to enjoy it (http://www.meetup.com/SeattleWordPressMeetup/events/98406942/). The slides are at http://iandunn.name/wp-oop-mvc. I ended up skipping a lot of the content in order to fit it into 35 minutes, so in the future I plan on breaking them into two presentations.

    I grew up in Dayton, but have been living in Seattle for the past few years, where I do custom plugin development full-time and am involved in the local WP meetup and WordCamp. I haven’t spoken at a WordCamp yet, but I’ve spoken at the Seattle Developer’s meetup twice (the other time being http://www.meetup.com/SeattleWordPressMeetup/events/98406942/), and have also been on a Q&A panel and a couple “expert bars” at the main Seattle WP meetup and Seattle WordCamp.

    1. AMEEKER Post author

      Hi Ian – those are both topics I think our developers would be interested in. Seattle’s a long way from Columbus, as you know! But, if you’d be up for the commute, feel free to submit your session – we’d love to meet some developers with roots here.

      1. Ian Dunn

        Hi Angie, I’ve still got friends in Ohio, so it’d be a good excuse to fly back and catch up with them 🙂

        I actually thought I had submitted it, but must have accidentally left it as a comment instead. I’ll go ahead and submit it properly this time 🙂

    2. Tom Harrigan

      Hey Ian, would be keen for a presentation on OO plugins. Definitely a solid topic 🙂 Will have to keep myself content with the slides ’til WC, thanks for the link!

      1. Ian Dunn

        Hey Tom, it actually looks like I’ll be giving the OOP presentation at another WordCamp in a few months, so right now I’m planning on giving the MVC presentation at Columbus. The video for the OOP presentation should be up on WordPress.tv by the time Columbus starts, though.

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