Deadline: July 31, 2017 August 15, 2017
Do you have an interesting experience or area of expertise that you would like to share with others? Would your idea benefit people who are building web experiences with WordPress? Then we’re looking for you!
You don’t need to be famous, a renowned expert, or have specific credentials. All you need is the desire to share your knowledge and expertise with the community. Even if you haven’t presented at something like this before, don’t let that stop you. It is a unique and rewarding experience and we’d be glad to have you.
As members of the WordPress community, we know we have something special with WordPress. We want your help to share that notability with one of the most diverse, and interesting cities in America. So please send us your talk pitch!
The Talk “Tracks”
WordCampers have a better experience when there’s a common thread between the talks. To help everyone have the best possible experience, we’ve loosely defined three broad tracks that we want all our talks to fit in.
We have included some sample topics for each track that would be interesting to our audience. You don’t have to propose one of these topics. They’re just to help you get the creative juices flowing.
Building a WordPress site: The Full Picture
For those who are just starting out, we’ll have a day-long track where you can get handsy with WordPress. There will be a series of talks that cover the full picture of running a WordPress site. We’ll have speakers that will teach everything from SEO to design, marketing to plugins, and eCommerce to blogging.
Sample Topics
- Using Page builders to build a site (Visual Composer, Beaver Builder, etc)
- Picking a quality theme
- Building a “Content First” design
- How to use CSS to change the look of your site
- Incorporating content marketing
- How to use a specific plugin (well) – Yoast SEO, W3 Total Cache, Jetpack. etc.
- Recovering from disaster
Making a living with WordPress
Do you pay your bills using WordPress? Are you a freelancer? Work for an agency? Develop plugins and themes for a living? Provide support, hosting services, or specialized niche use cases? This track is for you! We’ll have lessons, deep dives, tips, and tricks from speakers who have made (and failed to make) a living using WordPress.
Sample Topics
- Building a freelance website business
- Selling themes & plugins
- Working at WP agencies
- Selling a service that improves WordPress
- Frontend or backend development with WordPress
- Working with WordPress in enterprise-grade situations
- Using WordPress to power online learning
- Project management techniques
- Freelancers delegating tasks for business efficiency
- Develop a content strategy to grow your blog
WordPress as a Solution
When you get to high-end applications, there are always complex, niche problems that developers face. How can WordPress provide a solution to those problems? Today, that answer often involves the REST API. WordPress also provides complex solutions for eCommerce and online learning. This track will explore many of the creative applications of WordPress solving today’s technical challenges.
Sample Topics
- Leveraging WordPress for building e-learning experiences.
- Creating online communities
- Multi-channel publishing with WordPress
- Using WordPress with React for fast web experiences
- Integrating the Internet of Things with WordPress
- Prototyping applications with WordPress
- Improving the Dashboard user experience
- Making WordPress fully accessible to all visitors
- Publishing a site in several languages
Developing your topic
We’ve found that WordCamp talks are successful if they follow one of three “models”:
- Your vision for what WordPress can do
- Your story about a creative or challenging use of WordPress
- Your community that other WordPressers can benefit from
Your Vision
Don’t feel like you need to stick to the same topics that have been talked about before. Something innovative, out of the box and futuristic!
Do you have a new perspective, something interdisciplinary that people aren’t thinking about? We want innovative presentations dealing with current issues that can inspire our community to press our skills forward.
Your story
Share your story describing how you tackled a specific challenge with WordPress, what your approach was, and why you did it that way. Maybe it was a tricky design. Or an integration that was hard to pull off. Or whatever else you feel is appropriate. Just think how others will benefit from your experience. And remember that we learn more from each other’s failures than from our successes.
Your Community
WordPressers everywhere are connecting with other creative and tech communities to accomplish things WordPress can’t do alone. If you are a WordPresser that is doing this we would love to hear about it! You can talk about connecting with other creative and tech communities outside the WordPress space, or outside the typical presentations we normally hear at WordCamps.
For all topics
Focus not just on “what to do” or “how to do it”, but why it should be done and the purpose behind it.
Make your talk personal. Specifics and examples help us relate to what you’re telling us and apply it to our own situations.
Share your unique perspective and voice! We want to encourage diversity; of opinions, individuals, their backgrounds, perspectives, and wide array of skillsets.
Your Audience
WordCamp Austin is a community event which has an audience of:
- Designers
- Developers
- Bloggers
- Technologists
- Marketers
- Artists
- Small Business Owners
- Entrepreneurs
- Educators
- Learners
FAQ
Q: How long will my talk be?
We have two different types: 40 minutes with a 10 minute Q&A and 20 minutes with a 5 minute Q&A
Q: Will there be support for accepted speakers?
Yes. We’ll give you extensive technical support when you give your talk. And we can help you prepare your talk beforehand.
Q: Who will be in charge of wrangling speakers?
Our Speaker Wranglers are Deepti Boddapati, Mendel Kurland, and Steven Word.
Q: Does it matter if I haven’t spoken at a conference before?
Previous experience is a plus, but is definitely not required.
Q: What should I talk about?
Think about something personal, something interesting, and something that will help others. See if you can fit it into one of our three tracks. And look at our advice for developing your topic.
Q: Does my talk have to be WordPress related?
Honestly, yes. But that’s a loose categorization. If you’re talking about something that improves a WordPress site (and make that clear), then just about any topic is fair game.
Q: Can I submit more than one talk?
Yes! This will significantly increase your chances of being accepted and give us a wider variety of talks to select from. But don’t worry – we will never ask you to do more than one talk.
Q: How do I submit my application?
Just fill out the form at the bottom of this page!
Q: Is there a deadline to submit my talk?
Yes. We need all talks submitted by July 31, 2017 August 15, 2017.
Q: When will I find out if my talk was accepted?
We are planning on announcing our speakers by September 1st, 2017.
Submit Your Talk
Sorry, but submissions closed on August 15th.