Speaker Submissions (Old)

We are now accepting speaker submissions.

Click here to submit your speaker submission(s), although please read the below information. Some details on talk formats and topic suggestions have changed this year compared to previous years.

Deadline for submissions is March 20th, 2015.

Who Can Submit A Talk?

  • First-time speakers
  • Younger Ones (teenagers, students)
  • Experienced speakers
  • PHP developers (even if you don’t code WordPress)
  • Marketers, Project Managers, Designers
  • Non-profit organizers
  • Community leaders
  • Just about anyone.

Talk Format & Submission Guidelines

Full-length sessions will be 30 minutes long with 10 minutes will be provided for questions from audience. If we feel your submission is better suited for a different format (say a lightning talk), we will let you know in our feedback.

Have a topic that be brief? Submit it anyway. We would love to work with you if its well with this year’s event.

If you have more than one idea, submit them all, we’ll pick the one we like best. Please send one submission per talk. 

In addition to accepting speaker submissions as in previous years, we are trying something new this year and will be looking for presentations from experienced speakers that are limited in scope but can provide an attendee clear direction on how to do a certain task with their WordPress site or business. This is NOT a motivational talk format – close to a step-by-step mini-workshop for a “How To” track. If you feel your talk might fit well with this format, note that on your submission.

Please read this post on some insight into changes into our session and track formats for WordCamp Miami 2015.

What Subjects Can I Talk About?

Almost any subject related to WordPress and web development is fair game.  In 2015 we are looking for fresh or in-depth topics that perhaps haven’t been covered in previous WordCamps.

Here are some suggestions (but in the end submit a proposal based on your knowledge and experience, not what you THINK we want to see):

Screenshot 2015-02-23 09.22.40
User Topics
  • SEO Essentials
  • E-Commerce
  • Membership Sites
  • Marketing & Social Media
  • Content Creation And Content Strategies
  • WordPress Security
“Backend” Development
  • WordPress REST API
  • JavaScript best practices, Backbone.js, 3rd party Javascript frameworks
  • Performance and server-side optimization.
  • Automated or unit testing (end-to-end, integration, browser, etc).
  • Server setup and new stacks (HHVM, containers, deployment).
  • Common problems developers encounter and solutions to those problems. What new languages and effective workflows and tools exist that can make us better WordPress developers.
Screenshot 2015-02-23 09.24.50
Design / Front-End Development
  • New trends in web standards and how to make a good use of them (HTML5, SASS, LESS, CSS, SVG)
  • Responsive web design
  • Designing WordPress themes/sites for specific industries
  • Managing projects and/or client expectations regarding design
Screenshot 2015-02-23 09.20.24
Business
  • Marketing Your Product or Company
  • How To Price Your Product/Service
  • Contracts, accounting, and legal aspects of running a web business.
  • Retaining clients and managing expectations.
  • How to produce effective customer support.
  • Brand & reputation management (how to build a strong brand)
  • Tips specific to those who are freelancers or who operate small web development shops/agencies.

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

  • We look for speakers that are experienced BUT we also look for young or new speakers as well (in the past we have had speakers as young as 14 years old).
  • Being a professional speaker is NOT required HOWEVER you must know what you are talking about. In your speaker submission, let us know how your talk can relate to WordPress or the WordCamp Miami audience.
  • Your session is not primarily 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 sort of case study, go ahead and submit your session, but know that we’re not going to allow for a sales pitch at any point.
  • You have to know how to spell WordPress. And respect the WordPress logo/trademarks.
  • You can submit multiple speaker submissions for different talks.
  • Please be prepared to submit speaker slides or review your presentation with a WCMIA organizer PRIOR to the event if asked.

Selection Process:

All selections and submissions are collectively reviewed by our committee. We cannot accept all submissions, and in fact the majority are NOT selected. 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 Miami), hometown of speaker (we try to keep a certain percentage of speakers local), and other factors. If your submission is not accepted, we might not be able to personally respond to each submission with a detailed response.

Finally, there’s been a lot of talk about variety of speakers at technology conferences. 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.

Please note: Information on this page can be updated at times. Please review this page regularly even if you have submitted an application.

May 29-31st, 2015

WordCamp Miami 2015 is over. Check out the next edition!