Category Archives: Speakers

Speaker: Sara Rosso

SaraRosso_2013We’re excited to welcome VIP Global Services Manager, Sara Rosso, from Automattic to speak at WordCamp Europe. Originally from California, Sara has spent the past 10 years living in Italy so she’s intimately familiar with the WordPress world on both sides of the Atlantic. Part of her job at Automattic is discovering VIP success stories and sharing them with the world, which is exactly what she’ll be doing at WordCamp Europe in her presentation, Why Big Brands Love WordPress.

WordPress now powers more than 18% of the top 10 million sites in the world, and some of the brands and enterprises using WordPress might surprise you! We’ll take a look at the latest sites which are pushing WordPress to new heights, the compelling reasons they decided to go with WordPress, and what they learned along the way. We’ll spend some time busting myths about WordPress as well as provide some great examples of powerful and beautiful sites using WordPress that will be interesting and useful for developers, designers, and users alike.

Panel: Running a WordPress Development Shop

WordPress development shops are big business and the number of them is growing all of the time. Agencies are hiring freelancers and absorbing talent from all over the WordPress community.  From the challenges of working in open source, to bidding for huge projects, from competition to collaboration, this panel will discuss what it’s like to run a WordPress development agency in Europe.

The panelists are:

Announcing our First Speaker: Joost de Valk

joost-de-valkOur first speaker needs little introduction which makes us even more excited to introduce him.

Joost de Valk is the guy behind Yoast.com, the original source for SEO expertise and WordPress. He’s also the author of the hugely popular WordPress SEO by Yoast plugin.

A Netherlands native, Joost will be joining us to share his presentation “The Triumph of the Commons“.

Here’s what he’ll be talking about:

If you’re running a business based on open-source software like WordPress, that business depends on the prosperity of the open-source project; its demise could result in the demise of your business, while the project’s growth can result in your business flourishing.

As your business and the project grow, you’ll find them becoming more and more entwined. This may be an unusual situation for a business but it’s also a fortuitous one. In this presentation I’ll explore what it means for your business to be involved with an open source project, and how, by supporting it, you can be part of the triumph of the commons.

If your business is built on WordPress, come along to listen to what Joost has to say and to join in with the discussion afterwards.

Speaker Applications Close!

Speaker applications for WordCamp Europe are now closed. We have almost 80 applications and around 20 speaking slots available. That means there’s some fierce competition for those slots.

We would love to be able to accept everyone but of course we’re not going to be able to. However, here are some of the things we’ll be looking for when we put together the final schedule:

  • diversity of subject matter. We’ve got to have content that appeals to developers, designers, bloggers, business owners, and everyone in between.
  • diversity of geographical location and gender. The final schedule will represent the WordPress community worldwide, while particularly showcasing WordPressers in Europe.
  • novelty – is the presentation saying something new? Or saying something old in a new way?
  • relevance – is the content relevant to WordPress and WordPress users today?

We’ll also be looking at videos, checking out past slides, and generally scrutinising each application to make sure that the programme for WordCamp Europe is as good as it can be.

Thank you to everyone who applied. You’ll be hearing from us in a couple of weeks!

Just one week left to apply to speak!

Time is running out to get your speaker applications in for WordCamp Europe. We’ve had some excellent proposals so far but there are plenty of WordPressers out there that we’d love to have speak.

Don’t think you’ve got anything new to say? Remember that everyone brings their own unique perspective to a subject, everyone has their own take on things. We’re looking for a broad range of speakers for WordCamp Europe, including:

  • designers
  • developers
  • writers
  • business-owners
  • bloggers
  • UX experts
  • UI experts
  • WordPress community members
  • People using WordPress
  • translators

What are you waiting for? Get that speaker application filled out!

Only 3 Weeks Until Speaker Registration Closes!

We’re closing speaker applications on 1st July, that means you only have 3 weeks left to get your presentation proposal in. If you want to speak at WordCamp Europe and you haven’t applied yet, now’s the time to start thinking about what you’re going to send in.

WordCamp Europe is a big event with around 900 attendees across two rooms, and we’re looking for really exciting presentations to keep all of those people happy over the two days. If you want some feedback on your presentation before making the final pitch, we’re happy for you to drop us an email.

Here are some past topics and titles from across the world that we think would be a great fit for WordCamp Europe:

Feeling inspired? Get to the speaker application page and start filling it out!