Call for Speakers

The Call for Speakers has now closed. Thank you to everyone who applied!

As in previous years, WCEU has two conference days. This year, conference days are June 9 and June 10, 2023.

This year we are especially looking for talks that empower people to feel more comfortable using WordPress. Topics such as trends, new approaches and upcoming changes in related software and WordPress itself will be beneficial.

We would love to hear new voices sharing practical experiences from different perspectives.

And last but not least, we want to keep it fun! We welcome interactive presentations at this year’s event!

• What are the topics?
• What presentation formats will be available?
• We invite you to interact with the attendees!
• Who can apply?
• Timeline
• Apply to speak at WordCamp Europe 2023

What are the topics?

We analysed WordCamp Europe attendees’ surveys from the previous years and evaluated the feedback we received to find out what content people would like most. Here are a few ideas to spark inspiration:

What presentation formats will be available?

As in previous years, we’re planning to have multiple tracks and formats, including large stages for talks and smaller rooms for hands-on workshops.

Each session on the stages will be one hour in total. Content will take up to 45 minutes of each hour, leaving 15 minutes after each session to switch tracks, grab a cup of coffee, and chat with other attendees.

WCEU 2023 will feature talks in the following formats:

• Traditional talks [Apply below]
  45 minutes in total, breaking down to 30 minutes for the talk & 15 minutes for Q&A. After the session, we will invite attendees to join WP Cafe for the break to have a discussion there.
• Hands-On Workshops [Apply below]
  50 minutes or 110 minutes
• Expert panels on a specific topic
  We don’t have a call for applications here, but you if you have an idea of the panel, feel free email us directly: europe-speakers@wordcamp.org
• Lightning talks
  45 mins of 3-5 short presentations, targeting a specific audience or topic.
  There is no call for applications here as well, but we might offer some applicants directly to do a lightning talk.

We invite speakers to interact with the attendees

We would love to see speakers adding activities to your session and getting the audience involved in the process!

Do you need some inspiration? In the past, there were some great examples:

• In the Czech Republic, a security researcher installed a Wi-Fi honeypot in the venue and taught the audience a valuable lesson about security: A login to a WordPress Backend without SSL from public Wi-Fi is a bad idea. He presented all logins to WordPress Backends from the conference days without SSL as “compromised.”
• Another security researcher at WCEU 2020 Online integrated the audience via a game website to answer different questions in a poll.
• In a late afternoon talk at WCEU 2019, a speaker made the audience dance to “Never gonna give you up” by Rick Astley, which woke them up again for the last hours of the conference.
• Others asked the audience how they felt and let them answer questions over Mentimeter, an online tool that allows you to add interactive polls, quizzes, and word clouds.

We hope these give you some great ideas for your own presentation!

Who can apply?

You can! Whether you have given hundreds of talks in front of a large audience or have moderate public speaking experience, if you have the practical knowledge and passion — please, just do it, apply to speak! 

We take diversity seriously and encourage members from underrepresented groups to answer our call!

We launched Speaker’s support program in the hope of removing financial barriers for speakers.

There is also a Mentorship program where selected speakers can get support and feedback from more experienced WordCamp speakers.

Timeline

* exact dates are being updated

2nd week of December — Call For Speakers opens

9th of February — Call For Speakers closes

February — selection process

Early April — applicants receive a response to their applications

Mid-April — speakers announcement

1st of May — speakers slides deadline

8th of June — soundcheck

9th and 10th of June — CONFERENCE DAYS!

Please send us your best ideas. Each person is restricted to a max of two proposals.