by Areti Vassou
In June 2019, nearly 3,000 members of the WordPress community came together in Berlin at the biggest WordCamp Europe to date. With lots of happy memories from WCEU 2019, we’re now ready to continue making WordPress history! Will you join this awesome conference?
The 2020 edition of WordCamp Europe will take place in Porto, Portugal. Where? At Super Bock Arena – Pavilhão Rosa Mota, Porto, Portugal. The city of Porto is UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is loved by tourists and locals alike for its colorful cobbled streets, beautiful buildings and, of course, its world-class food and wine.
Call for Speakers #WCEU2020
WordCamp Europe is the largest WordPress event in the world bringing all local communities together. WordCamp Europe 2020 is looking for speakers on a wide variety of topics and backgrounds. Are you ready to take to the stage in Porto? Do you have a story to tell? Do you have expertise in a specific field to share? Then they sure want to hear from you!
Be a part of WordPress history by speaking at #WCEU 2020
We hope that you’re as excited as we are to bring the spirit of the WordPress community to such a special city. With that in mind, we’re delighted to share from the WordCamp Europe 2020 website that the Call for Speakers is open!
Apply Now For Speaker #WCEU2020
Are you ready to talk at WordCamp Europe?
Are you ready to speak on the biggest WordPress stage in the world?
The organing team is looking for long talks, lightning talks, and workshops that bring value to the WordPress audience. They want talks and workshops to appeal to developers, designers, bloggers, business owners, site builders, translators, community organizers, and everything in between.
Looking for talk ideas? Check out this amazing list of topics. Need more ideas for workshops? Then this is the list for you.
Format & Application Process
You can apply for the following format:
- Long talks – 40 minutes total (30 mins for talk & 10 mins for questions).
- Lightning talks – 10 mins for talk & 5 mins for questions.
- Workshops – 90 minutes or 3 hours long.
These are the key dates you need to know:
- Call for speakers and workshops will be open until 6 January 2020
- They will then be selecting speakers and workshops until late February
- Selected speakers and workshop hosts will be informed starting 1 March
- Speaker and workshop announcements will start mid to late March
Read more about the speaker selection process.
DIVERSITY DO MATTERS!
WordCamp Europe 2020 is committed to creating a diverse conference that is representative of the WordPress community. We welcome submissions from a diverse set of backgrounds, and particularly applications from under-represented groups in tech.
As a community-focused event, they want to create a space where old friends can get together, new relationships can be forged, ideas exchanged, and everyone feels comfortable. Harassment in any form will not be tolerated. This includes any harassing activity from speakers, sponsors, volunteers, or attendees. WordPress & WordCamp Organizers reserve the right to remove, without refund, any attendee who does not adhere to the code of conduct.
Let’s talk about topic ideas!
What topics are they looking for?
Basically, as long as it relates to WordPress in some way, shape or form, all the proposals are welcomed, for just about any topic you can think of.
The WordPress community has an open mind & diverse mentality and they want the WCEU 2020 stage to reflect this. It is extremely important to the WCEU Organising Team to deliver an event with a balanced and diverse range of speakers that reflects the WordPress culture!
Submit your application, even if you’ve never spoken before: they’re eager to hear your voice!
#WCEU2020 Attendees
WCEU attendees travel from far and wide to meet and learn from other members of the WordPress Community and everyone is excited to hear about different WordPress experiences.
All WordPressers are welcome to apply: while roughly half of WCEU attendees have a technical background, the other half come from the world of marketing and business so don’t be put off if you’re not a developer.
During the selection process and schedule planning, they’ll carefully consider all of the proposed talks to make sure that WCEU 2020 offers a good balance of interesting content for everyone.
To give you a little inspiration to apply, here are just a few ideas to get your creativity flowing:
- Accessible design
- Advanced development
- Business strategy
- Copywriting
- Culture
- Frameworks
- Healthy life and work
- Project Management
- Security
- Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
- Storytelling
- Success stories
- Typography
- Working remotely
- Website Performance Optimisation (WPO)
What presentation formats will be available?
As in previous years, they’re planning to have multiple tracks. Each slot on the schedule will be one hour in total. Content will take up to 40 minutes of each hour, leaving 20 minutes after each session to switch between tracks, grab a cup of coffee, and chat with other attendees.
WCEU 2020 will feature talks in the following formats:
- Long talks: 40 minutes in total, breaking down to around 30 minutes for the talk & 10 minutes for Q&A
- Lightning talks: 10 minutes each, grouped by related topics, without Q&A
Do I need to know anything else before submitting my application?
During the selection process, they try to take into account the speaking experience of each applicant. While not essential, it’s a plus if you have experience speaking at any type of event, so they recommend mentioning this on your application.
That said, don’t be put off if you’re relatively new to the stage. This year, they will also be providing resources and best practice advice to all speakers, covering both public speaking techniques and content management of presentations. They want to make all speakers feel comfortable on stage and they will provide all the necessary tools to help them.
If you’re feeling tempted to apply but can’t quite decide on a topic, don’t worry – you can send up to three different proposals for talks and/or workshops*.
This means you can submit a total of three talks and/or workshops on topics of your choice. So start brainstorming and don’t hesitate to apply!
*Important: The Call for Workshops now open. If you are considering submitting a workshop proposal, either instead of or in addition to a talk, please also read the Call for Workshops information.
Let’s talk about dates: when does this process start and end?
The Call for Speakers will be open until 6th January 2020, so make sure to send in your application before the deadline.
Application timeline:
- 23 October 2019: Call for Speakers opens
- 6 January 2020: Call for Speakers closes
- Late February: Speakers selection process takes place
- Late February: Selected speakers contacted
- Mid-March: Speakers announced
