Posted by EricaMcGillivray
[Estimated read time: 3 minutes]
Every year, we take great pleasure in accepting pitches and having community speakers grace our stage. Our community speakers represent a unique opportunity, and our MozCon audience has a lot of love for them.
This year, we’ll have four speakers!
The basic details:
- To submit, just fill out the form below.
- Please only submit one talk! We want the one you’re most excited about.
- Talks must be about online marketing and are only 15 minutes in length.
- Submissions close on Sunday, June 12th at 5pm PDT.
- Final decisions are final and will be made in late June.
- All presentations must adhere to the MozCon Code of Conduct.
- You must attend MozCon in person, September 12–14 in Seattle.
Everyone who submits a community speaker pitch will be informed either way.
Community speakers get the following:
- 15 minutes on the MozCon stage for a keynote-style presentation, plus 5 minutes of Q&A.
- A free ticket to MozCon. (If you already have one, we’ll either refund or transfer the ticket to someone else.)
- Four nights of lodging covered by us at our partner hotel.
- A reimbursement for your travel (flight, train, car, etc.), up to $500 domestic and $750 international.
- A free ticket for you to give to anyone you would like and a code for $300 off another ticket.
- An invitation for you and your significant other to join us for the speakers’ dinner.
If you’re curious about what the process look like, Zeph Snapp wrote about his experiences as a community speaker.
How do you pick speakers?
We have a small selection committee of Mozzers who review each and every pitch. We start off by reviewing only topics without biographical details, which ensures our first commitment to making sure topics match our audience. Then we look at everything for a holistic view of what you might bring to the stage.
Things to consider for your pitch:
- Read my post on how to prepare for speaking, from pitching to the actual gig.
- Review the topics already being presented on at MozCon to avoid overlap and get inspiration.
- Focus your pitch on online marketing. MozCon is all about actionable information.
- Your pitch is for MozCon organizations, so detail what you’re talking about. We need to know the actual tactics you’ll be sharing.
- Keep within the word limits of the forms. Tricky submissions — like linking to Google Docs for more words — will be disqualified.
- Do not ask speaker selection committee members to evaluate your pitch before submitting it.
- No amount of lobbying on social media will positively affect your chances at being selected.
- Bonus: make sure to link to a video of you presenting and past slide decks.
Feeling a bit nervous?
Every speaker at MozCon gets direction on topics and reviews of content and slide decks. We work hard to make sure our audience will love your talk. We encourage pitches from speakers of all backgrounds, knowledge levels, and speaking experiences. At MozCon, we believe in diversity of voices and helping grow speakers in their careers.
We’re happy to help, including:
- Calls to discuss and refine your topic.
- Assistance honing topic title and description.
- Reviews of outlines and drafts (as many as you want!).
- Best practices and guidance for slide decks, specifically for our stage.
- A comprehensive, step-by-step guide for show flow.
- Serving as an audience for practicing your talk.
- Reviewing your final deck.
- Sunday night pre-MozCon tour of the stage to meet our A/V crew, see your presentation on the screens, and test the clicker.
- A 15-person dedicated crew to make your A/V outstanding.
- Anything else we can do to make you successful!
Please let me know if you have any questions in the comments.
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