Wed March 10 2010
WordCamp Mid-Atlantic promises to be a rich time filled with a tremendous amount of learning and instructional content. Perhaps you would like to lead a discussion or present on a topic. We will be providing three tracks. Basic, Technical and Unconference.
The basic track will likely be the most heavily attended track. That is because most users are not technical and simply want to blog using the greatest software in the world. Because this track will probably be the most widely attended, it is a perfect opportunity to demonstrate your proficiency in a chosen area. Speakers will be chosen by the organizers based on relevance and demonstrated knowledge of the topic with a bias toward local Maryland, DC and Virginia submissions.
The technical track is geared toward theme designers and plugin developers. Potential topics include extending WordPress, BuddyPress and related products. Speakers will be chosen based on demonstrated knowledge of their topic, technical difficulty and with a bias toward local Maryland, DC and Virginia submissions.
WordCamp was originally based on the concept of other “camp” style events like BarCamp. Admittedly, we have not done well in the past of providing a venue for a true unconference where speakers are selected based on a first-come, first-serve, day-of style scheduling. This year, we are correcting that by providing an unconference track. No pre-selected speakers will be slotted and the expectation is for you to come to the event and sign up to speak.
In all cases, speakers are not allowed to pitch their companies or products without a clear WordPress-specific reason to do it and even then, only in context. If you create a search plugin, you can ask users to use it if alternatives are also provided. Of course, if you want to have an opportunity to pitch, you can buy a sponsorship package. We shouldn’t have to say this, but based on experience, we do have to emphasize this.
Also, while many topics may not be exclusive to WordPress (SEO, social media, etc), this is a WordPress event and as such, all speakers should be able to convey their topic in a WordPress mindset.
Bribes never work, but you can buy the organizers a beer if you so choose. ;-)