TL;DR This post announces WordCamp Toronto 2018’s theme and provides the first details of the speaking opportunities. Updates to the call for speaker, speaker information and talk ideas posts (the speaker package) are being published as a result.

Apply now to speak at WordCamp Toronto 2018.

The theme in brief

We decided on the Gutenberg and the WordPress of Tomorrow theme this week and so are quickly resetting our speaker and session scheme and updating the posts in the speakers’ package.

In addition, we’ve rushed this and the updated posts so we’ll provide more information for potential speakers in the days and weeks to follow. In short, stay tuned.

The theme is about what WordPress will be in 2-3 years and what it will be like when we get there. Given the imminent arrival of Gutenberg* and its potential to fundamentally change WordPress, it’s timely to focus on it in this way.

The theme has two parts. Half of our sessions are devoted to Gutenberg* and the other half to other popular topics.

The Gutenberg sessions will span the gamut of things people want and need to know to understand and adopt to the change. They will cater to the whole range of people, experiences and skills in the WordPress community.

The other sessions will be roughly equal in number, one session per broad topic category. In other words, assuming we have the sessions proposed by potential speakers, there’ll be one in authoring/publishing (with only a minimum on Gutenberg), marketing/SEO, site administration, plugins, site and page builders and so on.

There is one key difference from sessions in our past WordCamps. Speakers on these other topics are required to devote at least a third of their session to the future of WordPress and that, necessarily, includes Gutenberg.

Theme details

The theme isn’t what the future of WordPress is or may be but what it will be like when the changes we can expect have occurred. That may sound like a distinction without a difference but what we want to avoid is navel gazing, starry-eyed glimpses of a future. Instead, ask yourself:

1. What will we be doing that significantly different from today?
2. What could we be doing that we now can’t?
3. What will be the new opportunities and issues?

For the Gutenberg sessions, our goal is to provide the best one-day learning experience available in our community for the arrival of this important change. In broad terms, we aim to deliver a basic introduction, the current state of its implementation and the extent to which it realizes its goals, the impact of Gutenberg on themes, plugins, etc. and what new capabilities and opportunities Gutenberg represents.

If you’re interested in proposing a Gutenberg session, then pick one of the following topics and develop it in your submission:

1. an overview of the change and the changeover mechanics suitable as an introduction for for all backgrounds and skill sets and, if you could attend only one Gutenberg session, then this is the one;
2. strategies for the new era ushered in by Gutenberg including implementation timing (assuming that there is a choice), adoption, customization (blocks, plugins, templates) and other aspects for which planning is recommended (could include enterprise level issues but focus should be on business);
3. the impact on the authoring UX with a focus on adoption techniques including requirements, availability and opportunities for tutorials, demos and training resources
4. custom blocks including their purpose and role, examples, likely path of development, in-house vs third party development and development tools
5. impact/opportunities on themes, plugins (especially site and page builders) and other major components of WordPress

You are free to propose another Gutenberg topic that addresses some important aspect that these don’t and that complements the others.

The Gutenberg sessions would have a mix of content to span beginner to expert in each session. In other words, each session will have a mixed audience in terms of skills and experience. The ratio may vary session to session but the idea is that anyone and everyone can and should attend all of them.

Note that, as a group, we’re committed to Gutenberg and its successful adoption and ongoing development. For that reason, skip the comparisons to the Classic Editor and page builders and why either may have advantages except in the context of a transition to Gutenberg.

As stated, there are 2 groups of sessions. (They could be called tracks except that term usually refers to the room to which a session is assigned). What would be different about these other or non-G sessions is that approximately a third of each session is required to answer the question, How does this affect Gutenberg and the future of WordPress?

We’ve added to the talk idea post a list of broad topics for the non-Gutenberg sessions. Each has a group of sub-topics. These are examples and and no session proposal would be expected to address them all.

We’re still working out …

We’re still working on the theme details and the assistance we can provide to potential speakers. There’ll be announcements and posts to help you understand our theme and how you can work with it. A theme makes different demands on event organizers as well as potential speakers than the usual WordCamp so we’re open to ideas and recommendations to make this our best one ever.

So stay tuned and make sure you’ve subscribed to this blog to receive notifications of new posts by email.

A final thought

The Gutenberg and the WordPress of Tomorrow theme phrase was inspired by Morten Rand-Hendriksen‘s 2018-01-06 Gutenberg And The WordPress Of Tomorrow | YouTube video of his WordCamp presentation.

Turns out Something of Tomorrow is itself borrowed (e.g., “world of tomorrow” (images); the 1939–40 New York World’s Fair promised visitors they would be looking at the “World of Tomorrow.” (s)).

*In case you’ve been living on another planet, Gutenberg is the new authoring UI/UX due in WordPress 5.0 that is expected to be released just before or after our event. It’s causing quite a stir in the blogosphere. There are lots of resources but you’ll find The new Gutenberg editing experience | WordPress.org and Gutenberg | WordPress.org are good starting points. The WordPress 5.0 release date query will lead you to the latest.

What are you waiting for?
Apply now to speak at WordCamp Toronto 2018.

Important dates:

• Submissions close Monday, October 15th, 2018 at midnight.
• Selections will be made by Wednesday, October 31st, 2018.
• All applicants will be notified in the following week whether their applications have been accepted.
• Speakers selected will be announced at the beginning of November.

Please understand that, as volunteers, we won’t not be able to provide a detailed response to each submission.

If you have any questions, contact me at mailto:wcyyz18+speakers@gmail.com.

Robin Macrae
Co-Organizer, WPToronto & WordCamp Toronto 2018

The announcement email a few minutes ago in regard to this post had links from a version of that post that hadn’t been updated. The new email announcement has the correct links. Apologies for the error. RAM

Are you ready to speak on the largest WordPress stage in Canada? WordCamp Toronto 2018 is on Saturday, December 1st, 2018 in Toronto, Ontario.

Submissions will be accepted until Sunday, September 30th, 2018.

SUBMIT YOUR TALK HERE

Have a great idea for a talk? We want to see it!

We are excited to once again showcase the passion, talent, and skills of our Toronto WordPress community—and we want you to be a part of it!

Are you passionate about WordPress? Whether you are a content creator, a designer, a developer or a user and community member, we want to we want to hear your story. We are looking for speakers on a wide variety of topics and backgrounds. What do you love about WordPress? Do you have expertise in a specific field or an interesting project to share?

View some talk ideas.

As a Speaker

Why speak? Yes, presenting at WordCamp takes some work but the effort is very rewarding. Share your passion, convince people you’re worth hiring and help everyone learn about WordPress—all at the same time.

We are looking for speakers able to engage our attendees and teach them something about WordPress. Thank you for being willing to share your knowledge and expertise with our attendees, in person and on the live stream. We’re showcasing the best WordPress talks from our community and we want your contribution.

View speaker information.

Follow the updates by subscribing to the site’s feed.

If speaking at WordCamp Toronto 2018 is for you, what are you waiting for? Apply now!

Important speaker dates:

• Submissions close Sunday, September 30th, 2018 at midnight.
• Selections will be made by Monday, October 15th, 2018.
• All applicants will be notified whether their application has been accepted by Monday, October 22nd, 2018.
• Speakers selected will be announced by the end of October.

Please understand that, as volunteers, we won’t not be able to provide a detailed response to each submission.

If you have any questions, contact me at wcyyz18+speakers@gmail.com.

Robin Macrae
Co-Organizer, WPToronto & WordCamp Toronto 2018

This is the current version of the talk ideas post having been updated once. The update added the theme announced for the event and a second list of topics to consider.

The theme of the event is Gutenberg and the WordPress of Tomorrow.

Read about the theme and what it means for speaker submissions in the Gutenberg and the WordPress of Tomorrow theme announcement post.

Apply now and submit your talk.

The WordPress ecosystem encompasses a broad and diverse range of topics as befits the world’s most popular authoring and publishing platform. If you are stuck for ideas or to get the ideas flowing for our themed event, here is an alphabetically ordered list of broad topics for the non-Gutenberg sessions. Each has a group of sub-topics. These are examples and and no session proposal would be expected to address all or even most of the sub-topics in any one of them.

1. Digital workplace/business/transformation or digital marketing: what you can do with WP to provide and/or use web services for your own business or clients’ marketing, CRM, event management, information/data management, project and task management (pick 3 or 4 and describe the service provided or received, how implemented, costs, maintenance)
2. Ecommerce and competing with Magenta, Shopify (comparisons, WooCommerce and other plugins, SEO strategies (including local), payments and gateways, success stories)
3. Mobile-first design and development (why it’s important and perhaps crucial, how theme designers address mobile now, the changeover options for existing sites, what makes mobile different, native vs HTML5)
4. Moving to a more secure world: HTTPS/SSL (overview and context, compliance, strategies (absolutism), plugins (there are many guides and the challenge is how to deliver the content at the event, not the content itself)
5. SEO/SEM: importance (its role), latest developments (the arms race), keywords, what “intent” means, Yoast/AIO plugins, analytics, structured data, penalties for insecure sites)
6. SEO and lead conversion without wrecking your theme and design: how to select, configure and use banner ads and CTAs, popup or slide-in mailing form or special sales offers; chatbots for converting casual scanners; push notification; social media icons; related posts and sponsored readings; tooltip and popups for getting noticed ads
7. Theme/page builders (the context (developments in the last couple of years), design trends (color palettes, typography, animation, sticky elements, mobile first, micro-interactions), design’s relevance (who can and should use them), best practices, Gutenberg impact), changeover from PHP to JavaScript, site, page and landing page builders including theme included, addon and slider plugins
8. WP beginners: starting from zero, getting a WP site up and running for the new beginner: why WP (set the context); defining basic requirements (business, hobby, personal), hosting, 5-minute install, theme selection, essential plugins, security, privacy, backup, updates plus a start-up checklist, important WP limitations, getting help
9. WP open to the world: APIs rule, WP’s REST APIs (purpose, level of development), headless, WP as an app (incl POC, MVP), using WP content in other systems/platforms and visa versa (use cases), GraphQL (a competitive spec for building and consuming APIs)

This alphabetically ordered list of generic topics for the non-Gutenberg sessions is not exhaustive. It’s to spark your imagination. If you have any other topics you think our attendees will love, submit your talk idea.

Apply now and submit your talk.

The survey we are conducting contains an extensive list of topics. In regard to the survey, see Have you filled out the WordCamp Toronto 2018 survey? | WPToronto.

The talk ideas provided for WordCamp Europe 2018 speaker applicants is another useful source of topics.

Submitting a talk on plugins or tools? We’re looking for talks that informs our audience of their options so they can choose what is best for them. For example, consider a talk on form plugins. We would expect you to compare/contrast/cover an array of options such as Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, WP Forms, Contact Form 7 and so on. If you’re addressing premium/paid plugins, remember to cover at least one of the free alternatives.

Important dates:

• Submissions close Monday, October 15th, 2018 at midnight.
• Selections will be made by Wednesday, October 31st, 2018.
• All applicants will be notified in the following week whether their applications have been accepted.
• Speakers selected will be announced at the beginning of November.

Please understand that, as volunteers, we won’t not be able to provide a detailed response to each submission.

If you have any questions, contact me at mailto:wcyyz18+speakers@gmail.com.

Robin Macrae
Co-Organizer, WPToronto & WordCamp Toronto 2018

This is the current version of the speaker information post having been updated once. The update added the theme announced for the event.

1. Introduction
2. The Benefits of Speaking at WordCamp Toronto 2018
3. The Selection Process
4. What We’re Looking For
5. Your Role As A Speaker
6. What You Need To Know About Submissions
7. Tips for Applicants
8. Respect One and Another
9. Some Additional Expectations of Speakers
10. Important Speaker Dates
11. Contact

Introduction

Speaker applications are now open.

The theme of the event is Gutenberg and the WordPress of Tomorrow.

Read about the theme and what it means for speaker submissions in the Gutenberg and the WordPress of Tomorrow theme announcement post. Then view the updated talk ideas post. In the event that there is any inconsistency between this post and the announcement post, the latter prevails.

Talks for all skill levels are welcome. A presentation on what you learned setting up your very first website can be just as valuable as a technical walk-through of the changes Gutenberg is making to the WordPress experience.

We don’t require or expect you to be famous, an expert, a programmer, specifically credentialed or anything like that. If you’ve never spoken at a conference before, don’t let that hold you back! What we ask is that you present your chosen topic passionately, knowledgeably and respectfully.

We’ve provided some talk ideas (updated) to get you going.

The Benefits of Speaking at WordCamp Toronto 2018

• The opportunity to be heard by a broad audience, in person, on our live stream and on WordCamp | WordPress.tv.
• That warm fuzzy feeling that comes from giving back to your community and being acknowledged by your peers.
• Free admission to WordCamp Toronto.
• An invitation to the speakers dinner.

The Selection Process

The call for speakers closes Monday, October 15th, 2018 at midnight EDT. Once the deadline has passed, we will begin reviewing applications. Applicants will be notified of the status of their applications on Wednesday, October 31st, 2018. If you submit more than one application, you will receive one response.

Featuring our local WordPress talent and users is a WordCamp priority and preference will be given to local speakers. However, if you live outside the GTA, don’t let this discourage you. Each submission will considered.

What We’re Looking For

The ideal speaker has a WordPress-related topic about which they are passionate and that they can present with useful and attractive slides and detailed, coherent explanations. Designers, bloggers, businesses, developers and users are all welcome to apply. And yes, your topic must be specific to WordPress.

Show us what you’ve made with WordPress and explain how you did it, or what you learned in the process. Give us concrete examples—code snippets, important lessons you learned, advice on how to avoid specific problems and so on.

We reserve the right to refuse any application.

Your Role As A Speaker

• Speakers are given free admission to WordCamp Toronto and an invitation to the speakers dinner but will not be otherwise compensated or reimbursed in any way. Guests of speakers must purchase a ticket to attend WordCamp Toronto.
• Speaking at WordCamp is not an opportunity for self promotion or to promote your own theme, plugin, service or business. We don’t allow selling from the front of the room or stage.
• Be prepared to submit your presentation slides in advance and/or to review your presentation with us prior to the event—this is not optional.
• We plan to record all sessions and submit the videos to WordPress.tv. By applying to speak you agree to having your session recorded and published on that service.

What You Need To Know About Submissions

Talks for all skill levels and topics are welcome.

• WordCamps are volunteer-driven events and speaking is a way of volunteering. As a speaker, you are volunteering your time to create and deliver the presentation and attend the event.
• Sessions will be approximately 45 minutes.
• Spell WordPress correctly—capital_P please—and respect the WordPress logo and trademarks.
• If you are distributing any WordPress derivatives which include WordPress plugins and themes, they need to be 100% GPL.
• Every attendee must be respectful of the WordPress community and the WordCamp Code of Conduct.
• While we do advocate for diversity and variety among speakers, our general policy is that we don’t consider the race, sex, religion or any other factor of the prospective speaker to play any part in our selection process—we only consider the talk title and description and the ability of the person to present it.

You can propose multiple topics by submitting a speaker application for each topic. We allow a maximum of three submissions from an applicant. If you choose to submit more than three, the first three will be the only ones considered.

Tips for Applicants

• Use your real, full name (first and last).
• A clear talk title is better than a clever one—don’t make us (or attendees) work to figure out what your talk is about.
• Provide a detailed presentation description. Your talk description/abstract defines the exact topic about which you want to talk. Descriptions that are vague, unhelpful, or incomplete may not be considered. Explain what attendees will learn or get out of the session.
• Submit your proposed topic title, description, and your bio in third person, as if it were the final version to be printed or posted on the website.
• Don’t include notes to us in your presentation description. There is a separate field for notes if you need to send us a message.
• Don’t submit a presentation that is already on WordPress.tv or you have given previously in the Toronto region. As the WordCamp Organizer Handbook puts it in Speaking at a WordCamp, WordCamps pride themselves on having unique content.
• Your talk must be directly related to WordPress and, accordingly, applicable and relevant to our audience.
• Skip the hype, talks about making money, six-figures, and “killing it.” Focus on helping people do more with WordPress and do better with WordPress.

Respect One and Another

This is an event for WordPress users of all ages. Your presentation and all of its all text, images, videos or other content must be free of offensive verbal comments related to gender, sexual orientation, race, religion or disability and not make any use of nudity, profanity or sexually explicit content.

Some Additional Expectations of Speakers

Part of the mission of WordCamp Toronto is to provide a great experience for all members of the WordPress community that attend. To that end, we ask speakers to agree to or abide by the following:

• Review and agree to the Code of Conduct.
• Sign the A/V release form.
• Provide your slides to the speaker committee two weeks prior to the event as instructed.

What are you waiting for?
Apply now to speak at WordCamp Toronto 2018.

Important dates:

• Submissions close Monday, October 15th, 2018 at midnight.
• Selections will be made by Wednesday, October 31st, 2018.
• All applicants will be notified in the following week whether their applications have been accepted.
• Speakers selected will be announced at the beginning of November.

Please understand that, as volunteers, we won’t not be able to provide a detailed response to each submission.

If you have any questions, contact me at mailto:wcyyz18+speakers@gmail.com.

Robin Macrae
Co-Organizer, WPToronto & WordCamp Toronto 2018