We appreciate you offering to share your WordPress knowledge with the Tampa Bay WordPress community. Here are some things to keep in mind about our speaking policy:
All speakers must meet the following criteria:
- Speakers must know the subject matter they are talking about.
- Speakers must embrace the WordPress license. This means that if they are distributing WordPress-derivative works (themes, plugins, WP distros), any person (or their business) should give their users the same freedoms that WordPress itself provides. Note: this is one step above simple compliance, which requires PHP code to be GPL/compatible but allows proprietary licenses for JavaScript, CSS, and images. 100% GPL or compatible is required for product promotion at meetups when WordPress-derivative works are involved, the same guidelines we follow on WordPress.org and our sister WordCamp events.
- Speakers must respect the WordPress trademarks. This means they do not operate websites with the word “WordPress” in a top-level domain, they do not use the logo in a way that violates the usage policy, they do not use the trademark in AdSense/AdWords, and they do not promote people/businesses/entities that do. Speakers must ensure that WordPress is spelled correctly in presentation material, with a capital ‘P’.
- Compensation will not be provided. TBWP is 100% organized and staffed by volunteers, and we don’t pay speakers or cover speaker travel/accommodations. Think of speaking as giving back the community and making new connections rather than a monetary kick-back.
- Share > pitch. TBWP events are educational events, not marketing opportunities, so a product pitch or anything really salesy will not get you very far with the speaker selection team. If you’d like to mention your product or service in your talk that is OK, however, please keep it to a minimum of 1 slide per presentation, and no longer than 3 minutes.
- No “pay for play.” TBWP never provides a speaking opportunity in exchange for sponsorship or anything else. Our events are either educational or social.
Preparing your talk
You were accepted to speak? Exciting! Keep these things in mind when putting together your presentation:
- Our events are open to everyone. That means your audience is liable to include people of all ages, backgrounds, and inclinations. Please keep your presentation G-rated, and try not to make jokes that might alienate anyone in your audience, including but not limited to, political, religious or stereotypical jokes.
- We are about WordPress. Even if your talk doesn’t center on WordPress development or design, your audience is there to learn about working with WordPress. The expectation is that meetup speakers whose topics are not WordPress-centric will use examples from WordPress websites/admin/codebase to illustrate their points.
- Prepare. Our meetups are casual events, and the audience is usually forgiving. However, know your topic, have your presentation prepared ahead of time, and practice your talk to ensure a quality delivery!