Thank you for applying to be a speaker for WordPress London meetup, we really appreciate it! We’re very excited to hear your talk, and we want to give you as much information as possible to prepare for it. That being said, if there’s anything you need clarified, or have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Before speaking at #WPLDN
Depending on what your talk involves, you might be using slides, doing a live demonstration, or a mixture of the two. We don’t need slides sent in advance, so it’s up to you to bring them with you, on your laptop, or via a flash drive or a cloud-based service.
As for timing, main talks should last 25-30 minutes, with 5-10 minutes for a post-talk question and answer session. The total time allocated for your talk is 35 minutes.
Lightning talks should last 10 minutes, with an optional opportunity for engaging the audience in some points of discussion.
Our audience is made up of a mixture of developers, designers, marketers, end users, SEOs, and business people. They are typically from London, though some (including the hosts!) travel in from outside of London. We typically have around 80-100 attendees sign up, with an attendance on the night of 60+.
There are likely to be either another one or two speakers also speaking at the same event. We adjust the schedule as needed to ensure everyone has a sufficient time slot. The other speakers will have a topic that is different to yours i.e. if yours is a technical talk, the other speakers will have non-technical talks.
On the night of your talk
We hold the events at the Yoti, London offices. Step free access to the building is located in Cullum St. As we’re able to, we’ll provide as much accessibility information as possible (nearest toilets, nearest lift, etc).
While the meetup officially starts at 18:30, we’ll ask you to arrive at the venue at 18:00 to set up beforehand and make sure everything’s working and ready for you. It’ll give you a chance to become familiar with the space we’re using and what the setup is like. It will also give us a chance to test out microphones. We will have use of either a handheld or lapel mic.
We’ll be able to provide a MacBook for your use, if need be, with current editions of Keynote and PowerPoint, and we will also have a remote control (clicker). We also have an HDMI connection and Thunderbolt-to-HDMI connection available, for your own laptop. There will be free WiFi for use as well.
We ask that slides do not contain any content that would conflict with the #wpldn code of conduct. This includes but is not limited to offensive verbal/visual comments related to gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, disability; inappropriate use of nudity and/or sexual images/videos within slides or spoken content.
Once everything for your talk has been set up, you are free to relax and socialise with the other attendees. There will also be various refreshments available nearby, typically outside/a short distance away from the event room itself. If you have any dietary requirements, please let us know, and we will do our best to accommodate your needs.
We record and livestream the talks that take place, however if you do not wish for your talk to be recorded/streamed, please let us know as soon as possible! Photographs will also be taken on the night to be used for publicity.
We can give timekeeping prompts if you require this, so you don’t run over your allocated time.
We tweet about the talks during the presentations, and can share URLs to slides afterwards, so our followers can interact with you on there.
After speaking at #WPLDN
You did it! Yay! Once the meetup is over, we head to a nearby pub and socialise some more, please feel free to join and give yourself a hearty pat on the back.
Provided you gave permission for your talk to be recorded, it will soon be uploaded to WordPress London's YouTube channel. Your personal speaker profile on #WPLDN will include, not only the video but other relevant links, such as your slides.
Thank you for taking the time to share with the WordPress community!