Apr 3rd, 2009 |
As the San Francisco edition of Web 2.0 Expo winds down (what a whirlwind four days it’s been!) the Call for Participation for the second edition of Web 2.0 Expo New York has opened. Please consider submitting a proposal to speak! This is another great opportunity to put your ideas and projects in front of a very savvy and connected audience, and we hope to see you there.
Like the SF show, we’ll continue to explore the theme of “The Power of Less”–how to best use the tools and principles of Web 2.0 technologies to innovate and stay competitive in a challenging (to say the least) economy.
Topics include:
- Landscape & Strategy
- Marketing & Community
- Design & User Experience
- Development
- Web 2.0 at Work
- Government 2.0
- Mobile
- Social Media
Deadline for proposals is May 26. Visit the Web 2.0 Expo NY proposals page for more details and a link to the submission form.
Note that the committee received over 1,000 proposals for Web 2.0 Expo SF, and we’re expecting a similar pool for NY.
Program co-chair Jen Pahlka wrote up some great tips for successfully submitting a proposal specifically for Web 2.0 Expo.
In addition, below is advice that we often give to prospective speakers:
- Be authentic! Your peers need real-world scenarios they can use. Please submit original presentation ideas that focus on knowledge transfer, and engaging and relevant examples.
- Include as much detail about the planned presentation as possible. The more we know about what you plan to present and why it matters, the better.
- Be thorough! If you are proposing a panel tell us who else would be on it. If you are going to have a release let us know. If you feel this is something that hasn’t been covered before let us know.
- Keep it free of marketing.
- Keep the audience in mind: they’re technical, professional, and already pretty smart.
- Clearly identify the level of the talk: is it for beginners to the topic, or for gurus? What knowledge should people have when they come to the presentation?
- Give it a simple and straightforward title or name: Fancy and clever titles or descriptions make it harder for people (committee and attendees) to figure out what you’re really talking about
- Context is important. If your presentation is about something truly ground-breaking, earth-shattering, and new, it will be helpful to the reviewers if you describe it in terms of things that attendees might already know of.
- Limit the scope of the talk: in 45 minutes, you won’t be able to cover Everything about Widget Framework X. Instead, pick a useful aspect, or a particular technique, or walk through a simple program.
- Explain why people will want to attend: is the framework gaining traction? Is the app critical to modern systems? Will they learn how to deploy it, program it, or just what it is?
- Warmed-over talks from some conference circuit are less likely to be appealing. The conference has a limited number of slots, and if attendees can see the same talk somewhere else, why should they come see you at this one? If you speak at a lot of events, be sure to note why this presentation is different.
- Don’t assume that your company’s name buys you cred. If you’re talking about something important that you have specific knowledge of because of what your company does, spell that out in the description.
- Present something relevant. If you’re presenting a new way to do something that others have been doing for a decade or more, you need an angle on it that’s fresh or an explanation for why it’s important now. The hot things are hot, the cold things are cold, but there are interesting problems in almost everything. One of your challenges as a proposer is to demonstrate that you understand that attendees might need an extra reason to pay attention to something that they might otherwise think of as “settled.”
- Avoid taking a scatter-shot approach to proposals if you submit more than one or two. Be focused, have something important to say on a worthwhile topic, and sell the topic (not just yourself).
Good luck, and we hope to see you there!
