Posted by Danielle_Launders
With MozCon 2019 right around the corner, we’re excited to announce our annual open call for community speakers! Are you the person that everyone in your office goes to for digital marketing advice? Dreaming of breaking into the speaking circuit to share your innovative ideas? Now’s the chance to submit your pitch for an opportunity to join industry leaders on stage in front of 1,500 of your peers. (No pressure!)
Not sure what a community speaker is?
At MozCon, we have a speaker selection committee that identifies practitioners at the top of their professional field, with a mean speaking game. But these sessions are by invite only, and we know the community is bursting at the seams with groundbreaking research, hot tips, and SEO tests that drive results.
Cue our community speaker program! We reserve six 15-minute community speaking slots throughout our three-day event. Now’s the time of the season when we encourage anyone in the SEO community to submit their best and most exciting presentation ideas for MozCon. Not only are these sessions incredibly well-received by our attendees, but they’re also a fantastic way to get your foot in the door when it comes to the SEO speaking circuit.
Interested in pitching your own idea? Read on for everything you need to know:
To submit a pitch:
- Fill out our community speaker submission form to enter.
- Only one submission per person — make sure to choose the one you’re most passionate about!
- Your pitch must be related to online marketing and for a topic that can be covered in 15 minutes.
- Submissions close on Monday, April 15th at 5pm PDT — no exceptions!
- All decisions are final.
- All speakers must adhere to the MozCon Code of Conduct.
- If chosen, you’ll be required to present your winning pitch July 15–17th at MozCon in Seattle, WA.
If you submit a pitch, you’ll hear back from us regardless of your acceptance status, so please be patient until you hear from us — we’ll work hard to make our decisions as quickly as we can!
As a community speaker you will receive:
- 15 minutes on the MozCon stage for a keynote-style presentation
- A free ticket to MozCon (we can issue a refund or transfer if you’e already purchased yours)
- Four nights of lodging covered by Moz at our partner hotel
- Reimbursement for your travel — up to $500 for domestic and $750 for international travel
- An invitation for you and your significant other to join us for the pre-event speakers’ dinner (warning: it’s always delicious.)
How we select our speakers:
We have an internal committee of Mozzers that review every pitch. We analyze each topic to make sure there’s no overlap with our current sessions and to confirm that it’s a good fit for our audience. Next, we look at the entirety of the pitch to help us get a comprehensive idea of what to expect from your talk on the MozCon stage. This is where links to previous decks, content, and videos of past presentations is helpful (but isn’t required).
Here’s how to make your pitch stand out:
- Keep your pitch focused to online marketing. The more actionable the pitch, the better.
- Be detailed! We want to know the actual tactics our audience will be learning about — not just a vague reference to them. Remember, we receive a ton of pitches, so the more clearly you can explain, the better you’ll stand out.
- Review the topics already being presented — we’re looking for sessions that are new and that round out our agenda to add to the stage.
- Brush up on how to prepare for speaking.
- No pitches will be evaluated in advance, so please don’t ask 🙂
- Using social media to lobby your pitch won’t help. Instead, put your time and energy into the actual pitch itself!
- Linking to a previous example of a slide deck or presentation isn’t required, but it does help the committee a ton.
Leading up to MozCon:
If your pitch is selected, the MozCon team is here to support you along the way. It’s our goal to make sure this is your best talk to date, whether it’s your first time under those bright stage lights or you’re a seasoned speaker who feels perfectly at home in front of a big crowd. We’ll answer any questions you may have and work with you to deliver a talk you’ll be proud of. Here are just a handful of ways that we’re here to help:
- Topic refinement
- Helping with your session title and description
- Reviewing any session outlines and drafts
- Providing plenty of tips around best practices — specifically with the MozCon stage and audience in mind
- Comprehensive show guide
- Being available to listen to you practice your talk
- Reviewing your final deck
- A full stage tour on the Sunday before MozCon to meet our A/V crew, see your presentation on the big screen, and get a feel for the show
- An amazing 15-person A/V team to support your presentation every second it’s on the big screen and beyond
We’ve got our fingers crossed for you. Good luck!
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