WordCamp Manchester 2017

Since we announced our Call for Sponsors five weeks ago, the sponsorship team have been busy responding to the numerous enquiries we have received regarding our sponsorship packages.

Interest has been high, and we are delighted to report that we have already sold three-quarters of our packages to organisations from across the WordPress ecosystem, featuring new and familiar faces alike.

However, it isn’t too late to sponsor WordCamp Manchester 2017 and help us fund this fantastic community event, while showcasing your awesome products & services to our delegates on the day.

At the time of writing we can confirm that three “Lowry” (Silver) packages are available, which would give you a dedicated physical presence in our main sponsor space and two free tickets, as well as a host of other benefits.

UPDATE: Due to one of our sponsors switching to a slightly different package, we now have one “Pankhurst” (Gold) package available.

Take a look at our sponsorship pack for full details of the benefits, and get in touch if you would like to snap up one of these remaining packages!

Download Sponsorship Pack

P.S Don’t forget that micro-sponsor tickets are still on sale if you are unable to commit to one of our sponsorship packages, but are feeling extra generous and would like to help us cover our costs. As our way of saying thank you we will provide a link back to your website!

Every year at WordCamp Manchester we receive a wide a range of speaker applications. It’s exciting for us, we all have different ideas of what you would like to see so it’s hard to get it right 100% of the time. But this year we are determined to blow the roof off our venue with your amazing talks so keep on submitting!

This year at WCMCR we feel it’s our duty to communicate how we choose WordCamp speakers to you:

Blind Speaker Selection

Having a diverse conference without bias is very important to us and so we opt for blind speaker selection. As WordCamp Manchester speakers you are selected initially on the content of the talk you submit. We believe in quality and subject matter over everything else. There is no shift towards the person delivering the talk and their relationship with WordCamp Manchester organisers. There is also no bias towards a particular gender or location, and no overshadowing of new applicants by more experienced speakers.

Our 2 Step Process

Talks go through 2 rounds of selection, as follows

Round One

We will vote based on the title and description of your talk. Each WordCamp Manchester organiser will put together a selection of talks we feel would fit a good schedule. We will vote for each speaker slot of the day, we rank your talk with others and move to round two.

Tips to stand out: We are looking for a broad range of topics, mostly WordPress related. However if you have story where WordPress supports you, maybe you have a successful blog please apply. We love the unoriginal quirky ideas. If you have a tale to tell we’re all ears!

Round Two

We sometimes get speakers submitting multiple talks for selection. One or all could be great but we have to be fair. In round our organisers unblind the names to check no-one is speaking twice. When we have a speaker with two talks voted for, we’ll give one of your slots to the next talk with the most votes.

We’ll contact all applicants to let you know whether you been successful or not this year. If you are unsuccessful at this point, it’s not the end of the road. There will be lightning talks on the day and we encourage you to take part. We may also contact you to submit again in the event that another speaker drops out. This is also based on the round one ranking process.

The evening before

To encourage you before the big day and to say thank you WordCamp Manchester will be hosting an invite only dinner the day before WordCamp Manchester 2017. It’s free to chosen speakers, details to follow on your acceptance. We look forward to introducing you to our team. You’ll meet us, our sponsors and volunteers and toast to the upcoming event. Not too many mind 😉 we wouldn’t want you to lose your voice the night before.

Don’t delay! Tell us your story.

Apply to Speak.