Our first round for speaker selection concluded recently, with a blind vote carried out by organizers to choose the speakers. This meant only the title, topic description and intended audience were listed on a form and points awarded by each organizer based on the content of the speaker’s pitch.

These were the criteria for the first round of speaker selection, listed in order of priority:

1. Is the subject relevant to WordPress, and the categories of its adoption: developer, user, business and community?
2. Is the speaker’s pitch refreshingly new, and not ruined by a publicity attempt?
3. Does the speaker’s pitch display enough knowledge of the subject?
4. Has the speaker delivered good talks in the past?

At the end of the blind vote, the points by all organizers were added up for the final speaker list of the first round.  As organizers, we have always encouraged speakers from Sri Lanka to take the initiative for this event. Hence, local speakers were granted a few extra points at the end of the vote.

So, these are the five speakers shortlisted and confirmed, along with the titles of their talks:

1. Takayuki Miyoshi — Lessons Learned from Ten Years of Plugin Development
2. Rahul Bansal — Selling WordPress to Enterprises
3. Karen Arnold — Great Support Matters: Bridging the Gap between Developers and Customers
4. Himash Tehan — Using WordPress as a Mobile Backend
5. Harshadewa Ariyasinghe — How Design Thinking can Change everything
6. Dwain Maralack — How WordPress Taught me to be an Engineer

We still have a few slots remaining, and hence are carrying out a second round for speaker selections. The deadline is midnight UTC, 9th August, 2017.

We are pretty amazed by the response to our first round of speakers.

Six speakers have been shortlisted so far, and we will be announcing their names soon.

Now, we have a few more slots remaining, and that warrants a second round of speaker applications. If you haven’t applied yet, now is a great chance — the deadline is midnight UTC, 9th August, 2017.

Click here to Apply

You will rub shoulders with our brilliant array of confirmed speakers who are joining us not just from Sri Lanka, but around the globe — from the United States, to South Africa and Japan!

The Topics

You could choose to talk on the following areas of WordPress – but you are welcome to suggest your own:

• WordPress for Beginners
• Design Thinking
• Freelancing
• Business growth
• Community
• Accessibility challenges
• Content
• Back-end development
• JavaScript-driven Applications
• Hosting
• SaaS (software as a service)
• UX (user experience)

The bottom line is, we want to hear your unique life experiences with WordPress!

Note: Our Call for Speakers (first round) has closed at midnight UTC, 9th August, 2017.

Have a Great WordPress Experience to Share? You are Invited!

WordCamp Colombo 2017 is Sri Lanka’s first ever WordCamp, and being a speaker at this event will have a profound impact on our WordPress community. We are expecting to attract attendees from a wide range of interests within the WordPress world, and are therefore looking for an equally diverse array of speakers.

You don’t necessarily have to possess a decade of work experience to be a speaker. Remember, WordPress itself recently turned 14! Speaking is not even about dishing out tons of information while on stage — there is no shortage of information. It is not even about dazzling slideshows.

So what on earth are we looking for? We are looking to hear great, hard-hitting and memorable stories from your experience with WordPress. We want to motivate ourselves to deepen our understanding of the world’s most popular content management system!

If you need examples, check out the assortment of talks at WordPress.tv

The Topics

It would be wonderful to have talks related to the following areas of WordPress – but you are welcome to suggest your own:

• WordPress for Beginners
• Design Thinking
• Freelancing
• Business growth
• Community
• Accessibility challenges
• Content
• Back-end development
• JavaScript-driven Applications
• Hosting
• SaaS (software as a service)
• UX (user experience)

We’re welcoming applications from people in Sri Lanka and all over the world.

Presenting a talk at WordCamp is going to a fantastic experience for all of us involved. Even though WordCamp Colombo will not able to cover any travel or accommodation expenses, we will be available to support every speaker with advice in the run up to their talk.

Note: Our Call for Speakers (first round) has closed at midnight UTC, 21st July 2017.

Sri Lanka’s first WordCamp is going to happen on 23rd September, 2017.

WordCamps are congregations designed to bring together WordPress enthusiasts not just from your own country, but from around the world.

WordCamp Colombo 2017 is one such opportunity for you to listen to worldwide speakers talk on various subjects targeting users, developers and the community.

WordCamp Colombo 2017 is going to unite members of the WordPress world irrespective of religion, race, skin color, nationality or preferred text editor.

Our event is not going to be one of trending Twitter hashtags or marketing fluff.  You can look forward to taking home new lessons in WordPress, and lasting friendships from the community.

And the famed hospitality of Sri Lanka is something you wouldn’t want to miss!