Speaker FAQ

Drupal Commerce Camp 2011 Speaker FAQ

This FAQ is a guide for those interested in presenting sessions at Drupal Commerce Camp 2011. It is intended to provide potential speakers and attendees with an understanding of what will be expected of this year’s speakers. We ask that anyone interested in presenting read this FAQ to ensure that they fully understand the responsibilities that come with speaking at Drupal Commerce Camp 2011. This document will be updated over the course of the next months, so please check back often!

A session at the Drupal Commerce Camp 2011 lasts a total of 45 minutes. This means 30 Minutes for your presentation and 15 minutes for questions and answers. After 45 minutes the session must be stopped to allow people to go to their next sessions and allow presenters to prepare for their presentation.

What’s the process and timeline for session selection?
Who will be making decisions about which sessions get picked?
Do I get paid or compensated for presenting at Drupal Commerce Camp 2011?
What should I keep in mind when submitting a session for Drupal Commerce Camp 2011?
What are the expectations around language?
What are some tips I should follow for creating slides?

What’s the process and timeline for session selection?

Sessions proposals can be submitted by anyone, starting 24th Mai. The period for session submissions will close 26th June. Selected sessions will be announced 4th July and the final schedule will be published 11th July.
Please note: all deadlines are 23:59h

Who will be making decisions about which sessions get picked?

Sessions for each track will be evaluated and selected by the organizers of the Drupal Commerce Camp 2011:

• Miro Dietiker
• Michael Schmid
• Tehseen Schaffner
• Ernst Plüss
• Jos Doekbrijder

Do I get paid or compensated for presenting at Drupal Commerce Camp 2011?

Speaking at Drupal Commerce Camp 2011 is a great way to gain exposure to a diverse audience of engaged Web professionals from dozens of countries around the world. As Drupal Commerce Camp 2011 sessions are recorded and made available online after the conference, the potential reach of your session is nearly unlimited. You'll have the opportunity to publicize your session in the months and weeks leading up to Drupal Commerce Camp 2011 with special graphics that you can put on your website to let others know that you're speaking at Drupal Commerce Camp 2011.

Tickets for speakers giving a full session at Drupal Commerce Camp 2011 will be free of charge and include admission to the party on Friday afternoon/evening. Selected speakers will have access to a preparation Room, a quiet place for presenters to go over their slides and make final preparations before the start of their session.

What should I keep in mind when submitting a session for Drupal Commerce Camp 2011?

While we understand that it’s not always possible to know exactly what you’ll be talking about months in advance of a conference presentation, especially when dealing with fast-moving technologies like Drupal, we do ask that speakers think carefully about their intended audience and what they want attendees to take away from their session when formulating their proposals.

The best panels and presentations are the ones where the presenter devotes a significant amount of time to the process of developing their session. You should be prepared to spend a significant amount of time during the summer months preparing for your session (and communicating with any co-presenters).

In order to give speakers the ability to focus on developing the highest quality sessions possible, we will be limiting the number of sessions that any single speaker can participate in to no more than one solo presentation.

When making your submission, be sure to identify a single point of contact for your session. If you end up not being able to attend, we may cancel your session and replace it with another, even if you are able to find a substitute presenter.

You may be asked if you are willing to work together and/or combine your session with another presenter.

We may check in with you in the weeks leading up to the conference to make sure that your session preparation is going well and you have everything you need.

You will be asked to sign an agreement if your session is selected for Drupal Commerce Camp 2011. This agreement will give the conference the right to use your name and image in Drupal Commerce Camp 2011 promotional material (such as the conference website and printed program) and provide the conference with a Creative Commons license to any recordings made of your session so they can be distributed on places like archive.org.

If your session is selected for Drupal Commerce Camp 2011, you will be asked to check in at the preparation Room at least a half-hour before your session. The preparation Room is a special speakers-only room that provides a place for presenters to go over their slides and make any final preparations before the start of their session.

You will need to provide your own laptop for your presentation. Presenters will be provided with projector specifications and slide templates in a variety of commonly-used formats. Even if you do not use the provided templates, presenters are asked to use special opening and closing slides to assist in the creation of session videos and enable audiences to submit feedback.

What are the expectations around language?

Presenters should keep in mind that the Drupal Commerce Camp 2011 is an international event that attracts diverse people from a wide variety of ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds. Speakers should avoid humor that occurs at the expense of any individual or group of individuals or that relies on stereotypes about culture, religion, race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. Speakers should strive to use professional language and avoid profanities. Presentation on Friday should be in German. Presentations on Saturday and Sunday should be in English. Please contact us if you have a very good reason why we should make an exception.

What are some tips I should follow for creating slides?

A key element of your Drupal Commerce Camp 2011 presentation is your electronic slide preparation. The audience will base its evaluation of you and your subject matter partly on the appearance of your images. An attractive, legible, and organized presentation will reflect positively on the content, and therefore on you. Please review these basic guidelines to ensure that your Drupal Commerce Camp 2011 presentation is the best it can possibly be:

Timing
Find out how much time is allowed for your presentation. Plan your talk and the number of slides to allow for a relaxed pace. Think of what you would change if the presentation had to be shortened or lengthened. Practice your talk before the conference. Time yourself. Force yourself to slow down a little. A rushed presentation will create more stress for you and won't be compelling.

Legibility
The session rooms at Drupal Commerce Camp 2011 are large, and your presentation must be legible from the back row. If you can stand two meters away from your computer's monitor and easily read your slides, your text is large enough. To achieve this, limit each slide to eight lines of text or less and limit each line of text to 30 characters or less. Use a bold typeface, no smaller than 28 points, with generous line spacing.

Use key words, so that your slides will be quick and easy to read. You want the audience to hear your presentation, while the slides accentuate the points to remember. Use standard fonts. That way your presentation will be truly portable. Incorporate only the essential parts of a diagram and simplify whenever possible. While it is tempting to include detail for the sake of accuracy, too much will make the slide difficult to read and become a distraction. Break up complex diagrams into sections if you can, so that each section can be made larger and therefore more legible.

Capitalization
Avoid the use of ALL CAPITAL letters. Words written in ALL CAPS are harder to read and take up more space on the screen. Use bold face and italics for emphasis, or use a bright color such as yellow text when normal body text is white. Underlined text is not recommended.

Color and Contrast
Make good use of color and contrast. Dark backgrounds tend to be easier to view, especially with light text and graphics. Good background color choices are black, blue, maroon, or gradient dark colors. Good text colors are white or yellow. If you use a light background, use black or very dark text and graphics.

Maintain consistency throughout your slides. Using the same background color, text size, text color, and uniform fonts throughout all the slides makes it easier for the audience to follow the flow of your ideas.

What are some good resources for preparing my presentation?

• We highly recommend the book slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations by Nancy Duarte, which provides practical advice on how to create presentations that effectively communicate your message.
• Emma Jane Hogbin has given pre-conference workshops on presentation techniques for DrupalCon speakers. You can view the video of her 2009 workshop at: http://dc2009.drupalcon.org/session/presenting-you-workshop
• You can view a video of Lullabot’s Matt Westgate on The Art of Presenting at: http://www.lullabot.com/blog/art-presenting