Call for presenters

WPCampus 2021 will be looking for stories, how-tos, hypotheticals, demos, case studies and more for our annual in-person conference focused on WordPress in higher education.

Our call for presenters will open early 2021.
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As in past years, we’ll be looking for a variety of topics on anything that might bring value to our community. WordPress, higher education, and accessibility are key themes, but we want people to share on their own experiences in various arenas: accessibility, design, development, strategy, management, usability, governance, etc. Anything you’ve found valuable in contributing to higher education communities and/or the web.

Why present at WPCampus?

This event is a great opportunity for first-time presenters. If you use WordPress in higher ed, we’d love for you to share your work (and brains) with our community. Our call for presenters is not limited to those who work in higher ed as you do not have to be in higher education to bring value to our community.

If you’re having trouble finding inspiration or fleshing out ideas, start by checking out our Speaker Training videos. These videos may help get your vision into a submittable format. And feel free to share your ideas with us for feedback!

If you’re considering applying, but are hesitant because you don’t feel like you have anything to say, keep this in mind: the people that get up and present aren’t always the experts. They’re just the people who said yes. You have value and insight to share and we would love for you to say yes and share your unique experiences. Your story needs to be heard.

Presenter Benefits

Accepted presenters will receive free admission (one free ticket per session) and hordes of gratefulness and admiration for your investment in higher education. Also, swag.

Session Formats

Over the years, we’ve continued to experiment with our program and aim to provide a variety of formats:

  • General lecture sessions
    • 45-minute lectures on various topics with 1-2 presenters.
  • Panel discussions
    • 45-minute discussion on a specific topic with a facilitator and a panel of experts.
  • Group discussions
    • 45-minute group discussions on a specific topic.
    • The discussion is had among all in attendance and led by a facilitator.
    • The facilitator is selected by the planning committee but the community selects the topics.
  • Hands-on workshops
    • A few 2-4 hour hands-on workshop time slots are available.
    • Workshops will be held a day early.
  • Lightning talks
    • A 10-15 minute presentation for a quick overview of a specific topic.
    • Our lightning talks are viewed by all attendees. We really enjoy this time together, sharing insights on various topics.

Session Topics

Session tracks will be generated according to proposals, so feel free to submit any and all session ideas and stories you have to share involving WordPress and education.

The intended audiences will include faculty, students, developers, site designers, DevOps/sysadmins, content developers, instructional designers, marketing specialists, admissions personnel and institutional leaders.

We are interested in how-to sessions, case studies, conceptual discussions, best practices, and even works-in-progress. Tell us who should attend your session and why.

Looking for more inspiration? Visit the WPCampus Library

Here are some possible topics (and we’re sure you can imagine more):

Why WordPress?

  • Why choose WordPress over commercial or other open-source CMSs?
  • How do you pitch WordPress to management?
  • Overcoming biases: it’s just for blogging, it’s insecure, etc.
  • Case studies displaying why WordPress was the right fit for your university
  • How to deal with the bureaucracy of using open-source software in higher education

Content and Planning

  • Higher ed content strategy and WordPress
  • Institutional messaging
  • WordPress and the ecosystem of other enterprise systems
  • Promoting faculty, research or community engagement
  • Accessibility
  • Politics/support
  • Testing
  • Getting projects launched
  • Planning and change management
  • Getting buy-in
  • Why WordPress?

Operations

  • Multisite
  • Infrastructure
  • Security
  • Server-based security
  • Securing your sites
  • Code auditing
  • Login integration with enterprise systems or LMS
  • Who does what?

Instruction

  • Technology in education
  • Connected courses
  • Domain of One’s Own Projects
  • Open learning
  • Professional development
  • Teaching with WordPress
  • Student and/or class blogs and portfolios
  • Textbook and course materials replacement/delivery
  • MOOCs and syndicated courses
  • Faculty blogs and portfolios
  • ePortfolios

Development

  • Developing WordPress themes and plugins for higher education
  • Evaluating free and commercial themes and plugins for education use
  • Applications and APIs
  • Accessibility and usability
  • Public distribution and privacy/security concerns

Being Human

  • Staying happy and healthy
  • Communication and community involvement
  • Managing open source contributions within/alongside in-house projects
  • Dealing with conflict in open-source spaces
  • Hiring WordPress developers when you aren’t one
  • Mental health, imposter syndrome, burnout

Code of Conduct

WPCampus seeks to provide a friendly, safe environment. All participants should be able to engage in productive dialogue. They should share and learn with each other in an atmosphere of mutual respect. We require all participants to adhere to our code of conduct. This applies to all community interaction and events.

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