Want to Speak at MozCon 2018? Here's Your Chance – Pitch to Be a Community Speaker!

Posted by Danielle_Launders

MozCon 2018 is nearing and it’s almost time to brush off that microphone. If speaking at MozCon is your dream, then we have the opportunity of a lifetime for you! Pitch us your topic and you may be selected to join us as one of our six community speakers.

What is a community speaker, you ask? MozCon sessions are by invite only, meaning we reach out to select speakers for the majority of our talks. But every year we reserve six 15-minute community speaking slots, where we invite anyone in the SEO community to pitch to present at MozCon. These sessions are both an attendee favorite and a fabulous opportunity to break into the speaking circuit.

Katie Cunningham, one of last year's community speakers, on stage at MozCon 2017

Interested in pitching your own idea? Read on for everything you need to know:

The details

• Fill out the community speaker submission form
• Only one submission per person — make sure to choose the one you’re most passionate about!
• Pitches must be related to online marketing and for a topic that can be covered in 15 minutes
• Submissions close on Sunday, April 22nd at 5pm PDT
• All decisions are final
• All speakers must adhere to the MozCon Code of Conduct
• You’ll be required to present in Seattle at MozCon

Ready to pitch your idea?

If you submit a pitch, you’ll hear back from us regardless of your acceptance status.

What you’ll get as a community speaker:

• 15 minutes on the MozCon stage for a keynote-style presentation, followed by 5 minutes of Q&A
• A free ticket to MozCon (we can issue a refund or transfer if you have 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 additional free MozCon ticket for you to give away, plus a code for $300 off of one ticket
• An invitation for you and your significant other to join us for the pre-event speakers dinner

The selection process:

We have an internal committee of Mozzers that review every pitch. In the first phase we review only the topics to ensure that they’re a good fit for our audience. After this first phase, 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.

Want some advice for perfecting your pitch?

• 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. Remember, we receive a ton of pitches, so the more you can explain, the better!
• Review the topics already being presented — we’re looking for something new to add to the stage.
• Keep the pitch to under 1200 characters. We’re strict with the word limits — even the best pitches will be disqualified if they don’t abide by the rules.
• 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.

You’ve got this!

This could be you.

If your pitch is selected, the MozCon team will help you along the way. Whether this is your first time on stage or your twentieth, we want this to be your best talk to date. We’re here to answer questions that may come up and to work with you to deliver something you’re truly 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 in mind
• Comprehensive show guide
• Being available to listen to you practice your talk
• Reviewing your final deck
• A full stage tour on Sunday to meet our A/V crew, see your presentation on the big screens, and get a feel for the show
• An amazing 15-person A/V team

Make your pitch to speak at MozCon!

We can’t wait to see what y’all come up with. Best of luck!

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