Speaker Details

Congratulations again for being selected as a speaker for WordCamp Sacramento 2017!

We are so excited about this event and thrilled that you’re going to be a big part of it. To make things easy, we’ve created this information page just for you with all the nitty gritty WordCamp details you need to know. We’ll keep the page updated with all of the latest WordCamp information so you have one place to go to find everything.

If you have any questions not answered here, please reach out!

Key Contact Information

  • Jen Meyer our WordCamp Speaker Wrangler is your primary point of contact. You can reach her at jenlpmeyer[at]gmail.com or 916-217-3558.
  • Jennifer Bourn is the Lead Organizer for WordCamp. You can reach her at jennifer[at]bourncreative.com or 916-468-4738.

Critical Dates

  • September 14, 2017: Date by which your session slides must be completed and the link provided to Jen Meyer — this is required of all speakers and is not optional.
  • September 15, 2017: The Private Kick Off Dinner.
  • September 16-17, 2017: WordCamp Sacramento 2017.

Kick Off VIP Dinner

The Friday night Kick Off Dinner will be held on Friday, September 15, 2017 at 6:30 pm at Hot Italian in Midtown Sacramento!

  • Event And Food: Join us for a pizza bar (including vegetarian and gluten-free options), non-alcoholic drinks, some Italian Gelato, and great networking with WordCamp speakers, organizers, sponsors, and volunteers. If you would like to purchase drinks, a bar is available.
  • Address: 1627 16th Street #1, Sacramento, California 95814.
  • Time: 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
  • Venue Location: We will be in the Hot Italian Bikes And Gear Lounge — come inside and head to the right past the Gelato Bar!
  • Early Registration: Stop by the event registration table to get registered, pick up your name badge, and more — then breeze right past the attendee registration line in the morning.

Please understand that this private event is for organizers, speakers, sponsors, and volunteers only. We are unable to accommodate guests or +1s at this time.

Parking

While you are always welcome to look for street parking, there are several parking garages conveniently located near the Sacramento Convention Center… just know that the one closest to the Convention Center will fill up VERY FAST:

WordCamp Venue Details

  • Venue Address: Sacramento Convention Center located at 1400 J Street, Sacramento, California 95814. Get directions and nearby hotels on the WordCamp Location Page.
  • Venue Entrance: Enter the Convention Center using the West Lobby Entrance on 13th Street (across from the parking garage).
  • WordCamp Location In Venue: WordCamp will be upstairs — we have the entire second floor meeting space.

Speaker Room

The Private Speaker Room is Room 205, at the end of the hallway outside the ballrooms. This is your place for quiet time to get ready for your talk or decompress after your talk.

  • WIFI username: WP 205
  • WIFI password: WordPress2017

Room Information

  • All tracks will be held in very large, semi-dark ballrooms that are set up “Classroom-Style” so every attendee is sitting at a table.
  • The walls between the ballrooms have a multi-foot wide gap in the center of the walls to help eliminate the transfer of sound between rooms.
  • There will be a large stage at the front of each ballroom to elevate you for better visibility. The display screen with your slides will be next to the stage.
  • The Room Managers for each ballroom will be at a table in the back of the room.
  • Be in your room at the start of the break before your session AT THE LATEST and check in with the Room Managers.

A/V Details

  • The venue projectors will have HDMI and VGA inputs. We have some adapters available, but not many. Please be sure you have the proper adapter for your laptop.
  • A podium will be on the stage with a microphone, as well as a wireless microphone — which you use is up to you.
  • There will be a large countdown timer on each podium so you’ll know exactly where you’re at in your session at all times — it will be set to the end of your session when both your talk and Q&A is over.
  • There will be an audience microphone for Q&A. We’ll have mic runners or a standing mic ready for the Q&A portion of your session.

Screen/Slide Details

  • With the Beginner Track sucking down bandwidth and attendees online and on their phones, no speaker should rely solely on having internet access for their talk. Please have a backup of your presentation offline, on your computer or a flash drive.
  • If you do not have a laptop to run your presentation from, it is up to you to make arrangements to either get one or use another speakers’ machine.
  • We invested in large 10ft screens.
  • The screens are 4:3 ratio.
  • The rooms will be semi-dark, but PLEASE be sure all slides are high contrast for the visually impaired and good visibility for those in the back of the room.

Tips For Great Slides

  • Make It Big: Use only small amounts of text and make the text BIG. Please don’t design slides with small type and lots of empty space — this isn’t the time to make use of white space.
  • Zoom In: If using screenshots of code, ZOOM in with your browser before taking the screenshot to make the code samples as BIG as possible — it’s okay to have one code sample fill the entire slide!
  • Use Contrast: Again, please be sure all slides are high contrast for the visually impaired and good visibility for those in the back of the room — this means no pastel colors and no yellow or light color text.
  • Use Images: Imagery related to the content that helps tell your story helps people retain information longer and helps people stay interested in what you’re talking about.
  • Choose Simple Typefaces: Avoid Display Fonts and go with simple, easy to read typeface like a nice, clean sans serif.

Tips For A Great Presentation

  • Be mindful of your slides and your language. This is an inclusive, safe, community event. If any imagery or content walks the line of appropriateness, please leave it out.
  • Be a faucet not a fire hose. Many new speakers try to over deliver and cram as much as they can into their talk, but often it backfires and they simply end up overwhelming the audience. Keep your talk focused on the topic and to the point. It’s better to provide clear information on a smaller amount so the audience feels empowered to learn more and/or take action. We want them to leave thinking, “I can do that,” or “I could try that.”
  • Introduce yourself but keep it short or consider introducing yourself at the end. A great way to close a talk is to introduce yourself, give people a short bio, let them know where to find you online, and invite them to connect.
  • Get your slides done in advance. Every speaker will be required to provide their final slide deck to Jen Meyer, the WordCamp Speaker Wrangler on September 14. This is not optional. This allows you to get your talk done early so you can practice, relax, enjoy the speaker dinner, and network more at the event. It also allows us to prep our social media posts and tweets promoting you and sharing your slides with attendees in advance.
  • Practice, practice, and practice again. Then practice some more. Practicing your talk will help you avoid reading your notes or slides, be more confident on stage, speak slower, and it will make you look even more awesome than you already are.

Things To Remember

  • No selling from the stage or self promotion is allowed.
  • Be in your ballroom no later than the beginning of the break before your talk so you have time to get your laptop connected, get mic’d, and take a deep breath.
  • During Q&A, even though we’ll have an audience mic, please REPEAT the question asked before answering it — this is for the video recording.
  • Consider signing up for a shift at the Happiness Bar for IMMEDIATELY AFTER your talk and let the audience know you’ll be in the Happiness Bar if anyone has additional questions or want to talk further. We’ll be reaching out for Happiness Bar volunteers soon. (You’re not required to work the Happiness Bar, it’s completely optional.)

Don’t forget to have fun! WordCamp is going to be AWESOME so remember to relax, mingle, and enjoy yourself!

WordCamp Sacramento 2017 is over. Check out the next edition!