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What opportunities are there?

In 2020, we have several conferences planned, across a range of topic areas. These fall broadly into four categories–Design, Development, Product Leadership/Management and Leadership/Culture.

Key Dates for 2020

• For Code and Code Leaders on February 14th 2020
• For the Product Design and Product Management tracks of our Product Conference on March 14th 2020.
• For our Design Leaders conference, March 14th 2020.
• For Summit (design, product, engineering and people/talent/culture tracks) May 1 2020

How do I get to speak at a Web Directions Conference?

Here's what we recommend to give yourself the best chance of getting a place at our conferences.

• If we see proposals we really like, we start pencilling them in before the closing date. So it pays to not wait until last minute.
• We're also happy for multiple proposals from the same person.
• And past presentations are a good indication of the sort of thing we're looking for as well.

So,

1. Jump to the area of practice you want to present on from the list just below
2. Read carefully. A significant percentage of proposals come from folks who clearly haven't, and those are rarely successful.
3. Fill in our CFP form. It will only take a few minutes

What Do Speakers Get?

We cover speakers conference ticket (of course) and travel and accomodation (if required). There's a fantastic dinner which gives speakers the opportunity to connect with one another, as well as Gold ticket holders from the conference.

We also professionally video presentations, caption and transcribe them, allowing speakers to showcase their work to a far wider audience.

Areas of Practice

• If you're a front end engineer, jump to the developer section.
• If you're a Design professional, jump to details about design presentations.
• If you're a Product professional, jump to details about product presentations.
• If you're a design or engineering leader, or a people, talent and culture professional, then our design leadership conference, Design Leaders, and our engineering leadership conference, Code Leaders, as well as our Culture conference focus on building great teams and organisations. We'd love to hear from you about how you and your organisation are doing just that.

JavaScript and Front End Engineering

Conferences

Code, our JavaScript, front-end development and engineering focussed conference, and the front end engineering track at our Summit mix largely invited long sessions with shorter, 20 minute sessions drawn from our Call For Presentations.

1. Web Directions Code takes place in June in Melbourne The CFP for Summit is open now, and closes February 14th 2019.

2. Web Directions Summit takes place early November and features a development track. The CFP for Summit is open now, and closes May 1 2020.

Apply to speak

We have a single form for proposing engineering sessions at our conferences, as depending on the balance of the program, a session may in our estimation be better suited to one event or another. If you are only able to make one of these events, you can indicate this in the CFP form.

What do we look for?

In short–what are aspects of developing front ends that everyone should know, or would benefit from learning more about?

Traditionally Web Directions events have focussed on core enabling technologies

• CSS
• HTML
• JavaScript, particularly new language features, or widely used but not particularly well understood language features
• DOM/Browser APIs (particularly newer APIs such as web payments, cryptom web components)
• and related foundational technologies like SVG and ARIA.

on core engineering patterns and practices around

• performance
• security
• accessibility
• testing
• debugging
• architectures

and on computer science concepts such as

• algorithms
• mathematics
• garbage collection
• functional programming

In particular we have typically stayed away from specific solutions, whether open source or commercial, no matter how widely used and popular they might currently be. How to do X with Angular, or React for example is well served elsewhere and unlikely to be accepted for our conferences.

We are for the most part looking for shorter, 20 minute sessions. This format typically suits very focussed presentations, that zoom in on a single idea or concept. And, to have the best possible chance of having your proposal accepted, understanding the sort of content we focus on is key.

Recent developer focussed sessions at our events can be found at Web Directions Summit 2019 and Code 2019

But in short–sessions on under appreciated or emerging language features of CSS and JavaScript, browser APIs (for example the web payments API), concepts and techniques–if in doubt, drop us a line and we'll talk.

For Design focussed professionals

If you are a Design professional in the broadest sense, from Product to IxD to UX, Design Research to Content Strategy, Visual Design to Typography, we have two key events.

Web Directions Product in early July in Melbourne is a two track conference, one track focussed on Product design. Like most of our events, it mixes longer (45-50 minute sessions) with shorter (20 minute) sessions. Generally longer sessions are from invited experts, local and international, while shorter sessions are chosen from a Call For Presentations which is open now, until March 14th 2020.

Web Directions Summit takes place early November, and features a Product Design track. The CFP for Summit is open now, and closes May 1 2020. It too features longer and shorter sessions.

We have a single form for proposing Design sessions at our conferences, as depending on the balance of the program, a session may in our estimation be better suited to one event or another. If you are only able to make one of these events, you can indicate this in the CFP form below.

What do we look for?

We are for the most part looking for shorter, 20 minute sessions. This format typically suits very focussed presentations, that zoom in on a single idea or concept. Recent sessions along these lines from Web Directions Summit 2019 and Design 2019.

But in short–sessions on design concepts and techniques–if in doubt, drop us a line and we'll talk more.

For Product professionals

If you are a product professional we have two key events.

Web Directions Product which takes place in Melbourne in early July now features two tracks. A product design track, and a track focussed on product management/leadership. Like most of our events, it mixes longer (45-50 minute sessions) with shorter (20 minute) sessions. Generally longer sessions are from invited experts, local and international, while shorter sessions are chosen from a Call For Presentations which is open now, until Feb. 14th

Web Directions Summit takes place early November in Sydney, and now features a Product track. The CFP for Summit is open now, and closes May 1 2020. It too features longer and shorter sessions.

We have a single form for proposing Product sessions at our conferences, as depending on the balance of the program, a session may in our estimation be better suited to one event or another. If you are only able to make one of these events, you can indicate this in the CFP form below.

What do we look for?

We are for the most part looking for shorter, 20 minute sessions. This format typically suits very focussed presentations, that zoom in on a single idea or concept. Recent sessions along these lines from Web Directions Summit. and 2019's inaugural Product conference.

But in short–sessions on design concepts and techniques–if in doubt, drop us a line and we'll talk more.

For Design and Engineering Leaders, as well as People, Talent and Culture focused professionals

Design Leaders

Alongside Design in early July in Melbourne we hold Design Leaders. This focusses on the challenges facing professionals managing and leading design teams. If you lead design teams, we'd love to hear from you about the challenges you face and the way you go about solving them.

The CFP for Design Leaders closes March 14th 2020

Engineering Leaders

Alongside Code in early June in Melbourne we hold Code Leaders. This focusses on the challenges facing professionals managing and leading engineering teams. If you lead developers, we'd love to hear from you about the challenges you face and the way you go about solving them.

The CFP for Code Leaders closes February 14th 2020

Culture Professionals

Web Directions Summit, in November in Sydney now adds a people/talent/culture/leadership track that blends invited long sessions with shorter, 20 minute sessions drawn from our Call For Presentations.

The CFP for our Summit closes May 1st 2020.

What do we look for?

We are for the most part looking for shorter, 25 minute sessions. This format typically suits very focussed presentations, that zoom in on a single idea or concept. Recent sessions along these lines include:

For more see the program for 2019's events.

• Design Leaders
• Code Leaders
• Summit

Would you like to talk more an clarify what we're looking for, or explore ideas? Just drop us a line and we'll talk.

What do I do next?

Whether you're a seasoned expert speaker, or never stood in front of an audience. we're keen to hear from you.

Below you'll find the open calls for presentations. We keep this form open all the time, but we do have cut off dates for upcoming events. For 2020 these dates are

• For the Product Design and Product Management tracks of our Product Conference on March 14th 2020.
• For our Design Leaders conference, March 14th 2020.
• For Code and Code Leaders on February 14th 2020
• For Summit (design, product and engineering tracks) May 1 2020
• For Culture creating better teams and workplace cultures) May 1 2020

Thanks for your interest and good luck!

Praise for past Web Directions events

Web Directions is the must-attend event of the year for anyone serious about web development.

Phil Whitehouse,
Innovation Lead DigitasLBi

I’ve been admiring the Web Directions events for years, and was honored to be part… What a fantastic event!

Ethan Marcotte,
inventor "responsive Web design"

Out of any conference, Web Directions is far and away our favourite

Dave Greiner,
founder Campaign Monitor

Code of Conduct

For over a decade, we've worked hard to create inclusive, fun, inspring and safe events for the Web Industry.

As part of our commitment to these values, we've adopted a code of conduct for all involved: ourselves, our speakers, our partners and our audience.