Call for speakers
Agile Manchester
15-17 May 2024
Our call for speakers is now closed. The deadline for submissions was 23:59 (GMT) on Monday 12 December 2022.
Submitter Information
Our Call for Speakers for 2023 is now closed, this page remains for reference only. Our Agile in the City: Bristol & Bath, and Agile Cambridge 2023 calls are currently open.
We encourage submissions from anyone with relevant skills, experience or knowledge to share with our community of professionals. We welcome and support first-time speakers.
The call for speakers will close at 11:59pm (BST) on Monday 12 December 2022.
What we’re looking for
We want people who can talk from experience about any aspect of agile, lean or flow-based delivery.
Practical approaches
Our participants love new learning that can be applied to their own work. This could be a great talk about how you overcame some challenge, a practical workshop to explore a topic or learn a new technique or a thought-provoking panel discussion.
Authenticity and inspiration
We love speakers who inspire our participants with their real-world experiences. Be bold, teach us something new, make us think, make us smile but most of all, be yourself.
Fresh perspectives
Participants like new ways of exploring familiar challenges - interactive, thoughtful sessions that our participants can engage with and learn from.
Novel or Experimental
Our participants love trying new things - maybe you have a novel session format that you want to get feedback on from a smart, informed audience...?
Topics of interest
Agile Manchester attracts a diverse audience of practitioners and we welcome submissions on a varied set of topics.
Here are some topics that we are interested in to get your ideas flowing. This is not an exhaustive list, if you think you have something to talk about that would be of interest to our community, please submit it.
Happy people | Team management
- Culture
- Diversity
- Team building
- Team success
Post-pandemic development
- Remote learnings
- Hybrid
- Returning to in-person
- Work-life balance
- Supporting people
- Mental wellbeing
- Remote agile working
Agile in practice
- Successful agile delivery
- Effective delivery processes
- Technical practices
- Design practices
- UX practices
- UR practices
Transforming the organisation
- Learnings from change
- Measuring change
- Real enterprise agile
Sustainability | Environmental responsibility
The climate crisis is the biggest challenge facing us all. As the creators and curators of software systems we have a responsibility to ensure that we take into account the environmental impact of running those systems and the activity around their creation.
- Measuring environmental footprint
- Building sustainability in
- Engaging the organisation
Types of sessions
We're happy for you to present a session about your experiences or something you've done, but we encourage interactive sessions that generate conversation with the audience, group discussion or hands-on experiences.
Case study
A presentation and discussion of real-life experiences of the application (or mis-application) of relevant techniques. Case studies include some discussion of lessons learned and an indication of how new the work is.
Talk
A presentation and discussion of a specific topic or issue. Talks should include sharing of real-life examples and experiences.
Workshop
A hands-on working session focused around a specific topic, tool, technique or issue. Led by the speaker, workshops usually include interactivity or individual/group exercises. Tell us if you need to cap numbers.
Discussion
A more informal session e.g Goldfish Bowl, Fireside Chat, Lean Coffee or something else that allows the participants to bring thoughts, ideas, questions and problems on a topic that you facilitate. Be sure to indicate which type of discussion you propose when submitting and if you need to cap numbers.
Our participants
Agile Manchester allows participants to connect and learn from their peers and leaders in the industry and beyond.
Our participants have specialisms such as:
- Software developer
- Delivery manager
- Agile coach
- Scrum master
- Consultant
- Project manager
- Test engineer
Our participants come from many different industries. These include:
- Start-ups and technology companies
- Central and local government
- Financial services
- Consultancies
- Education
- Health
Our review process
Our review process takes approximately 2 to 4 weeks. After the deadline closes, our selection panel will review all submissions. (These submissions will be anonymised.
We’ll contact you and let you know, even if you’re not successful this time.
To help us ensure personally identifying information is not included in the process, please do not include this information in your session descriptions. These might be in links to blogs or recordings.
If you’re a new speaker and would like an extension and/or mentorship, contact us as soon as possible.
We want to hear your story - the first step is to submit it.
Inclusivity and diversity
We aim to be inclusive and diverse - in terms of our speakers and our participants.
We’re committed to creating a safe space for everyone to share ideas, try something new, get feedback and engage with a knowledgeable, open-minded audience. We want to ensure participants can connect, network and learn from their industry peers in a positive environment.
We provide a safe and fun place to share ideas and try something new. Our Code of Conduct describes expected behaviour.
Our review process is anonymous - to ensure selection based on merit and not how well a speaker is known. This is an opportunity for both experienced and first-time speakers to share experiences of the practical application of agile and lean techniques.
If you’re still in the early stages of your speaking career and would like some help, contact us as soon as possible to discuss options for how we can support you.
Speaker support
Free speaker tickets
We offer a free ticket for every session selected to be on our conference programme. However, as we have to cover speaker costs with the income from tickets - we allocate these tickets in relation to session duration:
- For a 45 minute session, only the first named speaker pays no conference fees. Additional speakers must purchase a special low-cost ticket.
- For a 60 minute session, only the first two named speakers pay no conference fees. Additional speakers must purchase a special low-cost ticket.
- For 90+ minute sessions, only the first three named speakers will pay no conference fees. Additional speakers must purchase a special low-cost ticket.
Included in your ticket:
- participation in the full event programme
- lunch & refreshments at scheduled breaks throughout the day
- free Wi-Fi at the conference venue
- For more detail or if you have any questions, contact us.
Expenses
We aim to cover all speaker travel and accommodation expenses, if requested and in line with our ‘speaker reimbursement policy’.
Part of the decision on whether to accept a session or not involves considering its financial costs. On your session proposal, tell us what financial support you’d need. This could be how many nights’ accommodation you’d need, and how far you’d be travelling to the event.
If your session is accepted, we’ll suggest a financial amount to you, based on our understanding of your costs to come to the event.
Unfortunately, we cannot accept requests for additional financial support after you’ve agreed to that amount. And we cannot pay expenses that we have not agreed to pay in advance of the event.
Visas
If you’re travelling from outside the UK, think about any visa requirements for your visit to the UK - you can find useful information at GOV.UK
Supplies
We provide standard supplies for sessions - like sticky notes, markers, pens and paper. We’ll cover costs or supply directly any additional materials you require to conduct your session - such as printing. Just let us know when submitting your session.
Data policy
We need to hold information you provide on computer databases for administrative purposes. Summary information, which could include contact data, will be published for all session leaders.
Information about participants will be made available to organisations involved in administering, organising or supporting the event - this may include organisations outside the European Community.
Opinions
The organisers are not responsible for the views or opinions expressed by speakers, sponsors or other participants.
Programming
Inclusion of a session in the programme will be at the sole discretion of the conference organisers. By agreeing to have your session included in the programme, you agree to participate in the conference and in all pre-conference quality control activities as deemed necessary by the conference organisers.
You also agree to promote your session and involvement in the build-up to the event. We’ll provide a range of assets to support any promotional efforts.
The organisers reserve the right to remove a session from the programme at any time. Speakers will no longer be eligible for free entry to the conference and so will have to pay the current non-speaker rate if they wish to participate in the conference.
The organisers will not be responsible for payment of any kind on behalf of the speaker in this event.
Ask us
Ask us if you have any queries. We can also advise you about how best to get to the event and where you can stay.
Submit your session
We're accepting session proposals via WeReview, a submission and review platform which is currently in public beta.
Head to WeReview to submit your session(s) now!
Need some help?
Read our tips for submitting a proposal.