Call for Speakers
Config Europe
17 Sep 2020
Online
config.figma.com/
Thanks for being here. We’re excited to share what we’re working on with you.
Earlier this year we hosted our first user conference, Config, with speakers and attendees from around the world. We were blown away by the magic that happened when we brought our users together to learn from each other. We want to continue building this community; this time taking Config to Europe with a virtual conference on British Summer Time.
CONFIG EUROPE
17 September 2020
12:00-17:00 BST
We’ve found the most valuable part of conferences comes from our users sharing their experiences and best practices with each other. We want to hear from you. Tell us what you want to share with our community by completing our Call for Speakers.
Have more than one idea? Feel free to submit multiple proposals. If you have any feedback or questions email us at community@figma.com.
ABOUT THE VIRTUAL CONFERENCE
The Config Europe agenda includes:
- an opening keynote by Figma and friends
- a look at what’s next by Figma
- breakout sessions by the community
- 1on1 networking and mentorship sessions
- community social events hosted by Figma user groups
The audience will be a representation of our community, which includes designers and developers of all levels.
We know it's our responsibility to create a conference that is inclusive, safe, and represents everyone, especially people from traditionally underrepresented communities. As part of the submission process we have included optional questions to help us ensure our lineup is inclusive and representative of our community.
SPEAKER HONORARIUM
All speakers will receive the same honorarium of £1,000. If the speaker can’t accept an honorarium, we are happy to donate £1,000 in the speaker’s name to a charity of their choice. Attending the conference will be free to speakers.
APPLICATION TIMELINE + SELECTION PROCESS
- Call for Speakers Opens: Tuesday, July 14th, 2020 9am BST
- Call for Speakers Closes: Friday, July 31st, 2020 11:59pm BST
- You’ll hear from us on Tuesday, August 11th, 2020.
A group of Figma employees from different departments, backgrounds, and expertise will review all submissions. Each talk will be rated anonymously on the same criteria. Check out the FAQ to learn more.
You can always send us a note to community@figma.com or sign up for office hours to ask questions before you apply. Register for office hours on Thursday, July 23rd at 4pm BST and Tuesday, July 28th at 4pm BST.
Call for Speakers
14 Jul 2020
01 Aug 2020
SPEAKER FAQs:
1. Is previous speaking experience required?
Absolutely not, first time speakers welcome and encouraged! Have questions before submitting? Feel free to ask us at community@figma.com.
2. If selected, what is the time commitment?
We expect the total time commitment to be 4-5 hours. Your session would take place in the afternoon (13:00 - 16:00 BST) on Thursday, September 17th. The event will be live on BST and all presentations will be done in that time zone. You’ll need to be available during our practice session the week before (time tbd), your session slot, and one hour before your session to make sure your AV works.
3. What language should the content be in?
While we hope to expand language support in the future, for our first Config Europe we ask that all content be in English. We will provide closed captioning and translations of talks as much as possible.
4. What type of content are you looking for? Is there a theme?
Content at Config Europe will be focused around four major themes. Have an idea outside of these themes? We’d love to hear it. The themes are:
- Building and maintaining Design Systems
Share tips, best practices, and learnings for starting and scaling a Design System—building components, refining a style guide, and getting your team on board. - Figma deep-dives
Share how you speed up your design workflow in Figma with time-saving features, like plugins, Auto Layout, components, and more. - Process, culture, and team-building
Share best practices for recruiting and hiring, building team culture, or defining team processes and norms in our new remote working world. - Opening up design
Share how you make the design process more inclusive, accessible, and participatory for non-designers.
5. What makes for a good submission?
Submissions should be no more than 250 words long. We’ll look at submissions using these criteria:
- Personal - sharing your own experiences and learnings
- Specific - dives beyond the surface level
- Relevant - applies to the themes and the community
- Hands-on - allows attendees to participate
- Practical - able to be implemented easily and instantly
We’ll reject submissions that are incongruent with our Code of Conduct or contain material that is vague, inauthentic, or plagiarized.
6. If selected, can I get help on my content & what equipment do I need?
Absolutely, our content team is here to help. We will want to touch base with you 1-2 times to help you with any content questions you may need.
Config Europe will be a virtual and live event and we’ll provide you with a mic and camera (and lots of IT help along the way) for your session. Need something else? Let us know and we’ll do our best.
event fee
All speakers will receive the same honorarium of £1,000. If the speaker can’t or does not wish to accept an honorarium, we will donate £1,000 in the speaker’s name to a charity of their choice. Attending the conference will be free to speakers.