We represent the local community of women in technology - so we would love to hear from you! We are looking for a variety of talks: technical and non-technical, long or lightning talks and workshops, on various topics relevant to our audience who come from different tech backgrounds!

Our Call for Speakers (CfS) has been extended to Wed 5th February 2020. We would love to receive applications from everyone in tech across Northern Ireland who self-identify as women. Especially we would like to see speakers of colour, muslim speakers, those with (visible or invisible) disability, speakers from LGBT+ community, and all others from underrepresented groups.

We encourage you to submit multiple talks - each applicant may submit up to 3 and you can edit your submission as long as the CfS is open. All submissions are anonymous in order to avoid any bias and will be judged by a panel. Early submissions would be much appreciated.

Note that this is a local conference and applications from outside the island of Ireland will not be accepted. Please kindly apply to speak at your local WTM Summit.

WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?

We would like to see the diverse talents in our community including developers, designers, testers, IT managers, tech entrepreneurs, students, researchers, and many others across all phases of their careers, backgrounds, and walks of life. New and beginner speakers are very much welcome to apply, as are experienced speakers.

Over the past years we've aimed to showcase the achievements of local women in tech in celebration of International Women's Day. What does that mean? That means we want to show the world the amazing women who have done awesome work in the tech scene. We want people to know what they're working on, how they're doing it, lessons learned and main challenges, but also shine the spotlight on these role models to show that women can do it too and to inspire the next generation. What better way to do it than giving women the opportunity to talk about the amazing work they've done regardless of their background?

Our focus at WTM Belfast 2020 is more on substance than motivation. When people attend your talk, what are they going to take away from it? If they missed out, how would you summarise the key points? We would like to give our attendees the opportunity to learn new things from different areas in tech and be awed by local women role models.

Specifically, we are looking for talks in the following areas:

• Front-End Development
• Back-End Development
• App Development
• Data Science (AI/ML)
• Software Testing & QA
• DevOps & Infrastructure
• User Experience & Design
• Data Analytics
• Cloud
• Open Source Technologies
• Software Architecture
• Security
• Accessibility
• Other Software Development
• Disruptive Tech (e.g. IoT, Robotics)
• Leadership
• Entrepreneurship
• Returning to Work
• Wellness

Some examples of topics that were covered in past years:

• What I Wish I Knew Before Making A Game - Vicky Potts (2019)
• Data science and machine learning in stratified medicine - Jaine Blayney (2019)
• Leading a Software Delivery Team to Success - Joan McAleer (2018)
• Accessibility for Everyone - Claire Wilgar (2018)
• Adjusting User Experience Design for VR - Angie McKeown (2017)
• Quantum-Safe Cryptography: Secure Communication in a Quantum Age - Dr. Ciara Rafferty (2017)
• Entrepreneurship & Passion: Blaze a Trail - Helen Lennon (2016)

SUBMISSIONS GUIDE

Here are a few helpful hints and tips that might help in making your submissions more appealing to our internal WTM and external judges:

• Make sure that your talk abstract is more than a few sentences, and really distils and explains to us what your talk is about. We want to know why your talk will thrill us; and we need to know what it's about for that to happen! Imagine you're writing the blurb for a book - tell us the exciting bits, but make sure to leave some tantalising questions so that we want to hear the talk itself!
• Equally, make sure that your talk abstract is not an essay, or the actual talk itself! Keep it short and sweet, but do give us information!  
• Please make sure to use correct spelling and grammar in your submission - including in your talk title. We're likely to look a little less favourably on submissions that haven't been spell-checked, since it's so easy to do these days :)
• The talk title, personal bio and description must be ready for publishing if you are selected as one of our lucky speakers - we will be printing the title and abstract you submit in our programme. 
  

Please feel free to reach out to wtmbelfast@gmail.com should you have any questions. Our team of organisers are available to help you shape your talk idea and prepare your talk. We look forward to hearing from you!

Travel reimbursement from within Northern Ireland is available. Please kindly let us know if you would like to avail of this travel assistance. Unfortunately we are unable to cover any overnight accommodation. Note that this is a local conference and applications from outside the island of Ireland will not be accepted.