Next steps: Mozilla Tech Speakers & Developer Events

Speaking
#1

Thanks to all of you for your overwhelming interest in speaking for Mozilla in your communities. I sincerely regret that I can’t reply to each inquiry individually, but I’m really proud and excited that you’re activating Tech Speakers programs in your regions. Feel free to share your questions and experiences here:

Here are some general guidelines to point you in the right direction:

UPDATE I wrote some wrong information about processes when I posted this earlier, and I am correcting that now.
DEVELOPER EVENTS: Speakers, swag, funding: If you are a Mozilla Rep or a Firefox Student ambassador, please use the processes you’ve been shown for those programs to list your event and request budget. We are working to get some developer edition swag available for reps swag requests. Stay tuned.

If you are looking for a Mozillian to give a technical talk, let’s start using this Discourse topic to post requests for speakers in your region. I’m not sure how this will scale but maybe those speakers can give you some advice or links to content kits and presentations that you can use to present at your meetups, campus events and training. If you have questions about

For larger-scale regional developer events and tech conferences beyond the scale of a Reps event or Campus meetup, the Mozilla Developer Marketing/DevRel event team reviews requests for support via this bugzilla form.
http://mzl.la/dev-event

File a bug to request swag, speakers, funding, any kind of support, including funding to travel to give a technical workshop or presentation within in your country or local region. All funding requests are reviewed by the dev events committee. Provide as much info as you can find. Please understand that we will not be able to support all requests.

If this is for a Mozilla Reps event that’s been ongoing and funded by Mozilla Reps, please do not file a dev-event bug . USE THE REPS REQUEST PROCESS. (I should have said this the first time)

Please tag it “tech speakers” if you are running a Reps event for developers where you discuss Mozilla technologies and the open web platform.

All this will help us learn from your work and recognize your efforts. We are working with Participation to make processes simpler and more streamlined, please bear with us and follow the processes. We respond best through bugzilla. :slight_smile:

DevRel supports events focused on an audience of developers, especially web developers, or engineering and technology students. If your event is serving a different audience – you’ll need to find another source of funding via Participation or Marketing budgets.

Thanks for understanding!

TECH SPEAKERS PROGRAM: PHASE 2: We are working on the next phase of the Mozilla Tech Speakers program right now.

Meeting many of you in Singapore was a huge help in getting this plan off the ground, and I’ll be asking for feedback when we share the new framework and announce the new program this quarter. Stay tuned for timeline and next steps. I will be talking to Participation Leaders as this unfolds.

TECH SPEAKING WORKSHOPS: At the heart of the Tech Speakers’ program is a simple exercise that you can practice with a small group of friends, colleagues, fellow students, other Participation Leaders or community members - in real life or via online group call or hangout.

If you came to the Public Speaking workshop in Singapore, you saw it in action. Think of Public Speaking as a Service. Organize a “Speaking circle” in your community. The secret sauce is practice, practice, practice and a commitment to attend and be present. Give the ‘audience’ something they can use, something they can act on right away, and you’ll have their attention and support.
Many resources are here, you are welcome to add some of your own. Get in touch with a Tech Speaker in your community or region who has time to share their experience or walk you through it. Or, just get started:

https://wiki.mozilla.org/TechSpeakers

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Participation/Global_Gatherings_2015/Singapore/Content/public_speaking

MDN: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/MDN/Contribute

Thanks again for your contributions and for stepping up.
Keep on rockin’ the free web! And watch this space…

6 Likes
#2

I am interested on the phase 2 of that program but as a Mozilla Reps will be helpful to communicate to the local community that someone as asked to Mozilla for speakers.
I met Tech Speakers that will go to events in Italy as a speaker but we have no idea of that, we have speakers but also mozillians that maybe want to participate to this talks or meeting.

1 Like
#3

Hi Daniele -
Thanks for posting here! We will share more info about Phase 2 very, very soon. I will try to get on a Reps call to talk about it with many of you in a few more weeks…

I want to make sure I understand the second part of your comment – I think it will be relevant to others here too:
If you ever need support to give a talk at an event in your local community (or anywhere in your country) and the event meets some basic criteria (e.g., has a code of conduct, is for a relevant developer/web designer/builder/CS or IT or eng student or coding student audience, is on a relevant topic) - we can help you as a Tech Speaker, even if you haven’t been a participant in Tech Speakers program yet.

If your request is for an event that you would usually attend or organize thru Mozilla Reps, pls continue to use Reps processes to organize it and use “TechSpeakers” as the name of your initiative. If this is a non-Mozillian event where you are invited to speak, and the criteria apply you probably want to use the dev-event link above.

Also, if you have an event where you need a speaker, you can reach out directly to one of the Tech Speakers listed on the wiki or ping us in IRC.

I hope I addressed your question. Ping me directly if you need more info or clarity.

2 Likes
#4

Thanks for that info but my question is different.

Example case:
An Italian organizer of an event contact for a speaker with that form. For Mozilla is ok and send for that event a non-italian speaker or a non-member of the italian community.
The italian community is not contacted of that participation of that speaker in that event.

Actually the situation is that the local community is not contacted officially of that presence, I think that is not good because the community need to be involved also only to learn and as a representative.

1 Like
#5

I think that form was there even before that. Event organizers could have requested for speakers even before (along with sponsorship request). I have seen that in bugzilla for quite some time now. I confess I don’t know how it is handled though.

However what @havi and all of us I think wanted to convey was that “TechSpeakers” is not an isolated program and neither it is a badge of recognition. It’s just an organic program to enable and encourage existing and new speakers in terms of public speaking. The program/curriculum helps existing mozillians and speakers to come forward and confront their public speaking fears and improve with help of each other.

Any of us can conduct this in our own community to help improve ourselves as well as others. Just like how we did in MozFest in small groups and how we did in Singapore LS.

That’s how I perceive the program :smile:

1 Like
#6

Daniele - Thanks for sharing your feedback here. This is helpful to know.

What is the best way for the DevRel team/Dev-events manager (Sandra Persing) to reach technical speakers in the Italian community? Is there an IRC channel or link we could use? If you are interested and available as a Tech Speaker, I am happy to keep you (and others) in mind when speaking requests come through.

Here is our public CFP calendar:
http://bit.ly/mozdevrel-cfps

Please let us know (ping me!) if you are planning to give a Tech Talk.

Reps should continue to use the Reps processes for support for Tech speaker events, but we encourage you to use keyword “Tech Speakers” for those initiatives, and I am trying to make Developer Edition Fx stickers available through the Reps schwag request process.

I will be introducing the Phase 2 Tech Speakers program very soon at an upcoming Reps call. It creates a way for us to engage more Reps, more Mozillians & more Participation Leaders in developing these skills.

1 Like
#7

Thanks Rabimba! totally :+1:

1 Like
#8

We have the irc channels but to reach technical speaker I am the reference.

I think that is not only a problem of the italian community but also of the others.

2 Likes
#9

@havi If I fill out the DevRel form, how can I request funding to attend an event not organized by me? Do I need to fill out the details of that event although I’m not the organizer? Do I need to request a specific budget for my costs, or do I only need to indicate that I’m requesting to be sponsored? It’s not really clear to me

1 Like