Speaker Rider

Last modified March 19th, 2023.

Hi, thanks for looking at my speaker rider! 💖

This is a set of requirements and standards for accepting an offered speaking slot. The points here are all things I believe conferences should be doing anyway to make for a more accessible, equitable event for everybody involved.

tl;dr

• Accessibility: Be it, whether in-person and/or online
• Accommodations: Pay for travel expenses and my ticket
• Code of Conduct: Have a real one
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Be at least ~30% not-white-cisgender-male speakers
• Fixing Violations: I'm happy to help, to a point

Accessibility

In-Person

If the event is in-person, all areas -including any auxiliary events like official afterparties or co-located events- must be accessible to those who require mobility aids, including stages. They should adhere to at least the hosting country's equivalent of ADA standards.

Virtual

All online services necessary for the event, including its website and any video platforms, should be usable by users who with limited or no eyesight, hearing, and/or mobility. Any website created by the event should conform to WCAG 2.1 by the date of the conference at Level A and at least mostly at AA.

Captioning should be provided, ideally live by a trained professional. If there is absolutely no other option, auto-generated captioning is not the greatest but will suffice.

Accommodations

No part of the cost of speaking at your event should lie with the speaker. You should cover at least:

• My ticket to the event
• Lodgings in an Airbnb or hotel near the venue the nights before and after the event
• Travel to and from the event, such as flights or trains*

*If you are a regional and/or smaller conference with a limited budget and relatively cheap attendee tickets (<=$200/day), we can discuss omitting this requirement.

COVID Safety

Any event venue should comply with local, state, and federal COVID restrictions, including any mask and vaccine requirements.

Speaking Fees and Honorariums

Since speaking at events helps me promote myself and my projects, I do not generally require a speaking fee or an honorarium. This is especially true for non-profits, community events, or events where the cost of attending is heavily reduced.

For large-scale corporate events where the organizing company stands to make a profit or private internal corporate events, my fee is negotiable based on the size of the event and whether I am a keynote speaker. If I am being paid, all other speakers should be paid as well.

Code of Conduct

Your event must have an explicitly-defined, enforced Code of Conduct linked publicly on your event's website, preferably as a top-level menu item. It should include a clear, readable description of what behavior is and is not acceptable, as well as at least one way for someone to report a violation. If you're looking for inspiration, a few good examples are: CNCF, TSConf, and Rust Community.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Events need to be representative of the kind of tech world we want to build: one that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive. At the very least:

• At least one speaker should be someone who is not already well-known on the speaking circuit.
• At least ~30% of your total speaker lineup should not be white cisgender men.
• Speakers who are a member of an underrepresented group shouldn't be exclusively invited to speak about their experiences as a member of that group (unless that is a theme of the conference).

Fixing Violations

I generally apply to event CFPs that I think match my technical areas of interest even if they don't yet have perfect adherence to this speaker rider, in the expectation that we can work together on addressing any gaps. If you're organizing an event and something is missing, I will make a strong good faith effort to help you. That includes, but is not limited to:

• Auditing your website for basic accessibility issues and advising on remediations
• Helping you set up a code of conduct

Note that I have finite energy & time; fixing violations should be an informative partnership, not unpaid contract work.

I may leave day-of if particularly egregious violations on the part of organizers occur, especially around code of conducts or COVID safety.

This Rider

Thanks for reading all of this speaker rider! I hope none of it is particularly surprising, and that it's reasonable for you. Please do let me know at [email protected] if you want to chat.

Forking

This rider is under the Unlicense. That means you can go copy it as your own with whatever modifications you'd like.

speaker-rider > Fork is a handy shortcut if you'd like to fork this repository. ✨

Inspired By

This speaker rider borrows heavily from the following very excellent speaker riders:

• Cassidy Williams
• Kat Cosgrove