Are you interested in speaking at Netroots Nation? Our trainings and panels are submitted by community members, and our agenda is chosen from those submissions. The 2024 call for submissions is closed. 2025 submission will open in January of 2025.
Netroots Nation 2024 Speaker Information
⭐ When and where will my panel or training happen?
All panels and trainings will be held in meeting rooms at the Baltimore Convention Center, and scheduled during the breakout slots noted in the Schedule Overview. We’ll email you your room assignments and additional details about how the rooms are set up, the equipment that will be available, etc.
⭐ How are the rooms set up? Can I show slides or a video during my session?
- Both panel and training rooms will be set in theater.
- Panel rooms will have podiums and a head table on a stage, with seating for the moderator and 4 speakers. Each seat and the podium will have a wired microphone. If anyone on your panel needs an accessible stage, please email us immediately so we can ensure your session is in a room with a stage ramp.)
- Training rooms will have a podium and head table for up to two trainers, no stage, and a pair of wireless microphones.
FOR ACCESSIBILITY FOR EVERYONE, ALL SPEAKERS NEED TO USE THE SUPPLIED MICROPHONES. - Each room will have a screen and projector with an HDMI cable connection to the podium; you must bring your laptop (and dongle if you don’t have an HDMI port) to connect it to the projector. If you want to share a video, store it locally on your computer, as the Wifi sometimes gets overloaded.
⭐ How do I update my bio?
We are using a new speaker portal this year, so even if you have been a speaker in the past, you will need to set up a new profile this year. You will receive an email from noreply@notifications.socio-mail.com with the subject line “Collaboration with Netroots Nation 2024“ that will contain your individual link to set up your speaker profile. This page has more information about setting up your speaker profile. NOTE: This is separate from your attendee profile. You still must register and access the app as an attendee.
⭐ Do I need to register?
Netroots Nation is a nonprofit organization, and funding for the conference comes mostly from registration fees and sponsorships. We are doing everything possible to keep our fees low while facing increased convention costs and reduced sponsorships. This, and because most of our 400+ speakers participate in the full conference, we ask that speakers purchase registration.
That said, we never want finances to keep an important voice from being heard. If you need a discount or will only attend the day of your session, we have speaker discounts and a limited number of speaker fee waivers available. See this form for more information.
⭐ How do I get into the event app?
You must be registered for the conference to access the event app and interact with other attendees, set an agenda, view virtual content, etc. Being a speaker (and having a speaker profile) does NOT get you into the app or the in-person event. Netroots Nation uses WebEx events (formerly Socio) for our convention app. We highly recommend downloading the app and logging in early to poke around and start interacting with folks. Information on downloading and using the app can be found here.
You will have an attendee profile in the App separate from your speaker profile. This is how people will connect with you so take some time and fill out the App attendee profile completely. Again, this is separate from your speaker profile (see above).
⭐ What about food/travel/lodging?
Attendees are responsible for their travel. Most people coming from out of town choose to stay at the conference hotel, the Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor, where we have reserved a block of rooms at a discount. While there are coffee breaks and happy hours (where some food and drink are provided) during the conference, you will be on your own for meals.
⭐ Will my session be streamed? Can people who aren’t attending Netroots Nation watch my session?
Three panel rooms will be filmed so that select panels can be streamed through our event app. We will email you to notify you if you are in a streamed room. (This year, if you would like to have your own team video your session in a non-streamed room, that is possible. Please reach out to us for details. )
Folks who can’t join us in person can purchase a virtual-only ticket, which will give access to approximately 40 hours of filmed content, plus some sessions that will be presented virtually only. Speakers on streamed sessions will be sent their link and can share and use their recordings as they see fit.
⭐ Anything else I need to know?
We’re heavily promoting the full conference, but we’d love your help spreading the word about your session. We’ve created a promotional toolkit just for speakers that includes sample social media posts, an email template, and a graphic you can use.
Things you can do to promote your session:
- Post an announcement about your training on your/your organization’s blog or website
- Email your organization’s list about it
- Create a Facebook event invite for your session, add Netroots Nation as a cohost, and post to the Netroots Nation page.
- Post about it with the #NN24 hashtag!
If you have additional questions, concerns, or changes to your panel, please email us at panels@netrootsnation.org. Thank you!