Finding Speakers, Sponsors, and Volunteers for your WordPress Events

Finding speakers and other essential people for your WordPress event requires a little finesse.

You’re hosting a WordPress event and you’ve got your venue (or streaming service) figured out. You’ve got your site built. Your graphics are on point.

The rest should be easy, right?

I’ve often [mis]quoted Field of Dreams: just because you built it doesn’t mean they will come. You have to market that event at all levels and for every type of attendee.

So then, now what?

Getting the right people in the right places is next. Whether that’s recruiting speakers, sponsors, or volunteers, we’ve got some tips to help you get your event to the next level.

Finding Speakers

Call for Speakers

Your call for speakers should include all of the important information that a potential speaker might want to know. It’s a landing page that should drive traffic, and have a good call to action.

Be sure to include the following:

• Date and Time of the event
• Length of talk
• Any other requirements (like live Q&A, for example)
• If it’s online, is it live or pre-recorded?
• Theme or potential topics
• Is it paid?
• Application deadline
• Notification window when they will hear back from you

Your application should ask for all of the speaker’s information up front, so that you will not have to ask them for information more than once. Get all of their social handles, third-person biography, speaking experience, contact information, and any other details that you’ll need to add them to your speaker roster easily.

And one thing I like to ask for is “How would you tweet about your topic in 280 characters or less, including the event hashtag?” This allows your speakers to do some of your marketing planning for you – since they know their talk best!

Canvassing for Speakers

So now you’ve got your call for speakers landing page done. How will you drive people to that form and get them to apply?

Blast it out on social media. Frequently. Push it out across your social channels with your event hashtag. Make sure you have a great open graph featured image that will help brand the event, too.

Write a blog post. Why rely on one call to action, when your blog can also speak about the event and encourage people to apply? Make sure your blog post talks about the event and includes an internal link to the speaker application page.

Send it out in a newsletter. If you have a newsletter, include this information in it. You never know who may be reading and will become your next amazing speaker.

Post about it in different Slack groups. Almost every Slack instance has either a “news” or “events” channel. This is the perfect place to put your Call for Speakers link and info. And since it’s Slack, any followup questions in a thread will send you a notification so you can reply quickly.

Invite speakers to apply. Whether it’s via DM through Slack or social media, or through sites like Underrepresented In Tech or WP Speakers, reaching out to speakers you’d love to have is a great way to get those applications rolling in.

Finding Sponsors

Call for Sponsors

Similar to your Call for Speakers, your Call for Sponsors should be its own landing page. It should include all of the important information that a potential sponsor might want to know. Don’t forget to have a good call to action here, too.

Be sure to include the following:

• Date and Time of the event
• Sponsorship levels and what is included for each
• Any other requirements (like a video “commercial” or slide)
• Application deadline
• Notification window when they will hear back from you

Your sponsor application should ask for all of the sponsor’s information up front, so that you will not have to ask them for information more than once. Get all of their social handles, company/product writeup, contact information, logo, and any other details that you’ll need to add them to your website easily.

Like with the speaker application, I like to ask “How would you tweet about your company/product in 280 characters or less, including the event hashtag?” Again, this helps your marketing team with content right up front.

Canvassing for Sponsors

Similar in some ways to finding speakers, finding sponsors follows a lot of the same routes: social media and direct contacts (DM or email).

You can either use the same blog post about your event, or a different one, to annouce your call for sponsors.

The most important question a sponsor wants answered is “what’s in it for us?” So make sure that your sponsorship packages are easy to find and enticing to sponsors.

Finding Volunteers

Call for Volunteers

By now, you know the drill. Just like speakers and sponsors, your Call for Volunteers should have its own landing page and call to action. Make sure that any perks for your volunteers are outlined for them. Maybe you have a special T-shirt for volunteers or some other swag. Let them know in your Call for Volunteers how you are honoring their time and energy.

Be sure to include the following on your volunteers page:

• Date and Time of the event
• Volunteer positions/areas you’re looking to staff
• Any other requirements (like being on camera to introduce speakers, tech know-how to run an online event, or medical know-how for first responders at in-person events)
• If it’s online, is it live or pre-recorded?
• Application deadline
• Notification window when they will hear back from you

Volunteers like to be helpful, but they also like to know what they will be volunteering to do, so make sure that your volunteer application gives them options for volunteer areas where they feel they are strong that they can choose from.

Canvassing for Volunteers

Here, again, social media, blog posts, and reaching out to those you know will be your best bets. Including this in emails is also a great idea. And encourage those in your own organization to help out either by volunteering themselves, or by helping spread the word.

Good Luck with Your Event!

With a little bit of luck, a whole lot of PR, and your marketing team’s magic, you should have all the speakers, sponsors, and volunteers you need for your event.

When your event is over, don’t forget to share how everyone helped! Gratitude goes a long way toward getting speakers, sponsors, and volunteers for your next event!

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