Speaking at Lean Startup Week offers renowned and emerging industry leaders the opportunity to share their stories with our global community. And by renowned and emerging, we mean you, person who deserves recognition from our community of 2,000 attendees for the awesome work you’re doing! If you’re interested in presenting at our flagship conference during Lean Startup Week Oct. 31 - Nov. 6 in San Francisco — alongside folks from Google, General Assembly, Hint Water, Sama Group, GE, Salesforce, and IBM, among others — we’d love to hear from you.
Don’t worry about having some kind of conference track record. Our speakers hail from scrappy startups, global enterprise companies, government agencies, faith-based organizations, and the education and social sectors. We highly value diversity in our lineups, and we encourage people of all genders, races, ages, and ethnicities to apply.
If you have Lean Startup experience to share, we encourage you to propose a talk via our Call For Proposals form, regardless of whether you have public speaking experience. Submit your idea as a short video, ideally under three minutes. iPhone videos are totally acceptable, just make sure the sound quality is high enough that we can hear you. Here’s an example of a speaker application that we loved.
There are a limited number of spots available to speak. Below, you’ll find a few helpful tips on how to submit a proposal:
- You don’t have to be a Lean Startup all-star to apply. You just need a good story, useful tips, compelling advice, or practical applications to share.
- The core of your proposal should be simple. Focus on answering one of the questions posed in the Call For Proposals form. (you’ll find them on page 2)
- Deliver the pitch in your application as though you’re speaking from a stage. Although there’s still time to practice, stage presence matters.
- Presentations in 2016 will be shorter but no less dynamic. Design your pitch as if you were giving an Ignite talk. Here’s more information on how to create an Ignite style talk.
A few reasons why our speakers decided to participate in the 2015 conference:
“I really got a lot out of Lean Startup [Conference] 2014. ... It has been a great tool for me and my team to make real transformation.” - Freyja Balmer, Director of Product Management, Food.com at Scripps Networks Interactive Inc.
“[I realized] that my experience was valuable for others to hear...[It was] nice to be needed. I [felt] compelled to ‘give back’ as others have done for me.” - David Telleen-Lawton, Career Development Manager, UC Santa Barbara
“I wanted to get more connected to a strong startup community, share my perspective and experiences, and also continue to establish myself and my company among other thought leaders, influencers and doers.” - James Warren, founder, Share More Stories
Ready to apply? We want to hear from you! Applications are due by Friday, May 20, 2016.
