Speaker Guide

Thank you for speaking at SOSS Community Day North America 2024 in Seattle, WA, on Monday, April 15. 

This is your official event speaker guide. Please bookmark this page for easy reference and click through the tabs on this page to access information.

• Schedule Announcement: Week of February 19 
• Speaker Registration Deadline: Friday, March 8 
• Additional AV Needs Deadline: Friday, March 15 
• Slide Submission Deadline: Friday, April 12 
• Event Date: Monday, April 15, 2024

You should have received registration information in your speaker notification email. If you need those details again, please contact cfp@linuxfoundation.org.

If you require a visa letter, please register for the event and then complete the visa letter request form.

Please note the following:

• Provision of a visa letter by The Linux Foundation does not guarantee visa approval, as final approval is made at the sole discretion of the government of the event’s host country.
• The Linux Foundation strongly recommends requesting a visa letter at your earliest convenience and contacting your local Embassy/Consulate with any visa questions you may have.
• The Linux Foundation processes most visa letter requests in (3) business days.

SOSS Community Day North America 2024 will take place at the Seattle Convention Center, Summit Building, located at: 900 Pine Street, Seattle, WA 98101

More venue details and hotel information are on our Venue & Travel page.

The schedule will be announced the week of February 19, and posted on our website using sched.com. You will receive an email from sched.com asking you to create your account; please make sure to your bio and photo.

If you have a conflict with the timing of your talk, find that it conflicts with the content of another talk, or need help uploading your bio and photo, please contact cfp@linuxfoundation.org.

Please note the following technical requirements:

• All speakers must supply their own computer and adapters to use during their talk.
• Presentation slides should be formatted in 16:9.  
• The room will include a screen, projector, and (1) microphone for each speaker.
• If you require any additional AV, please email cfp@linuxfoundation.org with those needs by Friday, March 15. The Linux Foundation will make every effort to accommodate other AV needs; however, final approval for AV requests will be made on a case-by-case basis.

All speakers are required to upload their final presentation slides by Friday, April 12. In addition to providing a hard copy for accessibility purposes, we find that adding the presentations before the event helps to drive interest in attending the session.

Please note that your presentation slides should be formatted in 16:9 and submitted as a PDF.

To upload slides, follow these instructions (guide with screenshots):

• Log into your speaker profile through Sched.com
• On the top of the page, click “Manage and Promote Your Session”
• Click “Add Presentation”
• Click in the “Select a File” box and add the PDF document (note: there is a 50MB size limit)
• Click “Upload” and your slides will automatically be saved

An optional PowerPoint template is available to download here. Use of the template is optional.

In collaboration with the National Center for Women in Technology (NCWIT), the Linux Foundation has created an online course to teach the viewer about inclusion, diversity, and unconscious bias. We highly recommend all of our speakers watch the course to learn tips/tools to use when speaking to encourage inclusivity in presentations and messaging. 

Please read and abide by our code of conduct, which can be found here. Our code of conduct is strictly enforced. We ask that speakers especially review this code of conduct and are careful to be inclusive in the words and images used during their presentations.

If you have any questions, please contact us at cfp@linuxfoundation.org.