Neil and I have been having huge fun putting the program together for BoS 2011 and we're pleased to say that the new website will be live by the end of this week.
To confirm, the dates for 2011 are October 24th-26th, the venue, the World Trade Center, Boston.
A few people have contacted me directly already asking if we are accepting speaker submissions for 2011. We want to get the best possible content for this year's event – previous years, and last year in particular, have set an extraordinarily high bar for content.
If you would like to speak at Business of Software in 2011, there are going to be four opportunities to do so. We are focused primarily on organizing the keynotes at this point but will provide plenty of information about other routes to getting involved over the coming months.
- Keynotes - One of the things Business of Software is famous for. Last year, the average (yes, average!), score of speakers was well over 4.3 out of 5 – so you should have something very interesting, strategic, relevant and interesting to say and be pretty sure you can entertain and inform as well. We want to hear from you if you have would be interested in speaking for a one hour slot alongside some of the best speakers you will have ever spoken with. See some of the previous talks if you want to know the drill. Not for those prone to stage fright!
- Workshops - We want to draw on the incredible knowledge and expertise of our community and help you to help each other. If you are an expert in something, and want to share your knowledge and experience with others, we want to hear from you. You might not want to talk in front of 400 people but you might feel comfortable leading a discussion with a smaller group. If you have expertise and passion about something that will be interesting to others, please let us know what it is. We want to organize a few different kinds of breakout this year and the space we have at the World Trade Center allows us to do that and play a little with the number of people in any particular group.
- Lightning Talks - a Business of Software favorite. Stand up. 15 slides, 30 seconds each on auto switch. Sit down. Enough said.
- PS - or 'Problem Shared', will be a new feature at Business of Software 2011. We will pick a few brave souls to share a problem they have, in less than a minute, in front of the whole BoS audience. In exchange for such bravery, you will get everyone in the audience thinking about how they can help you. In a room of such smart people, what are the chances of getting your problem solved?
If you would like to be considered for a keynote at the event, get in touch now! Send us as much background, in as succinct a format as possible, preferably with some links to videos of you talking in other situations. We already have a number of speakers lined up but are particularly keen to hear from founders and CEOs who have been on entrepreneurial journeys that can teach our audience something about strategy, marketing, sales, building teams, life and making the world a slightly better place than when they found it.
Drop me a line at mark@businessofsoftware.org with your ideas. I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks.