How to become a speaker at

Italian Agile Days 2024


Become a Speaker at Italian Agile Days 2024

The Italian Agile Days is a completely free and non-profit event organized by the Italian Agile Movement Association. This conference thrives on the contributions of speakers who share their testimonies, field experiences, failures, and successes with the community.

If you want to propose as a speaker at IAD24, please read carefully this document before submitting.

In the spirit of inclusivity that defines the Italian Agile Days, the call for speakers is open to everyone, with no distinctions. We aim to create a safe space for all participants to express their ideas, regardless of:

  • Age
  • Provenance
  • Ethnicity
  • Educational level
  • Level of experience
  • Gender identity and expression
  • Sexual identity and orientation
  • Language
  • Socio-economic status
  • Religion
  • Any other dimension of diversity

In the 2023 edition, we received around 240 proposals, with 48 available slots. This means that, on average, only one in five proposals is accepted. In this document, we outline our expectations for proposals for the Italian Agile Days 2024 and explain how the conference program is selected.

Basic Rules to Get Started

  • You can submit a maximum of three proposals (including those as co-speakers). If you exceed this limit, we reserve the right to exclude all your proposals from the selection process.
  • The selection will be conducted blindly; avoid including elements in your talk description that could identify you.
  • The conference format is limited to 30-minute talks. Pay attention to the topic you choose.
  • Carefully prepare your proposal: you have until the call for speakers closes to refine and perfect it.
  • By submitting your proposal, you agree that, if accepted, your session will be recorded and published on the Italian Agile Movement's Vimeo channel.
  • There is no reimbursement of expenses for speakers.

What to Include in Your Application

Each proposal must include the following mandatory information:

  • Title
  • Description (or abstract)
  • Format: 30-minute talk
  • Level: Basic (for agility novices), Intermediate (requires basic knowledge or experience), or Advanced (requires strong skills and/or previous experience)
  • Language: Specify whether the talk will be in Italian or English (no other languages accepted). The title and abstract must match the specified language.
  • Topic: Choose one of the following:
    • Working Software: Software design and development techniques
    • Customer Collaboration: Product ownership and product management
    • Individuals and Interactions: Team dynamics, coaching, scrum mastership
    • Beyond Software: Agile applications outside the software industry
    • Responding to Change: the evolution of Agile, from the manifesto to today and beyond; what's changed in the way you are agile during time?
    • Culture, Leadership and Management: Leadership styles, the impact of agility on management, the role of decision-makers, and any cultural related topic that has impact on people in the organizations

Details could be adjuste; please refer to the submission form on sessionize.

Note 1: If there is no suitable topic for your proposal, reconsider submitting it. However, feel free to use the notes field to explain your choice.

Note 2: There is no specific topic for AI. If this interests you, consider how the development of artificial intelligence, particularly generative AI, impacts the areas planned for this year's conference.

If you require special equipment, please indicate this in the appropriate field. Remember: due to space, logistics, and organizational constraints, we cannot guarantee that we will meet all requests. We will contact you to verify your needs in detail.

Take Care of Your Application

Your proposal should include the title, description (or abstract), and take-away, a comment explaining what participants will gain from your session.

You can submit your application in Italian or English and choose to present in either language. Ensure that your information is grammatically correct and well-written, as it will be used for the event program and materials provided to participants.

The abstract should clearly convey what you will discuss and what participants will learn from your talk. You have until the call for speakers closes to refine your proposal.

The Selection Process

All sessions are evaluated by a panel of volunteers from the Italian Agile Movement Program group and the local organizing group. For IAD24, the panel will include at least seven evaluators, each independently assessing the proposals. The details of the evaluation process we adopted are described here.

The evaluators focus on the proposal's content (title, description, and take-away) without considering the speaker (speaker details are actually hidden during the evaluation).

After evaluation, we create a ranking by thematic area. We then review the ranking to ensure no major errors and finalize the selected talks. Proposals that duplicate higher-scoring talks or come from speakers already selected are excluded.

Selection Criteria

Positive or very positive elements in the evaluation include:

  • Relevance to conference themes
  • Clear outcome in the take-away
  • Coherence between title, description, and outcome
  • Presence of personal experience
  • Supporting data
  • Correct grammar and spelling (important for the event program)

Proposals are negatively or very negatively evaluated if they:

  • Promote a brand or product (no marketing)
  • Contain potentially offensive, discriminatory material or violate the code of conduct
  • Do not clearly describe the content and objective
  • Contradict the values and principles of the Italian Agile Movement

In Case of Acceptance/Rejection

If your proposal is accepted, you will be notified by email and asked to confirm your participation. Once we have all necessary confirmations, we will send rejection emails to unaccepted proposals.

By confirming your participation, you grant the Italian Agile Movement the right to record and publish your talk on their Vimeo channel. You also agree to abide by the code of conduct provided before the event.

If your proposal is not selected, you may present it at the Unconference on Friday. Unlike a conventional conference, an Unconference allows participants to determine the content on the day, promoting an open and flexible format.

Feedback will not be provided for rejected proposals, even upon request, due to the high volume of submissions.

Submit Your Proposal

The Call For Speakers is open from June 24 to July 28, 2024. Follow us on our social media channels for more information or contact us at: programmma@agilemovement.it.