With the first keynote speakers getting announced and the first abstracts for Social Connections 10 in Toronto flowing in, it is time to start thinking about submitting YOUR abstracts. Yes that’s right we are talking to all of you!

Social connections has always prided itself in being a very open conference that offers a podium to both the best of the best of seasoned and well known speakers as well as to anyone that can contribute from a wealth of day to day experience. Be it customers, business partners or vendors.

We welcome first time speakers as well as seasoned ones as we believe that it is important to hear the stories of those that might otherwise never get told. Stories of those ‘living it’ and working with it day in day out without being in the spotlight. Be it as an administrator, a developer, a business user, a project member or anything else. To do so we offer a variety of categories and time slot options ranging from 15 minutes to 1 hour to accommodate the different topics:

• Administration – sessions relating to administering Social Business platforms. It could be the design and build of infrastructure, upgrading, managing users, migrating to the cloud, integration with other services or platforms etc. Sessions relating to cloud, hybrid or on-premise infrastructures are welcome! (30-minute and 60-minute slots)
• Case Study – sessions focused on telling the story of existing Social Business projects. We love case studies! And the more honest the better! Ideally these sessions should feature at least one speaker from the company that uses the platform, but they could be accompanied by a vendor or partner. (30-minute slots only)
• Development – how and why to develop for these services. We’d love you to share your tips, techniques and experience of developing solutions or applications, where you might hit issues, and how you overcome them. (30-minute and 60-minute slots)
• Future of Work – sessions in this track should explore topics around the area of improving the productivity of individuals and organisations through the use of social technologies. (30-minute slots only)
• Management – sessions that take a higher-level view of the issues, challenges and opportunities that surface when deploying social platforms. (30-minute slots)
• Spotlight – this track is designed to give new (or experienced) speakers the chance to present a short session on a topic of their choice. Think of it as being akin to TED talks, but within the framework of Social Connections. You can choose to use a presentation deck or not, to prepare earnestly or to speak from the heart, the choice is yours. What we’re after is insight, interest and passion – the rest is up to you! (15-minute slots only)
• Sponsor – for those organisations that are sponsoring the event at Gold level or above, there is the option to submit a Sponsor session for the conference. (30-minute slots only)

So if you are an experienced speaker and have a topic you know you can expand on or have never spoken at a conference before but feel you have something to contribute, a story to tell, a lesson learned that could help others in a similar situation then please don’t hesitate and submit a session. We would love to hear from you!

The abstract deadline is Friday April 8th.