Who should apply to speak at Tableau Conference: Europe?
Tableau customers with a story to share! Each year, we accept a mix of speakers from companies who are household names as well as speakers from small and medium businesses, including non-profits, educational institutions, and healthcare.
We accept speakers whose companies have enormous Tableau Server deployments, and we accept speakers who are working with a single Tableau Desktop license. We accept speakers from all industries, departments, and use cases. We're looking for thought-leaders and trailblazers: people who are out on the frontlines defining and redefining what's possible with analytics and data visualization.
What if I’m a consultant with a great Tableau story? Can I apply to speak?
Customer speaker applications should come from full-time employees at the organization listed in the application. We rarely accept applications from consultants or partners. We recommend reaching out to Janice Robertson at jhrobertson@tableau.com for sponsored speaking opportunities.
Consultants and partners: We do not recommend you submit customer case studies as session proposals for the customer track. Instead, encourage your customer to submit an application themselves to speak about the joint solution.
Okay, but as a FTE at my company, I worked with a consultant/partner. Can s/he speak with me?
Generally, all speaker applicants must be full-time employees of the company they're representing. Your partner/consultant may be present to help with the 15 minutes of Q&A at the end of a session.
I spoke at a European Tableau Conference last year. Can I apply to speak again in 2018?
It’s very rare that we accept back-to-back customer speakers for our European conference. Part of what makes TC such a special event is the brand new content attendees have not seen at any other European Tableau conference program. Unless your proposed session content is significantly different than last year’s, we encourage you to hold your application until next year—in which case, we look forward to seeing your application in 2019.
If you spoke at TC17 in Las Vegas, you are welcome to apply again to speak at TC Europe 2018.
What should I speak about?
There's no "right" answer here, but some topics that we're always looking for include:
- Growing an Analytics Culture
- Enterprise Deployment Experiences
- Tableau Community Stories
- Analytics Use Case
- Dashboard & Design
- Data Stores & Connections
- IT & Server Administration
- Departmental Use Cases
What do you look for in successful applications?
Funny you should ask. We actually do have some suggestions:
- Be specific in your abstract. Make it clear what you're planning to speak about, what attendees will learn, and why it will be valuable for them. A one-sentence abstract is not what success looks like here. (Neither is a 50-sentence abstract.)
- Include dashboards! The session submission form has space to upload dashboards or images of dashboards. We will NOT share these dashboards externally, ever. But we will say that showing us you're building great dashboards as a part of your application increases the likelihood we'll accept your session. (We understand that for some stories and companies this is not possible or doesn't make sense in the context of the session topic.)
- Show us you know your stuff! There are fields in the application that request background on you and your use case. Don't rush through or ignore these fields. Use them to show us that you're the real deal—someone the TC audience can learn from.
Do I get a free pass?
Yes! (Maybe!) Tableau offers one full TC Europe registration per accepted session. This means if you submit an accepted session with more than one speaker, only one speaker can use the complimentary registration. The other speakers will need to buy tickets.
But it's not just about the free ticket! All customer speakers are conference VIPs, which means VIP access during the entire conference.
Tableau does not cover the cost of airfare or hotel for customer speakers.
Do I have to be from the UK to apply?
Nope! We welcome submissions from all over EMEA and the world, although content should be presented in English.
Note that Tableau does not cover the cost of airfare or hotel for accepted speakers.
When do I find out if I got accepted?
We'll notify accepted speakers by March 30th.
If I get accepted, will I be refunded the cost of my ticket if I've already purchased it?
Yes! If you’re one of our accepted speakers and you’ve purchased a ticket, we will process a full refund for you after you’ve confirmed your session.
If I get accepted, can someone else from my company do the presentation?
No. We accept people, not companies, as customer speakers. Please do not expect that someone else from your company can present on your behalf if you're accepted. Tableau reserves the right to rescind a speaking slot if the original applicants are no longer available to speak.