The Call for Speakers for TC15 is Officially Open

We know (from your emails, phone calls, tweets, carrier pigeons, etc) that you've been waiting for it--and today we're thrilled to announce that the Call for Speakers for Tableau Conference 2015 is officially open. The deadline to apply is May 15th, 2015.
Sasha Pasulka

We know (from your emails, phone calls, tweets, carrier pigeons, etc) that you've been waiting for it--and today we're thrilled to announce that the Call for Speakers for Tableau Conference 2015 is officially open. The deadline to apply is May 15th, 2015.

Our customer speakers are a big part of what makes the Tableau Conference so special, and they're always a highlight for attendees. Year after year we thank our lucky stars for the caliber of speakers and stories the conference attracts, and we expect this year will be no different. We look forward to hearing all about what you're building with Tableau. Click here to access the application.

Got questions? We've got an FAQ.

Who should apply to speak at TC15?

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 Server deployments, and we accept speakers who are working with a single Desktop license. We accept speakers from all industries, departments, and use cases. We accept analysts and CEOs, IT leaders and sysadmins, marketers and athletics directors, doctors and teachers, and everything in between. We're looking for thought-leaders and trailblazers: people who are out on the front lines defining and redefining what's possible with analytics and data visualization.

For 2015, we're especially on the hunt for great stories from the trenches of IT. If you're in IT working with Tableau to enable self-service analytics on a large scale, or if you're using Tableau Online to build out analytics in the cloud, we strongly encourage you to apply to share your story.

What should I speak about?

There's no "right" answer here, but some topics that we're always looking for include:

  • Growing Tableau inside your company
  • Building a Tableau community
  • Industry or departmental use cases
  • Innovative use cases
  • How to design great dashboards
  • How to tell compelling stories with data
  • Technical talks
  • Integrating Tableau with specific data sources
  • IT use cases: data governance, metadata management, capacity planning, agile BI, Tableau as a shared service, cloud analytics
  • All the other cool stuff you're building!

Can I see some examples?

You sure can! Here are some examples of different types of customer sessions from TC13 and TC14. You can find hundreds more examples from Tableau Conference and our global On Tour conferences on our YouTube playlists.

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 TC15 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 to events throughout the week.

Tableau does not cover the cost of airfare or hotel for customer speakers.

When do I find out if I got accepted?

We'll notify accepted speakers no later than mid-June.

If I get accepted, will I be refunded the cost of my ticket if I've already purchased it?

Yes! We'll notify accepted speakers by mid-June. If you purchase a ticket before that date and you are accepted, we will process a full refund for you.

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.

I worked with a consultant/partner. Can s/he speak with me?

No. All applicants must be full-time employees of the company they're representing. There are no Tableau partners allowed on the customer speaker track. (If you're a partner and you want to speak, reach out to Andrea Ravnik for sponsorship opportunities.) Partners and consultants are welcome to attend a customer's session and help out with Q&A at the end, but they cannot present.

Consultants and partners: Please do not submit customer case studies as session proposals for the customer track. They will not be accepted. Instead, encourage your customer to submit an application to speak about the joint solution.

I have more questions and I'd like to talk to a real human about them.

We totally get it. Feel free to reach out to Kathryn Holtz, our fearless Customer Marketing Assistant and Bonafide Actual Human, with any burning questions that aren't addressed either in this FAQ or in the application.