Having just finished a conference yesterday - http://indieconf.com - I feel like throwing in a few words on speaker selection. OK, maybe a whole bunch, as I blogged about this a couple weeks ago:
For my perspective, the idea of only opening up a call for speakers and just 'picking the right ones' doesn't work very well. Or at least, I don't think it works very well for conferences just starting off which don't have a lot of reputation to fall back on. Borrowing some of this reputation by getting some 'superstar' speakers might help a bit, but if you do that before a CFS, you've already done some preselection.
From year one, I had a call for speakers process open, but I also had some particular speakers I wanted to talk on specific topics. I had probably half the speakers/topics nominally on board (not officially at that point) during the first year CFS, and fleshed out the rest of the slots with submissions - some of which were really good angles I hadn't thought of.
However, imo, the role of a conference organizer is largely curation of an experience, and you have to have an idea of what you want that experience to look like early on. And for me, gender is a factor - it's not a major one, but I made sure to encourage some females in my network to submit. At the same time, there were some submissions and applications from females that I didn't bring on board the conference this year, because they didn't quite fit the vibe I was shooting for.
Anyhow, sorry to see they've cancelled this. I know all too well how hard it is to organize something, and to be discouraged enough to pull the plug like this was certainly not fun or easy for the organizers. I wish them luck in future projects like this.
EDIT: Couple more thoughts - how you run the event the first year has an impact on how people view your event in subsequent years. I get props every year on the food, but mostly because I take the extra 10 minutes to organize vegan and gluten-free options, and I get people coming back partially based on the fact that I've done that (had people buy tickets and tell me that). Example: https://twitter.com/alanstevens/status/269856351214268416
http://indieconf.com/2012/how-does-a-conference-select-speak...
For my perspective, the idea of only opening up a call for speakers and just 'picking the right ones' doesn't work very well. Or at least, I don't think it works very well for conferences just starting off which don't have a lot of reputation to fall back on. Borrowing some of this reputation by getting some 'superstar' speakers might help a bit, but if you do that before a CFS, you've already done some preselection.
From year one, I had a call for speakers process open, but I also had some particular speakers I wanted to talk on specific topics. I had probably half the speakers/topics nominally on board (not officially at that point) during the first year CFS, and fleshed out the rest of the slots with submissions - some of which were really good angles I hadn't thought of.
However, imo, the role of a conference organizer is largely curation of an experience, and you have to have an idea of what you want that experience to look like early on. And for me, gender is a factor - it's not a major one, but I made sure to encourage some females in my network to submit. At the same time, there were some submissions and applications from females that I didn't bring on board the conference this year, because they didn't quite fit the vibe I was shooting for.
Anyhow, sorry to see they've cancelled this. I know all too well how hard it is to organize something, and to be discouraged enough to pull the plug like this was certainly not fun or easy for the organizers. I wish them luck in future projects like this.
EDIT: Couple more thoughts - how you run the event the first year has an impact on how people view your event in subsequent years. I get props every year on the food, but mostly because I take the extra 10 minutes to organize vegan and gluten-free options, and I get people coming back partially based on the fact that I've done that (had people buy tickets and tell me that). Example: https://twitter.com/alanstevens/status/269856351214268416