Call for Speakers
<< July ’21 UPDATE: Due to the shuffle of 2020, we have a limited number of speaking slots left to fill for 2021. >>
Do you have a groundbreaking social media tactic that you’re working on? Maybe an advanced SEO concept or mistakes you’ve made in your media/marketing career that you’d like to share with an audience of your peers? We want to hear from you! Below are 6 specific areas of expertise we’re looking for, but if you’ve got another great idea, we want to hear it!
- Someone who has successful grown their social media and email lists exponentially
- An expert at driving traffic by repurposing content at their brand or publication
- Someone who knows the ins and outs of ambassador management
- An expert at pitching to high profile brands or editors
- Someone who has successfully executed outdoor-specific DEI initiatives
- An expert at monetizing podcast/social media content-creation
What We’re Looking For
Our audience is ready to get into the weeds with technical how-to’s, screenshots, and screenshares. They love to hear the words “log in, go to the top right, click the gear, click settings, scroll down…” We want to learn HOW to do something. Not why. We already know why. That’s why we’re sitting in your talk. As a conference, we want to empower the audience to execute a particular tactic themselves.
Our tracks are Content Creation, Content Amplification and Content Monetization and our audience is hungry for best practices. Bring your A-game and pitch the best that you have! If you’re interested in learning more about the audience or the conference itself, check out the FAQ page here.
Tips for Good Pitches
– The focus of the show is (and always will be) Digital Publishing
– The theme for OMS 2021 is Reducing Waste (not just physical waste, but also things that waste our time and energy. So if you have systems and processes that make you more efficient or productivity tricks for automating tasks and such, please do share!)
– Talks that teach the audience HOW to do something (screenshares and screenshots are the best!)
– Each talk needs to have a List of Tips, List of Tools or a How To component.
– Include specific metrics into the title of your talk. Even better if your metric is a percentage (ie. Increase Organic Search Traffic 10% Overnight with this SEO Tweak)
Weak Pitches Include
– High level, theoretical, conceptual, philosophical topics. High level talks are a great fit for some conferences but not ours
– Sales pitches. If the talk can be summarized into “Here’s all the great things you can do…if you hire me/us.” Then it’s probably not a great candidate for a breakout session but likely a candidate for a Sponsored Talk. Email info@outdoormediasummit.com for more info on Sponsored Talks.
Learn more about OMS talk formats below the application.
Talk Formats
Keynotes
2 total
These are high-level talks from big names. There are two components to keynotes:
1 | Addressing hot topics in the outdoor industry.
2 | Integrating that topic with hot digital marketing tactics.
In 2017, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers gave a talk where they taught specific Instagram tactics they were using to mobilize the hunting community on the issue of public lands (perfect integration of a hot topic outdoor industry issue with a digital marketing component). In 2018, Virginia Tourism gave a keynote on how outdoor and travel media will help bridge the diversity gap in the tourism industry in general.
This year’s theme is around reducing waste. And yes, we are talking about single use plastic, but we’re talking about much more than that. There are things in life that not only create physical waste, they are also create mental and time waste. Like Poly Bags. Poly bags not only waste plastic, they waste our time and energy because we have to unwrap hundreds of them. But think about it from a digital perspective – how can we automate tasks that waste our time? How can we create systems and processes that save you brainspace as well as saving the environment? If you have creative ideas around this theme, hit us up!
Breakout Sessions
16 total
These talks need to have one of three components:
1 | A How-To component.
2 | A list of tools.
3 | A list of tips.
These talks are not high level and speakers should be prepared to “share their secrets”, so to speak. Live demonstrations are awesome, as is walking the audience through a dashboard.
Please, no vague talks stating the obvious and especially no sales pitches disguised as talks. Not only will these frustrate the audience, it will frustrate the OMS team. Don’t waste everyone’s time! Instead, your How To’s should be more like “Go into your meetings at OR with a 1-page sales sheet – here’s what mine looks like” or “Use a hashtag tracking software – here’s what I use and here’s what it looks like on the inside”.
Preference is given to publications and brands over agencies, but if you have a tactic that is truly disruptive we’d love to highlight it.
Content Campfires
8 total
These talks are working-group discussions around a high-level topic. These are not really talks; the speaker is more like a moderator for discussion. They may share 5 minutes of their expertise on the topic, but these talks are really aimed at starting discussion from other folks in the group. Since the moderator is also an expert on the topic being discussed, these sessions often turn into a Q/A session—which is totally fine.
Preference for this format is given to speakers who have authority on a high-level topic (like Google Analytics for instance). You should feel comfortable discussing and moderating conversation in a group setting, not just speaking.
Benefits of Speaking
MediaIf you are media and we get you on a panel, we’ll pay for a Conference Only ticket. If you lead a single/dual speaker presentation, we’ll pay for a Conference + Hotel ticket. If the topic is simply one that we cannot miss out on, we’ll fly you in. Marketers
If you are a marketer, it is a case by case basis. While we have paid honorariums in the past (ironically, one of the talks was titled “How to Negotiate with Brands”), it’s simply not feasible for us. That said, we find that year after year, we have way more speaker applications than we do speaker slots. To us, it’s a testament to how strong of a draw the outdoor media community is when united under one roof. As members of outdoor media ourselves, we’re pretty proud of that. So bring your A-game and get ready to get on stage with fellow movers and shakers in outdoor media. *If we decide to throw you on a panel and you’ve already paid for your ticket, we’ll work with you and get you the corresponding discount.
How Topics Get Selected
OMS has a eight-person (and growing) steering committee made up of veteran outdoor media movers and shakers. They meet regularly for the purpose of vetting speaker submissions. Ultimately, they decide who gets on the docket.
#NoBSatOMS
One of our official hashtags and guiding philosophies as a conference is #NoBSatOMS.
Here’s the deal: folks spend a lot of time and hard-earned money to come to our conference. The quality of sessions is the main reason folks attend (brand awareness and networking being close seconds). What separates OMS from other conferences is the unusually high quality of our sessions. We’re able to achieve this because of our vetting process and collaboration with speakers to maximize the effectiveness of every single presentation and event. (OMS is put on by Blogs for Brands, an outdoor industry digital agency made up of real people. We’re a group of real people working within the outdoor industry. As such, we like to think we have the subject matter knowledge to give you the best talks possible.)
Sessions filled with sales pitches and unhelpful high-level vague nonsense is not for OMS: AKA “No BS at OMS”. Because of our “no BS in your presentation” approach, folks have nice things to say in our post-show surveys: “One of the best shows I’ve been to,” “Sessions were epic,” and “I didn’t have a least favorite session.”
We’d love for your name to be a part of this “no BS” roster! If your talk gets selected, it means it was a damn good topic and you are amongst peers who are some of the brightest minds in the digital space in the outdoor industry.