Information for speakers

Shepherding

Soon after your session is accepted we'll assign you a shepherd who will help you make your session the best it can be. A shepherd is someone who has experience presenting, maybe at SPA Software in Practice, and ideally in a similar area. They offer advice and support to help you prepare your session, and may meet with you and help arrange dry-runs prior to the conference.

We do recommend that you have at least one dry-run of your session, both for timings and to try out the interactive elements of your session.

Tickets

The first two named presenters of each accepted session receive a free ticket to SPA Software in Practice. If you have already purchased a ticket before the programme is announced, contact the organisers to receive a full refund. See our terms and conditions.

Expenses

We would love to be in a position to be able to cover all expenses for every speaker, but as we are a non-profit organisation and the conference is run by volunteers we rely on sponsorship to help with this and have limited funds available.

If your employer or organisation is able to cover your travel and accommodation expenses, we’d be grateful if you take advantage of that so that we can support other people who need it more. We really don’t want anyone not to present because they can’t afford to come.

We will pay travel expenses within these limits for each of the first two named speakers:

• - £300 for travel from UK and Ireland
• - £400 for travel from the EU
• - £1,000 for travel from the rest of the world

You will need to provide receipts of your travel expenses and will be reimbursed after the conference. Please let us know if the upper limit or being reimbursed after the event will present problems.

We will also offer up to 4 nights accommodation for all out-of-town speakers (and for locals, if you need it) at the conference hotel.