cascadia-speakers

Howdy speaker!

Thank you so much for agreeing to lend our community your time and your talents for this year's event. It's going to be an awesome experience.

We're here to provide some updates, answer some questions and ask you to do a couple of small things.

Your Points of Contact

First, here are the people who can always reach out to with any questions:
CSS - Katie Kurkoski (katie@kurkoski.org)
Browser - Alex Lande (alexlande@gmail.com)
Server - Myles Borin (myles.borins@gmail.com ) 

All random questions and things you think are a bother but aren't - Tracy Hinds (tracy@cascadiajs.com), Carter Rabasa (carter@cascadiajs.com) and Irina Shestak (shestak.irina@gmail.com). 

If you can't figure out who you'd like to email, you can send the email on over to info@cascadiajs.com and you'll get us all!


Speaker Public Announcement

You photo and talk title will be up on the website very, very soon. Look for tweets from @cascadiajs and @cascadiacss!

Registering for Your Speaker Pass

It is important that you register for your 3-day speaker pass. Please use this link:
https://ti.to/event-loop/cascadiafest-2016/with/kyzx8refj60
 
 
Getting to Semiahmoo

Hotel accommodations have been arranged for the nights of August 2-5. In order to enjoy the entire event, we encourage you to arrive at Semiahmoo August 5th and to depart no earlier than the morning of August 6th.

Semiahmoo is located in Blaine, WA. Here the best options for getting to/from the venue:
Car - if you live nearby, this affords you the most flexibility. There is abundant parking.
Plane - if you need to fly, you have 4 good options:
Vancouver, BC (see Hacker[Train|Bus])
Seattle, WA (see Hacker[Train|Bus])
Portland, OR (see Hacker[Train|Bus])

Hacker[Train|Bus]
If you live or have flown in to Vancouver, BC, Seattle, WA or Portland, OR, we are currently working on a Hacker[Train|Bus] from those cities to the Semiahmoo Resort. Stay tuned. We will make sure our speakers and attendees have a sane way to get to the venue from the cities listed above.

If you're flying in, please plan on arriving in your destination city preferably by lunch time on August 2. It is up to a few hours travel by bus or train, and we'd like to get you in at a decent hour.

Please confirm your travel plans with your curator once you've made them! 

Accommodations

All of you have been reserved private rooms at Semiahmoo for the night of August 2-5. This means arrival the afternoon of August 2 and checkout the morning of August 6. Please let your curator know if there's a request you'd like to  make for rooms such as you are bringing your family. Also let your curator know if you'd like to add on days before or after what the conference is covering. We are not in a position to pay for it but we can coordinate it and potentially get you a block discount.

Note about Reimbursement

As noted in the CFP, accepted speakers receive:
One 3-day Fest ticket
Lodging
A travel stipend of $500 for domestic speakers and $1000 for international speakers.
Speakers who accept a stipend are asked kindly to refrain from promoting their employer during their talk.

If your employer is willing to cover the cost of your attendance we can offer a modified version of our basic CascadiaFest sponsorship in return. As a community conference every dollar that we can save is a dollar that we can put back into making this year's event even better. Please let us know if this is possible, it's much appreciated. 

If you need to be reimbursed for travel, please email your receipts to Tracy(tracy@cascadiajs.com). We will reimburse you via PayPal, so please include a valid PayPal email address that we can use. We will reimburse close to the time of the conference when funds are more liquid for us to be able to disburse. Please let your curator know if you need an alternate arrangement. We are happy to accomodate.
 
Friends of Cascadia Dinner

This is still TBD, but we will organize a private dinner for speakers, organizers and other friends of Cascadia. It will be separate from the general attendee dinner, but we'll be finished in time to enjoy the night's festivities with the rest of the conference. 
 
Presentations

Our format is single-track 25 minute talks.  We will ask attendees to hold questions and comments so that we can keep the schedule on-time and have smooth transitions between speakers. An opportunity for attendees to ask questions is at meals, breaks, and evening events. For this to succeed, we ask speakers to attend and participate in as much of the conference as your schedule and comfort allows.

Planning anything special for your talk which might have additional AV requirements, audience participation, supporting materials, or extra production? An example is a display table for hardware with camera propped and pointed at it or hardline internet. Let's talk about this ASAP so we can help everything go silky smooth and procure what we need!
 
All talks will be video recorded. Our goal is to publish talks following the conference for the benefit of the broader community. Please let us know if you need us to -not- publish your talk.
 
Venue Space

The talks will talk place in one of Semiahmoo's ballroom. It's a pretty standard ballroom. We will share photos and more information about the physical space soon.

Your TODO List

Just to be super clear, here is a list of thing we need you to do:
- Register for your 3-day pass
- Email curator your:
  - Travel plans
  - Check-in / Check-out dates for Semiahmoo
  - Travel receipts and PayPal email address
  - Have an awesome day :)
  
  
Thanks for your patience and persistence in reading this super long email.