We are looking for session proposals for UX Scotland on 29-31 May.

We encourage submissions from anyone with relevant skills, experience or knowledge to share with our community of user-centred design professionals.

We particularly welcome and support first-time speakers. If you would like to discuss a session proposal with us, please contact us. Even if you just have a vague idea, we can offer guidance on whether it might work and how best to put together a proposal.
 

The Call for Speakers' deadline is Friday 12 January 2024.

Spoken at UX Scotland before? Got a session in mind already?

Submit your session now

What we're looking for

We want to attract speakers and practitioners working in any area of user-centred design. 

Practical approaches

Our participants love takeaways that can be applied to their own work. This can be by participating in workshops to learn new techniques or case studies of projects demonstrating how you approached a problem.

Authenticity and inspiration

We love speakers who inspire our participants with their real-world experiences. Be bold, teach us something new, make us think, make us smile, but most of all, be yourself.

Fresh perspectives

Participants like a new way of exploring familiar challenges - practical, inspiring sessions that our participants can learn from and engage with.

Topics of interest

UX Scotland attracts a diverse audience of user-centred design practitioners and we welcome submissions on a diverse set of topics.

Here are some topics that we are interested in to get your ideas flowing. We will be updating this list for 2024, and it is by no means an exhaustive list, if you think you have something to talk about that would be of interest to our community, please submit it.

Your practice

  • Lean qualitative research
  • Research for product value
  • Research/design ops
  • UX for e-commerce
  • Behavioural design
  • Data protection (GDPR) for user research
  • Measurability and metrics
  • Design systems
  • AI impact to UX

Working with others

  • Culture and collaboration
  • Communities of practice
  • UX maturity
  • Stakeholder engagement
  • Co design and participatory design

Equitable design practice

  • Inclusivity and accessibility
  • Sustainability
  • Design ethics
  • Mental health

Telling the story

  • Failure
  • Presenting your work

Your career

  • Career pathways
  • Design leadership

Types of sessions

UX Scotland has a strong practical focus. Our participants want to hear about actions or approaches they can take away and use in their own organisations. 

We encourage interactive sessions that involve the audience in the discussion or give them hands-on experience. You are also welcome to present a session about something specific you've done, but you should try to structure it so people can participate and not simply sit and listen.

Our most common types of sessions are:

  • case studies
  • talks
  • workshops
  • informal or format-based discussions 

You can read about these in more detail in our guidelines for submitting a proposal. 

We also welcome novel session formats and are very supportive of experimental sessions that may never have been tried before. Feel free to contact us if you’d like to discuss it before you submit your proposal.

 

Our participants

UX Scotland allows participants to connect and learn from their peers and leaders in the industry and beyond. We attract people from all stages of their careers and from many different specialisms.

Our participants have specialisms such as:

  • UX designer
  • Service designer
  • User researcher
  • Content designer
  • Product designer
  • UI designer
  • UX analyst
  • Developer
  • Product manager

Our participants come from many different industries. These include:

  • Design agencies
  • Consultancies
  • Start-ups and technology companies
  • Central and local government
  • Financial services
  • Third sector 
  • Arts
  • Education 
  • Health

Inclusivity and diversity

We aim to be inclusive and diverse - in terms of our speakers and our participants.
We’re committed to creating a safe space for everyone to share ideas, try something new, get feedback, and engage with a knowledgeable, open-minded audience. We want to ensure participants can connect, network and learn from their industry peers in a positive environment. 

We provide a safe and fun place to share ideas and try something new. Our 'Code of conduct' describes expected behaviour.

Our review process is anonymous - to ensure selection based on merit and not how well a speaker is known. This is an opportunity for both experienced and first-time speakers to share experiences of the practical application of agile and lean techniques. 

If you’re a new speaker and would like support or mentorship, contact us as soon as possible.

We want to hear your story - the first step is to submit it.

 

Our review process

After the deadline closes, our selection panel will review all submissions. This usually takes around 4 weeks.

The review process is anonymous - all speaker names, biographies and other details are removed - to ensure the panel selects sessions on their merit and not on how well a speaker is known. To help us ensure personally identifying information is not included in the process, do not include this information in your session descriptions. These include links to blogs or recordings.

We’ll let you know the result of our panel’s review, even if you’re not successful this time. If you are interested in receiving any feedback our reviewers have about your proposal, let us know. 

How we support our speakers

UX Scotland is organised by Software Acumen, professional conference organisers since 2007.  Our experienced, full-time team is there to ensure you get the most out of participating in the event.

Free speaker tickets

We offer at least 1 free ticket to the whole event for every session in the programme. The number of free tickets will depend on the number of named speakers and the session’s duration. 

We give:
- 1 free ticket for a session between 45 and 60 minutes
- up to 2 free tickets for a 90 minute session
- up to 3 free tickets for a 120+ minute session 
We allocate free tickets to speakers in the order they are named on the proposal, unless you tell us otherwise. We also offer a discounted ticket for any named speaker who does not qualify for a free ticket.

Your speaker ticket includes:
- participation in the full event programme, including social activities
- lunch and refreshments at scheduled breaks

 If you have any questions about speaker tickets, contact us.

Expenses

We cover speakers’ travel and accommodation expenses in line with our speaker expenses policy. 

We will consider the financial cost of a session as part of our decision on whether to select it for the programme.

If we accept your session, we’ll suggest a financial amount to cover expenses, depending on your location. 

 See our expenses policy here

Mentoring for new speakers

We like to help develop speakers and provide a platform for a range of backgrounds, experience and perspectives. 

If you’ve not spoken at UX Scotland (or at all) before, we can suggest someone suitable to act as a sounding board or provide mentoring to help you:

- prepare your proposal
- develop your session if it is accepted on the programme

 If you’re interested in being mentored, contact us as soon as possible.

Supplies

We provide standard supplies for sessions, like sticky notes, markers, pens and paper. We’ll cover the cost of, or supply directly, any additional materials you need to run your session, for example printing. Just tell us what you need when you submit your proposal.

Audiovisual equipment

We provide screens and connections to display material from speakers’ own laptops.

Local knowledge

We’ve run conferences in Edinburgh for 10 years and know the local area well. Contact us if you have any questions about travel or accommodation, or if you want to know more about what to do or see in and around Scotland when you visit.

 Find out more about Edinburgh

Submit your session

We're accepting session proposals via 'WeReview', a submission and review platform which is currently being trialled in public beta.

Go to WeReview to submit your session(s) now!

Need some help?

Read our tips for submitting a proposal.

What we expect from our speakers

If your session is included in our programme, there are a few things we need you to agree to as a speaker at UX Scotland. Do not submit a proposal if you feel you cannot agree to these.

As a speaker you will:

  • abide by our Code of Conduct 
  • promote your session in the build-up to the event
  • deliver your session and otherwise participate in the event
  • respond to any requests we make to ensure your session is ready, such as making sure the review panel’s feedback has been addressed, or reviewing the programme or your slides 
  • avoid any activity before the event that would bring it into disrepute or violate the code of conduct
  • ensure you have the correct visa if you are traveling from outside the UK

Our full terms and conditions are set out in the submission form.

What are you waiting for?

Submit now