Call for speakers

Opens 1st August 2025. Deadline for talk submissions - 30th Sept 2026

Talk length

• 45 minutes for keynote talks.

• 25 minutes for track talks.

  There is no on-stage Q&A. This will be encouraged at break-out sessions - morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea.

Date & venue

Friday 15th May 2026
TĀKINA, 50 Cable Street, Wellington, New Zealand

How many speakers are you looking for?

This year, we’re looking for a total of 19 speakers — made up of:

• 3 keynote speakers

• 4 speakers in each of our 4 dedicated tracks:

  • Engineering & Platforms

  • Product, Design & UX

  • Testing & Quality

  • AI, Data & Ethics

We’ve designed the programme to cover a wide range of topics while giving each speaker space to go deep into their area of expertise.

Compensation

Sharing knowledge with the community shouldn’t be a privilege of those who can afford it. We know that creating a thoughtful talk takes a lot of time, energy and love.

Over the years, we’ve worked hard to ensure we can fairly compensate our speakers. Here's what we offer to each confirmed speaker:

• $500 speaking fee (GST exclusive) for each talk delivered in-person

• Up to $200 in domestic travel costs (GST inclusive), with prior approval

Why in-person talks only?

At this stage, we don’t have the resources to support live remote presentations — either for speaking or attending. For that reason, we’re asking all speakers to join us in person.

We know this might limit some folks, and it’s something we hope to improve in the future as our event grows. Thanks for understanding.

Do you record the talks?

Yes, we do our very best to record all talks. You can find recordings from every conference since 2022 on our YouTube channel.

Professional recordings depend a lot on sponsorship funding. From 2022 to 2024, we were able to raise enough money to afford a professional videographer. In 2025, we didn’t have the same support, so our small crew has been working hard to edit and produce the recordings ourselves.

So, the short answer is yes — we’ll do everything we can to record your talk, though the quality may vary depending on our resources.

Who selects speakers?

Camy, our co-founder and company director, leads all talk selections. She often invites input from Prae and Aaron, who co-founded the organisation with her and remain active members of the community. Depending on the track, we may also bring in subject matter experts to help with selections.

How do you select speakers?

Most of our talks — around 95% — come through our open Call for Speakers submissions. The other 5% is set aside for emergencies, just in case a speaker has to pull out at the last minute.

We never reserve speaking slots for sponsors or vendors. This is something we clearly state in our sponsorship info and sponsor contracts. If someone from a sponsoring company ends up on our programme, it’s because they submitted a strong proposal and earned their spot like everyone else.

All talks are selected by our talk selection committee — a small group of passionate people who care deeply about building a thoughtful, relevant, and inspiring programme.

We start with a blind review process, looking only at the strength of the idea and how well it fits the conference theme and our target audience. Each reviewer scores the submission, and the strongest proposals are shortlisted for a short follow-up chat with us.

Once we’ve looked at ideas on their own merit, we start to consider the bigger picture — things like gender, ethnicity, lived experience, and career stage — to make sure we’re building a speaker lineup that reflects the richness of our tech community. We’re very mindful of tokenism, and we don’t select anyone just because of who they are. Every speaker earns their place based on the quality of their idea.

Before we confirm the final programme, we usually meet speakers for a short online kōrero. It’s a chance for us to get to know each other a little, answer questions, and make sure we’re all on the same page.

New to public speaking?

We reserve at least 10% of our speaker slots for first-time speakers. If you’ve never spoken in public or to a large audience before, we are the best place to start. We’re most interested in your ideas, your story, and what inspired it.

Yes, you’ll get plenty of support — and probably more pep talks than you’ll need. By the time you step on stage, no one will believe it’s your first time speaking. We’re also happy to connect you with our past first-time speakers for mentoring and support.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

We lead by example when it comes to creating an inclusive event. That means showcasing role models across genders, ethnicities, races, abilities, and backgrounds. Our speakers are seen as leaders in the community, and we recognise the impact they have through their stories and work.

When it comes to speaker selection:

• At least 60% of our speakers are women, gender-diverse, or non-binary.

• At least 50% are from ethnic and racial minorities, with a focus on intersectionality.

• We include speakers from a wide range of age groups, to inspire techies across generations.

• We select talks aimed at both individual contributors and those in leadership or management.

• Our lineup reflects the diversity of Aotearoa’s tech sector — from startups and scale-ups to enterprise tech, consultancies, and the public sector.

How do i submit my talk submission?

You can send us one or more talk submissions using our 2026 talk submission form.

Timeline

Support we provide

Read our guide crafting a talk proposal for NZ Tech Rally

Get help with your talk submission

Reach out to our friendly crew at speak@nztechrally.nz to chat with someone about your ideas. We will try our best to reply to your email within 5 working days and setup an online call if needed.

Talk preparation and practice

Preparation support we offer includes:

• Up-to-date information about the event, tech setup, access, and etc.

• Brainstorming and firming up ideas

• Pitch, slides and script review

• One-on-one practice sessions (or group if preferred)

• Accessibility check

• Connecting you to our past speakers for guidance and mentoring