[Speaker Update] 2 months to go! such conference, much admin, wow
Partner and kids passes, volunteers opportunities,discounts, podcast interviews, mentorships, a webinar series and more!
Tēnā koutou everyone,
Thanks for opening the email. There’s lots to share!
While this message is addressed to speakers, much of the content is more broadly applicable.
Whatever your interest level is in Rust Forge Conf 2025, please do take a skim through - you’re bound to find something worthwhile.
Tim McNamara
hello@rustforgeconf.com
🦀 ⚙️ ❤️
Conference passes for partners, children and guests
Coming to New Zealand is a big journey and many of you will be travelling as a couple or perhaps even a whole family group.
For those of you who live nearby, it’s possible that you have someone who might like to see you up on stage. Here’s your chance!
Speakers are eligible to reserve extra passes for guests:
First, there’s the +1 pass. This grants access to the shared spaces within the conference venue, as well as access to the room that you’re talk’s being held during your session.
Also, you’re very welcome to request that your children get a printed conference badge. These will be labelled as VIP passes. As all VIPs must have an entourage, we request that parental supervision. We cannot provide child care.
And in addition, each speaker is welcome to 5 session passes that will grant guests access to the session where your talk’s being held. If you’re a local and have wanted to be able to share .
Please email <speak@rustforgeconf.com> to take up this offer.
Have you seen the plan for the week!?
Thanks to you, we’ve been able to create a incredible suite of activities for visitors to New Zealand and locals alike.
Mon/Tues:
self-guided tours/city orientation
Wed/Thur:
hours of community building
3 tours
Weta Workshop, Zealandia ecosanctuary, OpenStar fusion reactor
4 workshops
security, gamedev, webdev, CLIs
Fri/Sat:
more community building!
conference (22 talks, incl. 12 international speakers !!)
digital performance art mini festival 😉
Sun:
group mountain bike ride at Mākara Peak
Some info about the workshops is available on the Rust Forge YouTube channel:
Need to withdraw? Please do so early
Family, health, work and other pressures do sometimes make our plans impossible. If you need to withdraw, that’s okay. Notifying us allows us to accommodate the change.
Please email <speak@rustforgeconf.com> to let us know that your circumstances have changed.
Session Chairs and other volunteers needed
Session Chairs are instrumental in welcoming speakers to the stage, settling those last minute nerves and keeping the even to time. Would you be interested in helping run a session? Each session is 2 or 3 talks long.
There are also lots of other ways to help, such as timekeeping, . If you’re interested in volunteering and you haven’t already said so, please reply to this email or send one to <hello@rustforgeconf.com>.
Promotion, please!
Share this URL with anyone to
grant them early-bird pricing:
<https://rust-forge-2025.lilregie.com/voucher/GET-FIRED-UP>
Sharing your excitement about the conference and the rest of the week’s activities will really help to fill the space. We’re about 20-30 registrations away from breaking even.
Hopefully you’ll excuse the Twitter screenshot, but thanks to those of you who have been sharing the conference with your audience:
Heavy discounts available for students and members of marginalised communities
If you do end up discussing the event with anyone, please do know that attending might be cheaper than they think:
Podcast interviews
It’s been lots of fun recording interviews for my Compose podcast with a few of you. There is still a spot or two to add a few more:
Mentorship
First of all, sorry for being so slow to get this up and running.
For those participating in the mentoring programme: over the weekend, you will receive an email with other people who are in the same or similar time zone as you. This is intended to be be friendly and informal.
For people who have kindly offered mentoring, I will also send out some further information.
Want to participate?
Webinar series on speaking at a technology conference
We will be hosting a series of short webinars on Sundays for speakers. They’ll look a little like this, but with fewer stock photos:
All webinars have the same URL: https://join.butter.us/accelerant/rust-forge. Butter is sort of like Zoom, but much more fun.
Direct invitations to speakers in-bound
The system will send you a meeting invite
to every webinar.Feel free to decline any invitations
that you’re not interested in, but please
do not mark the invitations as spam. 🙏
For non-speakers, you are welcome to participate - but please notify me beforehand by replying to this email or sending one to <hello@rustforgeconf.com>.
Timezones
Each session will be held twice.
Asia/Pacific: 6:30 UTC 18:30 NZST, 16:30 AEST, 15:30 JST
Rest of World: 21:00 UTC, 14:00 PDT, 9:00 NZST (Monday)
Webinars
Audience (6 July) Join webinar
Why people come to technical talks; Using your audience as a filter; What people really like about the format.
Structure (13 July) Join webinar
3 three presentation formats; how to say more by covering less; why introductions should be short.
Preparing (20 July) Join webinar
How to rehearse when you don’t have time or slides make the most of the next few weeks.
Demos (27 July)
How to decide to add one; Technical monsters and how to slay them; Unlikely risks and surprising rewards.
On stage (10 Aug)
How to stand; how to breathe; where to look; how to speak.
Crises (17 Aug)
What to do if you have a major technical glitch, haven’t finished the tech that you’re talking about, or encounter
Visas
If you’re arriving from overseas, please double check that you are legally allowed to enter the country. There is lots of guidance available on the travel pages of conference’s website.
Thanks for reading! See you on the next update!
~ Tim
🦀 ⚙️ ❤️