Timescale Speaker RiderLast updated: June 24th, 2021

What is a speaker rider?

One of Timescale’s company values is “be inclusive.” We strive to collaborate effectively with people of diverse professions, backgrounds, and cultures. We seek and embrace new perspectives. We intervene if someone is being marginalized.

We favor events supporting marginalized groups and creating safe, welcoming, and inclusive spaces for everyone. We prioritize and commit to speaking, sponsoring, and/or attending events whose expectations and boundaries align with those described in these guidelines.

We are grateful to all event organizers who join the mission to make tech events more accessible, inclusive, and welcoming.

If your event does not meet all criteria, please reach out at [email protected]. We are happy to review your ideas for improving the event diversity and collaborate with you on making the best experience possible for everyone. You are welcome to reuse this speaker rider under the CC0 1.0 Universal license.

Code of Conduct

There is an actively enforced Code of Conduct (CoC) available on the event website. Tip: If this is new to you, the following resources provide excellent starting points.

• PyCon US, o11ycon+hnycon Code of Conduct,and JSConf EU
• Berliner Code of Conduct available in 8+ languages, including Russian, Spanish, or French
• How to design a code of conduct for your community by Ada Initiative
• Conference Anti-harassment Policy by Geek Feminism
• Timescale Code of Conduct

Speaker Diversity

Your event speaker line-up should be as diverse as possible. Diversity includes a wide range, where some types are visible at first sight (e.g., gender, race, age), while other types (e.g., sexual orientation, educational background, marital status) are invisible. We recognize that information about diversity is not made public in some cases to ensure people's safety. If this is the case, please reach out to us privately at [email protected].

You actively prioritize marginalized voices to be heard and not be limited to moderating roles. In an ideal scenario, your panels have at least one panelist who identifies as a woman, non-binary, or genderfluid, and at least one panelist who is a person of color. Speakers from marginalized backgrounds should not talk only about being underrepresented. Instead, they should speak about their expertise.

Open and Transparent Call for Proposals (CFP)

The description of the CFP review and selection process is publicly available. Potential speakers get the information about the submission criteria, submission process, evaluation committee members, and how and when organizers will announce the selection process results.

Proposals are anonymized during the review process. (i.e., Reviewers do not know who submitted each proposal.) After the anonymized review process, the proposals are de-anonymized. Finally, the selection committee reviews the program and speaker line-up to ensure it is as diverse as possible.

The event evaluation committee is diverse (i.e., education, cultural background, professional affiliations, gender, age, or any other vector).

Ensure a Safe, Inclusive, and Welcoming Space

The event is a safe, inclusive, and welcoming space accessible to all who want to participate. You provide various options that will accommodate people's needs and ensure the best possible experience for everyone. These options can include but are not limited to:

• Chat spaces are moderated by someone trained on the event code of conduct.
• The conference staff and volunteers have had disability awareness training.
• Provide an option for attendees to identify their pronouns.
• All sessions include sign-language interpretation and live captioning. Using auto-captioning is better than no captioning.
• Video recordings include captions and are free (no paywall) to watch.
• You offer a scholarship program to support underrepresented folks who cannot afford to attend your event.
• The event website and event platform are accessible.

Timescale reserves the right to withdraw from the event at any point if we observe that what we agreed upon was not fulfilled. If we withdraw from the event, everything associated with the Timescale brand should be removed from the event properties.

The Timescale speaker rider was inspired by:

• Tatiana Mac’s Speaker Rider
• OpenNews Speaker Rider
• Remy Sharp’s Speaker Rider
• Alexandra White’s Speaking Policy

We highly recommend you look at these resources because they provide numerous excellent tips and additional information.