Call for speakers

Date – April 14-16, 2025
Location – Leiden, the Netherlands
Venue – Stadsgehoorzaal (historic theater)

All talks will be broadcast live on our online event platform.

Most attendees are UX researchers and designers involved in user research, with some in UX(R) leadership roles. They have varying levels of UX research experience, with the majority having 5+ years. They live all across the globe, with many centred in Europe. We expect about 500 participants in 2025, of which 50% will attend in person.

We plan to define the conference theme after the call for participation.
So, the call for participation does not have a specific theme—we don’t want to limit your ideas. We’d love to hear about topics that are authentic to you.

✔️ Free ticket to the conference on April 15&16 (incl. recordings)
✔️ 2 free (online) tickets to give away
✔️ Reimbursement between €550-€1600 based on travel distance
✔️ 2-night hotel stay in the Netherlands*
✔️ 1:1 Coaching sessions
✔️ Invitation to dinner activity on Tuesday, April 15
And plenty of inspiration, growth & fun!

*1 hotel night for speakers living in the Netherlands or Belgium

You will receive a fee between €550 and €1600, depending on your travel distance (see also ‘What do I get as a speaker’).

Just a heads-up, you’ll need to make your own travel arrangements to the Netherlands and can use this fee to cover your expenses.  

Deadline to apply is October 14, 2024 – 11:00 AM CEST time zone.

By submitting a proposal, you also commit to peer-reviewing two other speaker proposals (see curation process).

We accept one proposal per speaker. If you submit more than one, we’ll only review the first.

The format we’re looking for is a talk of 10-30 minutes. Most talks will be 20 minutes with a 10-minute Q&A.

These are the questions in the application form (shortened):

• What is the title of your talk?
• What is the description of your talk?
• What are the practical takeaways, including examples?
• Do you plan to engage with the audience?
• Do you plan to share one or more case studies?
• Is this talk unique to the UXinsight Festival?
• Do you have a co-presenter?

We also ask you to pitch your talk in a 3-minute video.
We collect personal information such as your name, job title, organisation, LinkedIn profile, and country of residence.

We accept one proposal per speaker. If you submit more than one, we’ll only review the first submission.

We generally encourage single-speaker presentations, as we’ve found that this often results in clearer and more focused talk. However, we welcome a second speaker if they bring a distinctly different perspective, such as representing a collaborating role or offering insights from a specific target audience relevant to your topic.

We’ve created a document with an overview of the timeline and process from October 2024 until the Festival on April 14-16, 2025.

In short:

• Call for participation (CFP) – October 1–14
• Peer reviews by speakers – October 15–22
• Curation by UXinsight team – October 15 – December 13
• Create 1st draft of talk – December 1 – January 15
• Coaching session 1 – January 15–31
• Further prepare talk – February 1–28
• Coaching session 2 – March 3–14
• Create final version of talk – March 14 – April 1 (DEADLINE)
• UXinsight Festival 2025, April 14-16

Please check the process to ensure you agree and this fits your schedule before submitting a proposal.

We intend to review all of the proposals carefully. As conference curators, we are mindful of the quality of the proposals and the diversity of topics, speakers and types of talks.

The curation is done in multiple rounds.

The first round is peer-reviewed by speakers. Everyone who submits a proposal commits to reviewing two other proposals. The UXinsight team oversees the peer-reviewing process.

The second round is done by the UXinsight Curation team. This team consists of 7 volunteers and UXinsight founder Karin, all UX research experts with different backgrounds and perspectives. Together, they review the proposals and decide which proposals make it to the program.

We try to inform everyone before December 13, 2024 if their talk made it into the program.

Every September, we open the call for volunteers. We select a team of seven UX research experts with diverse backgrounds and experiences from the submissions.

Our curation team will evaluate each proposal based on different aspects, such as:

• Is the title engaging and clear?
• Does the proposal provide a detailed description?
• Does the proposal outline clear, actionable takeaways?
• Does the presenter mention concrete evidence?
• Does the proposal explore a unique and innovative approach?
• Does the proposal address a timely issue, highly relevant to current practices in UX research?
• Does the proposal address common issues UX researchers face?
• Does the proposal mention how the speaker plans to engage the audience?

Finally, the UXinsight Curation team considers the diversity of topics, perspectives, and speakers when selecting the final program.

We want to ensure a rich and diverse reviewing process. A process that allows for more perspectives.

As a reviewer, you will support the UXinsight curation team in creating a shortlist of the most promising proposals, and receive insightful feedback on your proposal.

The call for participation is open until October 14, 11:00 AM CEST time zone.

On October 15, we’ll email all potential speakers two proposals for review. The review is done by filling out a review form. The deadline for reviewing is October 21 at the end of the day. Our estimation is that it takes about 15 minutes to review a proposal.

After the peer review, we’ll send you the feedback from the two reviewers who reviewed your proposal. After that, the curation team will decide whether your proposal makes it to the next round.

We try to inform everyone before December 13, 2024 if their talk made it into the program.

We will only share the proposal’s content (e.g., title, description, and takeaways) with the peer reviewers.

The peer reviewer will not know your identity or personal details, and you will not have this information from the proposals you are reviewing.

Yes! After the peer review is done (October 21, end of day), we’ll send you the feedback from the two reviewers who reviewed your proposal as soon as possible. At that point we can’t provide information yet whether your proposal is through to the next round.