Swarm is ACM’s annual gathering, and the flagship community management conference for APAC.

This special event brings together community professionals from all sectors in our region and beyond, to share new insights, case studies, research and much more.

Like 2020, Swarm will be completely online, allowing participation from anywhere, across time zones.

We’re looking for community practitioners (or those with deeply relevant practice to communities) to present insights, help solve problems and facilitate valuable experiences for Swarm participants. 

Speaker Application Form —> Apply Now

Theme and focus

The unifying theme of 2021 is: Community is the New Normal

Our hybrid future is here. The post-COVID world will see us building or engaging in communities to thrive more than ever.

How can community practitioners lead the way? What are the challenges & opportunities? How can we create a more equitably distributed future?

Contributions should consider this theme and respond to it in a range of ways.

Diversity is a core criteria for evaluating and selecting Swarm 2021 sessions, in topic and in voice. 

We are particularly interested in centering voices traditionally pushed to the margins in the community industry, such as Indigenous peoples, people of colour, and people with disabilities.

Contributions from anywhere and everywhere are welcome. We are keen to receive applications from around the APAC region, showcasing the range of online community work, stories and perspectives from our part of the planet.

Once proposals are selected, we will be reviewing submissions holistically to ensure all perspectives integral to the conversation are represented. 

We have a zero tolerance policy for men-only panels (“manels”).

Guide for Submissions

Formats

We are looking for a diversity of formats and styles. Slides are still helpful (and sometimes necessary), but let’s be honest, we’re all a bit tired of them. Consider creative formats that deliver information, offer problem solving or collaborative experiences in new ways.

We love details!

The more details you can provide up front the better. But if you’ve got ideas and haven’t figured out all the fine print yet, that’s ok. Please submit and we can hash it out together.

Bias to action

There will be plenty of thinking, reflecting and chatting during Swarm. So we want to ensure our core content and experiences are action orientated. What will participants gain from your talk, demo, workshop or contribution? How can it be practical and grounded? What examples or case studies can you share?

Engagement plan

We’re interested in how you plan to engage your audience or participants. How will you make them care about what you’re presenting? If you’ve got engagement strategies, specific tactics or techniques to make your session thrive, please share them. If you’re accepted we’ll be working on those together and swapping tips with fellow program participants.

No commercial bias

Contributions are in no way related to financial support of Swarm or ACM. No sales pitches will be accepted.

Speakers will be paid

In our early days, Swarm relied heavily on the generous contributions of community peers and leaders, in order to stage an event that everyone could attend and benefit from. Profits, if present, were limited and were immediately reinvested into delivery of the next Swarm experience.

Moving to a fully virtual event has allowed the ACM and Swarm team to reduce costs of delivery, and we’re committed to giving back to our community and industry. All 2021 accepted contributors will be compensated for their time and efforts in the form of payment - or, if they would prefer, they can allocate their fees to a charitable cause they would like to support.

We hope you can join us!