Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Up-to-date sponsor information can be found on our Sponsors page. Please go check them out — without their support, TypeWknd would not be possible.

Absolutely. Budget-friendly advertising opportunities will be available in a range of sizes and visibility our PDF program provided to all registered participants. For more information, please email us.

Yes. We are dedicated to creating a safe and welcoming environment for everyone. All participants, including attendees, presenters, volunteers, organizers, and sponsors, must agree to our Code of Conduct. Organizers will enforce this code throughout the event.

After the close of submissions, an impartial panel of at least 11 TypeWknd organizers and industry volunteers from around the world will review all applications completed in-full and received up to that point.

Applicant names will not be provided to this selection committee.

Key elements that the committee will be considering:

• Does this topic appeal to a global typographic audience?
• Does this topic provide value to attendees from a range of backgrounds and experience levels?
• Does this topic serve an under-invested community?

Applications will be ranked according to how well they meet these criteria. Those with the highest cumulative scores will be selected for inclusion in this year’s conference.

If a single person has two or more high-scoring applications, only one will be selected.

If you’re interested in supporting TypeWknd, please check out our Sponsorship page. Our event reaches a worldwide audience of passionate type and lettering enthusiasts, many of whom have never attended a type conference in person.

We can’t thank you enough for your interest in helping increase typographic education and access.

Our blind submission process and other TypeWknd policies, are based on research from the following sources:

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Report: Learnings & Next Steps, an OpenCon Report on Conference Planning

Developing a Culture of Consent at code4lib

Equity and Diversity Checklist

How to Make Your Presentations Accessible to All

American Bar Association Toolkits

USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative

What It Will Take to Improve Diversity at Conferences

US Census Race & Ethnicity

Continuum on Becoming an Anti-Racist, Multicultural Institution

Thanks to our amazing sponsors, TypeWknd conference talks, workshops, and activities are are totally free to attend. Yes, really.

You are amazing! Thanks for helping us create a fun and helpful event. If you have ideas for additional conference events online, special sessions, or other content that helps the typographic community, please email them to typewknd@gmail.com. We’re looking forward to collaborating with you!

Thank you! TypeWknd is powered by volunteers like you. Here is a small sampling of some of the work you can assist with:

• Moderating sessions
• Designing conference materials
• Spreading the word about TypeWknd in your community
• Helping with behind-the-scenes administration and technology
• Planning special events

Our volunteer roles are filled on a first come, first served basis. To sign up, please email us and include the word VOLUNTEER in the subject line. If you have a specific skill or experience you think could help and that we haven’t mentioned here, please don’t be shy. We would love to hear from you!

We acknowledge that every human has biases, some of which are implicit. Promising to be objective is not good enough: an equitable conference should commit to developing transparent processes that ensure submissions are evaluated solely on their merit and applicability.

To that end, the TypeWknd team has established a process we hope will minimize implicit bias as much as possible:

Organizers will invite members of the typographic community to join them in reviewing and voting on each year’s submissions. Together, these individuals shall represent a diverse and equitable range of professional backgrounds, disciplines, and nationalities. At a minimum, the team seeks to have reviewer representation from each of the following regions:

• Africa
• Asia, East
• Asia, South
• Asia, Southeast
• Australia
• Europe, West
• Europe, East
• India
• Central America
• North America
• South America

Prior to review, each volunteer must affirm they have no knowledge of or connection to any submission.

In future years, as the conference grows, the organizers seek to involve TypeWknd participants even more by directly-sourcing reviewer nominations from the community.

Here is how our selection process works, in detail:

1. All Typeform applications are sent to a dedicated and secure online repository.
   
   
2. That repository is monitored by a single TypeWknd organizer, the Submissions Manager, who abstains from content selection voting.
   
   
3. After the call for speaker applications has ended, the manager examines each application individually and removes all personally-identifying information.
   
   
4. They combine the newly anonymized submissions into a PDF file. Each submission is formatted identically in style (same font, same point size, same leading) and placed on it’s own single page, without any metadata. This aggregated PDF file is then provided directly and securely to each content selection reviewer.
   
   
5. Because the applications have been anonymized, reviewers see only the session title, abstract (description), and country-of-residence.*
   
   
6. Reviewers have 10 days to assess and rank the submissions from 1-5, with 1 being the lowest score possible, and 5 being the highest score possible. Submissions are ranked according to how well they meet a 3-pillar metric:
   
   
   • Does this topic appeal to a global typographic audience?
   • Does this topic provide value to attendees from a range of backgrounds and experience levels?
   • Does this topic serve an under-invested community?
     
     *In the event multiple talks on the same topic are proposed, reviewers may also consider the country-of-residence of each applicant so that conference programming reflects a worldwide audience and industry.
     
     
7. Each reviewer returns their rankings to the manager, who then de-anonymizes and re-compiles applications with their rank.
   
   
8. The highest-ranking submissions are tentatively scheduled into conference programming according to the time zone of the presenter, and topic.
   
   
9. Presenters are contacted by the organizing team to notify them of their application’s status. If selected, the presenter’s availability at the scheduled day and time is also confirmed.
   
   
10. Once all presenters have been contacted, and all selected presenters have confirmed their availability, the conference schedule is publicly announced.

In keeping with our commitment to equitable practices, inclusion, and transparency, TypeWknd will prepare an annual accountability report after each year’s conference.

At a minimum, this report will include anonymized and aggregated statistics on the race, ethnicity, gender, and other diversity metrics of the participants who choose to share this information with us during conference registration and other points of interaction.

The report will also include similar statistics about conference organizers and volunteers, as well as a self-assessment section detailing ways in which the conference can improve.

Attendee feedback may be sought through anonymous surveys, the results of which may be explored in this report.

As 2020 is TypeWknd’s first year, we do not yet have statistics from prior events to share with you.

Our current organizing team is made up of 4 men and 4 women from North American, Central American, Caribbean, and Western European backgrounds.

Sure! You can reach us at any time by emailing typewknd@gmail.com.

The TypeWknd logo is set in Herb, a robust, modern adaptation of sixteenth-century cursive broken scripts. Herb was designed in 2010 by Tim Ahrens, and is available for licensing at Just Another Foundry.

TypeWknd is a brand-new, online-only conference focusing on typography, lettering, fonts, design, and business. We’re informal and community-organized. Our sessions are shared with a global audience over the course of a long weekend — everyone from type-curious students to experienced industry experts are welcome.

TypeWknd content is made by presenters all over the world and streamed online right to your computer, tablet, or mobile device. We are located wherever you are!

You can meet our organizers here.

Our live-streamed talks and workshops will be available after each TypeWknd conference on our YouTube channel to view at your own leisure.