Speaker Self-Nomination — "I Could Speak on That"

Last Updated: 2026-06-13

Implemented — Epic 7.2

# Overview

When the next event’s topic is known and published, a logged-in attendee can put themselves forward as a speaker: a session title and an abstract. They don’t need to know an organizer — the pipeline now pulls candidates in as well as pushing invitations out.

Self-nominations land in your speaker pool raw (no agent pre-screen) and are triaged exactly like organizer-sourced candidates through the 8-state speaker workflow.

# When the window is open

The self-nomination window opens as soon as the event’s topic is set and the event is published — the earliest public signal, which maximizes the time attendees have to raise a hand. The window closes when the event starts.

Attempting to self-nominate for an event whose topic is not yet set, or which is not published, is rejected (409/422) and creates no entry.

# How it works

Logged-in attendee (event topic set + published)
        │  POST  { sessionTitle, abstract }   (ATTENDEE role, login-gated)
        ▼
event-management-service
        │  creates a speaker_pool entry at status IDENTIFIED
        │  via SpeakerWorkflowService.transition
        │  tagged source = self_nomination, proposer's username recorded
        │  abstract stored raw (no agent pre-screen)
        ▼
Existing organizer speaker pool / kanban
        self-nomination chip shown; triaged like any candidate

# A self-nomination enters at IDENTIFIED — never READY

This is the most important integrity rule. A self-nomination creates a speaker_pool entry at the IDENTIFIED state — the entry point of the workflow. It is written only via SpeakerWorkflowService.transition, the sole status writer (ADR-009).

It does not:

• create a Cognito user,
• grant the SPEAKER role, or
• create a session_users row.

All of that provisioning happens only when you, an organizer, promote the candidate to READY — the same provisioning gate, reached via the same promote path, that every organizer-sourced candidate goes through. Nothing about the existing workflow changes, and there is no new state in the machine.

# For organizers

In the speaker pool / kanban, self-nominations appear alongside organizer-sourced candidates, marked with a self-nomination chip so you can see their provenance at a glance. You triage them through the existing 8-state workflow — review the abstract, advance or drop the candidate, and promote to READY (with provisioning) only when you decide to put them on stage.

See Phase B: Outreach → for the speaker workflow and the promote path.

# What’s in scope (and what isn’t)

# Behaviour notes

• Login-gated. An anonymous attempt to self-nominate is rejected with 401.
• Raw triage. The abstract is stored as-is for the MVP; agent scoring may be added later only if nomination volume warrants it.

# Related

• Phase B: Outreach → — the 8-state speaker workflow and promotion
• Topics From the Floor → — the companion contribution surface
• Attendee Experience Overview →