KitharaSpeakers × Communities
Join the pilot
Open source · Non-profit · Pilot 2027

Every speaker has a rider. Every community has a stage.

Kithara connects tech speakers with meetups, user groups and workshops. It starts where finding the right person is hardest: small communities, far from the big conference circuit.

See how it works What's a rider?
Two penguins: a speaker playing a kithara on a small stage, and an organizer holding a "speaker wanted" sign. ♪ ♫ SPEAKER WANTED Matera · March
The problem

Names are easy to find. Conditions are not.

An organizer in Potenza can usually think of three people to invite. What stops them is everything they don't know. Does the speaker need the train paid, a hotel, a fee? Is ten days' notice enough? Could it work remotely? Today these answers arrive after five or six messages across LinkedIn, Telegram and email.

The idea

The speaker's rider

Bands send venues a rider: one or two pages listing what they need to play, from the stage to the hotel. The venue reads it in five minutes and knows if the gig can happen. Bands don't rewrite it for every date.

Kithara gives every speaker the same thing. One page, one permanent link, with topics, conditions and availability. The organizer reads it before writing, and already knows what it takes.

The rider is useful outside Kithara too. You fill it in once for yourself, and the directory grows as a side effect.

In your LinkedIn bio Linked from Sessionize As your reply to every invite
Example

Giulia Ferri

Napoli · Europe/Rome · Italian, English

What I bring

Kubernetes without feartalk · 45'
GitOps in practiceworkshop · 3h

Happy to prepare new talks on platform engineering and FinOps.

Conditions

  • Noticeat least 3 weeks
  • In personwithin 300 km, remote beyond that
  • Traveltrain covered by the community
  • Hotelneeded if the event ends after 9 pm
  • Feenone for non-profit meetups

When

  • Talksweekday evenings, February to June
  • WorkshopsSaturday mornings

In the room

  • HDMI or USB-C, a mic above 40 people, wifi for live demos
kithara.dev/r/giulia-ferriFictional speaker, for illustration
How it works

Four moves. That's the whole product.

Communities and speakers can both take the first step. Each side can publish or search.

Publish
Search
Community
Community · publish

A call for speakers

"Looking for someone on Kubernetes, March, 30 people, train covered." One link, ready to share on LinkedIn.

Community · search

Search the riders

Filter by topic, notice, distance and reimbursement. You only see speakers your event can actually host.

Speaker
Speaker · publish

Rider + "passing through"

Your rider is always there. When you travel, add "I'll be in Bari on 12–13 March" and nearby communities see it.

Speaker · search

Browse open calls

Find communities looking for your topics and reply with your rider attached.

Matching uses plain filters on what people declared. No algorithm decides who gets seen, and the default ordering is neutral.

Scenarios

Four situations every organizer knows

Step through them with the arrows. Same penguins, same rules.

Matera needs a Kubernetes talk in March

  1. The community publishes a call: topic, date, city, expected audience and what it can cover.
  2. Kithara shows the compatible riders right away. Notice respected, Matera inside their travel distance, reimbursement within budget.
  3. The call goes on LinkedIn. Speakers reply with their rider attached.
  4. The organizer picks someone and writes through a privacy-protected first contact. From there they talk directly.
  5. Found someone? One click on "found" closes the call, so nobody wastes time replying.
A call card with three compatible riders below it. CALL · MATERA MEETUP Kubernetes, 18 March 30 people · train covered · 7 pm Napoli · 230 km Bari · 65 km Remote ✓ compatible✓ compatible✓ compatible

A speaker is in Bari for a conference

  1. Giulia speaks in Bari on 12 March. She adds a "passing through" note to her rider: Bari, 12–13 March.
  2. Communities within 150 km see it: Matera and Potenza.
  3. Her main trip is already paid. The extra cost is one night and a regional train.
  4. Two communities in the area, say an AWS User Group and a Linux User Group, split that cost and host her on two consecutive evenings.

A vendor platform can't organize this, because it crosses ecosystems. A neutral one can.

Route from Bari to Matera to Potenza, with a travelling penguin carrying a suitcase. Bari conference · 12 Mar Matera meetup · 13 Mar Potenza meetup · 14 Mar ≈ 65 km ≈ 100 km

A lightning slot for someone new

  1. The community flags its call "open to first-timers": a 10-minute lightning talk at every meetup.
  2. Someone with no track record replies. That flag is the invitation they were waiting for.
  3. If they want help preparing, they ask one of the speakers who are available as mentors.
  4. Next time they reply to a call, their rider already shows one past session.
A small penguin on a stage with a big mentor penguin cheering beside it. 👏 FIRST-TIMERS WELCOME ⚡ 10'

Did it happen?

  1. The day after the event, both sides get one question: did it take place? Yes or no.
  2. No stars and no ratings. In a small community nobody gives three stars to a volunteer who came for free.
  3. Confirmed events appear on the rider as plain facts, for example "4 events through Kithara".
  4. That's how we measure the pilot too: events that happened, not profiles created.
A message card asking "Did it happen?" with Yes and No buttons. KITHARA · 19 MAR Did "Kubernetes" happen? Yes No ✓ 4 events through Kithara
Tip: use the ← → keys
The rules

Small product, firm principles

Direct contact

Kithara makes the first introduction. After that you talk directly, with no agency in between.

Privacy first

Personal emails are never shown. First contact goes through a proxy, GDPR from day one.

Neutral

Every ecosystem on equal terms. No sponsored listings and no paid ranking.

Open source

MIT licensed, with open data and APIs, stewarded by a non-profit association.

Pilot 2027

We start local. Southern Italy first.

Fifty speakers scattered across the world make an empty directory. Fifty speakers in Southern Italy are already useful to whoever organizes in Matera.

The 2027 pilot runs with local GDGs, AWS User Groups, Linux User Groups and independent communities. Then we widen the map.

I'm a speaker I run a community
Three penguins together, one with a kithara, one with a suitcase, one with a sign. 2027