Submitting a proposal for a tech conference can be a nerve-wracking experience. Having reviewed over 500 conference proposals this past year, mainly for KubeCon and Observability Day, I've gained valuable insights into what captures reviewers' attention. While I don't claim to be an expert in writing or selecting proposals, I've noticed patterns that can help increase your chances of standing out in a sea of submissions. In this post, I'll share a collection of tips that can enhance your conference proposal and make it more compelling for selection.

  1. Spell-check Project Names Correctly spell project names. While you are not expected to be as accurate as a native speaker regarding grammar and spelling, double-check how you spelled the names of the projects you’ll be talking about.

  2. Wear the Community Hat People attending the talks want to know more about how you solved a specific problem using open-source solutions, not how your product is great at solving the problem. It’s OK to use your product to demonstrate ideas as long as those ideas can be applied without your product. Are you a solutions architect and want to propose a talk with your customer? That’s great! But please, be extra careful not to turn the proposal into a product pitch. Make sure the abstract reflects that.

  3. Debuting a new project? Proposing a talk about a new project is a good idea, but projects that are too new are unlikely to be selected. One question I ask myself when reviewing proposals highlighting new projects is: Will this project be around during the next KubeCon? If I’m uncertain, I’ll likely not give the best rating ever (but might start watching it!). Some red flags:

    1. No public releases or tags (unless it’s an explicit decision of the project not to have versions). Or there is only one release, coincidentally made around the same time the CFP closed…
    2. The project has only one or two contributors, and mainly from the same team at the same company. What happens when you change jobs? Will you or the company continue running the project, or will it likely get stale?
    3. The first commit was from a few weeks ago

  4. Explicitly List Projects You’ll Cover List all projects you’ll talk about. Don’t just mention them in the abstract; explicitly mention them under the relevant field. If the project isn’t that well-known, it’s also a good idea to add the link to its source code repository.

  5. First-Time Speakers: Share Your Voice! If you're a first-time speaker, provide additional resources like an audio or video recording of yourself. This gives reviewers a taste of your presentation style and can help build credibility.

  6. Leverage ChatGPT Wisely Using tools like ChatGPT to refine your proposal can be beneficial. However, ensure the output is meaningful and adds value to your proposal, not just filler content.

  7. Clarify Acronyms and Context Spell out acronyms when they're first used and ensure they're accurate.

  8. Crystal Clear Structure:

    Unless you are highly experienced in the art of writing proposals for conferences, use the following structure when writing yours:

  9. Make Your Experience Shine

    Your experience is unique; talk about it! Make it clear in the proposal what makes it special. An “introduction to observability” or “how to secure Kubernetes” will likely get rejected unless you are an industry-wide authority on those subjects. However, a talk titled “How I finally understood observability” or “My journey in securing Kubernetes” might be enticing enough to get selected.

  10. The Right Track

    Double-check the track you are submitting your talk to. And double-check the available tracks. In our example above, “How I finally understood observability” could be a good proposal for the “Novice” track, but not so much for the “Observability” one.

  11. Make it interesting

    Spend some time making the proposal enjoyable. If you can’t make it sound interesting in the abstract, how can I trust that you’ll make an interesting presentation?

  12. Embrace Relevance

    For KubeCon specifically, but likely for other open-source conferences as well: either focus on the projects that are the target of the event (CNCF projects for KubeCon), or focus on general concepts. Proposing a talk centered around an “external” project is unlikely to get accepted, unless the project is highly popular, but proposing a talk about a generic concept and using the external project as an example of that concept is certainly fine.

Submitting a conference proposal is an opportunity to share your insights, experiences, and solutions with a broad audience. Using some of those tips, you're better equipped to craft proposals that resonate with reviewers and conference attendees alike. Remember, a well-crafted proposal serves to show why your story matters, increasing your chances of getting selected. Good luck, and may your submissions shine!