A session on how to apply to a conference, hosted by the Northern Ireland Developer Conference, BSides Belfast, and Serverless Days Belfast.

1. How To Apply To Conferences
A collaboration between NIDC, BSides Belfast, and Serverless Days Belfast
Hosted by Rapid7

2. 2
Welcome to the
Workshop!
Grab some food and
let’s get started!
2

3. Agenda
● Introduction
● Conference Application
● Idea Generation
● Proposal Writing
● Writing Your Bio

4. What goes in an application?
It varies, but these are the usual components:
● Talk Title
○ Should grab attention but also explain what the talk is about
○ Don’t get too abstract
● Talk Description
○ Description of talk - the main part of the proposal
○ Aimed at conference attendees, will be published in the program
● Talk Outline (not all conferences ask for this)
○ Overview of talk, more detailed description of the structure and contents
○ Aimed at reviewers, will not be published in the program
● Bio
○ Description of yourself, and why you’re the right person to give this talk
○ Aimed at conference attendees, will be published in the program

5. Don't wait until you have slides!
Lots of people don’t even start their slides until
they know they’ve been accepted.
You don’t have to have a talk already finished.
@angiemckeown

6. Example: NIDC Application Guidelines
Looking for “Anything of interest to the tech community”
Asks for Title, Description, & Bio.
Standard talks should last for 30 minutes. Lightning talks should be up to 10 minutes.
Proposals must be submitted by Sunday 13th August.
https://www.nidevconf.com/cfp/

7. Idea Generation
What do you care about?

8. Idea Generation
What do you care about? What have you done?

9. Idea Generation
What do you care about?
What do you know that
people aren’t talking
about?
What have you done?

10. Idea Generation
What do you care about?
What do you know that
people aren’t talking
about?
What have you done?
What do you wish people
would talk about?

11. Idea Generation
What do you care about?
What do you know that
people aren’t talking
about?
What was the last tech
blog post/presentation
you disagreed with?
What have you done?
What do you wish people
would talk about?

12. Idea Generation
What do you care about?
What do you know that
people aren’t talking
about?
What was the last tech
blog post/presentation
you disagreed with?
What have you done?
What do you wish people
would talk about?
What did you do for the
first time recently?

13. Idea Generation
What do you care about?
What do you know that
people aren’t talking
about?
What was the last tech
blog post/presentation
you disagreed with?
What have you done?
What do you wish people
would talk about?
What did you do for the
first time recently?
What do you wish
someone had told you a
year ago?

14. Idea Generation
What do you care about?
What do you know that
people aren’t talking
about?
What was the last tech
blog post/presentation
you disagreed with?
What have you done?
What do you wish people
would talk about?
What did you do for the
first time recently?
What do you wish
someone had told you a
year ago?
What do you want to
learn?

15. My biggest/riskiest tip is to propose a talk on
something you want to know about, rather than
something you already know about.
Spend the time after it’s accepted learning &
building out the talk you wish you'd attended.
@bolster

16. The Right Idea For The Right Conference
If you have an idea, pick the right conference for it
● Think about how much the audience will know about your subject
● Think about what they’re coming to the conference for
● Don’t try to sell them something they already like
If you want to talk at a specific conference, look at what type of things they cover
● Is there a theme to the conference?
● What sort of talks do they select – abstract talks about process, specific talks about
technical issues, or a mixed bag?
● Does the conference only want to talk about new things?
● Who would you be talking to?
○ What story would grab their attention?

17. Top tip - you have something to share, someone
else will be interested in the thing you want to
talk about 🙂
Go for it!
@cybersec_mama

18. 18
Idea Generation Time
In groups, figure out what you
could talk about at a conference
or share your great ideas with
each other.
18

19. Proposal Writing - Things To Include
What will people learn?
What story are you telling?
What’s the real world impact?
If you have examples, or a demo,
make sure to mention it!
Why does this talk matter?
Why are you the person to tell
it?

20. Proposal Writing: The Structured Approach
● Describe the landscape
○ What’s the background to your talk?
○ What is the problem you are addressing?

21. Proposal Writing: The Structured Approach
● Describe the landscape
○ What’s the background to your talk?
○ What is the problem you are addressing?
● Explain your insight
○ What’s your talk about?
○ What solution are you bringing?

22. Proposal Writing: The Structured Approach
● Describe the landscape
○ What’s the background to your talk?
○ What is the problem you are addressing?
● Explain your insight
○ What’s your talk about?
○ What solution are you bringing?
● Offer people takeaways
○ What will people get out of attending?
○ Why should they come to your talk?
○ What will they learn?

23. Example (via oreilly.com)
TITLE: How Draw Something Absorbed 50 Million New Users, in 50 Days, With Zero App Downtime
DESCRIPTION: OMGPOP’s Draw Something broke all records when it went viral, skyrocketing to more than 50
million downloads and billions of drawings within a few weeks of launch—with no downtime. This session highlights
the application architecture and data management technology that enabled this growth, and provides a real-time
data management model for developers of any interactive web application.
ABSTRACT: Social and online games are a multi-billion market and one of the fastest growing sectors of the global
economy. With the acceleration of social media, games can go from zero to millions of users overnight, the latest
example being OMGPOP’s Draw Something, a Pictionary-like game that broke all records when it went viral and
skyrocketed to more than 50 million downloads and billions of drawings within a few weeks of launch.
If you are planning to build and launch a web application, growth is what you should be concerned with and
prepared for. So how exactly can you architect an application, without breaking the bank, while sustaining a snappy
and compelling application experience across the scaling spectrum?
In this presentation, Frank Weigel will focus specifically on the data management challenges web application
developers face, and provide criteria for selecting a data management model that will provide the scalability and
performance needed to support massive growth. The presentation will also highlight the architecture of OMGPOP’s
Draw Something, an example of a game that was prepared for growth.

24. Make it as clear as possible what people will get
out of attending your talk.
Why should I go to your talk and not the other
track down the hall?
@shinyemptyhead

25. Proposal Writing - Things To Avoid
Don’t take an aggressive tone
Don’t make your proposal sound
like an advertisement
Most conferences don’t want sales pitches.
Don’t be too short, or too long
Include enough information to interest people,
without being a wall of text
Don’t belittle your subject or
yourself
People are here to see you and learn about
your subject, don’t make it sound pointless.
Enthusiasm is good,but don’t take it too far.
Don’t try to be too funny or
clever
At least, not to the point of making your pitch
cryptic.
Don’t be vague
People shouldn’t have to work to know what
your talk is about.

26. 26
Proposal Writing Time
Figure out what you’d put in
your proposal. You don’t have to
write the whole thing, just the
content.
26

27. Bio Questions
What lights you
up?
Why are you the
person to tell this
talk?
What are you a
product of?
What do you want
people to talk to
you about?
What’s the coolest
thing you’ve done?
What’s important
about you that’s
not on your CV?

28. Bio Workshop

29. Making Presentations Inclusive
● Assume diversity – design your presentation for everyone
● Avoid exclusionary language
○ Definitely avoid using slurs, even those that are a
common part of speech
● Use content warnings where appropriate
○ Ideally include these in your abstract
● Do not rely on audience members reading your slides
● Have a transcript of your talk available

30. Meetups
● You’re at one right now :-)
● Generally a lot more focused in topic than a conference
● Less formal application process
○ Usually just ping the organiser and offer to do a talk
○ Meetup organisers are always grateful for speakers but
your talk will need to be relevant
● A great place to get your toes wet with speaking
● Also a great place to reuse conference ideas that didn’t fit,
additional things you found out while researching, etc.

31. Schedule the time to do it. Whether it's the last
week, the last day, or the last hour of the CFP.
Set aside the time, or it'll fly by.
@awflwafl

32. Where to apply

33. Thank you for attending!
https://serverlessdaysbelfast.com/
https://bsidesbelfast.org/
https://www.nidevconf.com/cfp/