These are the slides of the webinar "How to write an incredible submission for a conference". Rik Marselis presented his hints & tips (based on personal experience) for people that want to send a proposal to EuroSTAR but most of the information is just as valid for any other conference. The slides are about: * Have an interesting story, * write an interesting proposal, * have it reviewed, * submit it in time

2. Welcome
My name is Rik Marselis
I am principal quality consultant at Sogeti in
the Netherlands
This year I am EuroSTAR programme chair
I have presented on dozens of conferences
in Europe and beyond, my first conference
presentation was in 2003, my first EuroSTAR
presentation was in 2011 (after submitting
proposals since 2005)
I have been involved in selection committees
since 2004.

3. Possibility to ask questions
During the webinar you can post your questions in the chat-box.
At the end of the webinar we will select questions and answer
them (until we run out of time).
Note: All photos in this presentation are made by Rik Marselis in the zoo of Antwerp

4. So you want to speak at a conference?
Agenda of this webinar:
• Have an interesting story
• Write an interesting proposal
• Have it reviewed
• Submit it in time
• If selected: start phase 2: prepare your presentation
• If not selected: keep on trying, it’s not that you aren’t good
• Have fun!!

5. Why are some people “always” selected
and others never?
• Some people write very good proposals, others don’t
• At EuroSTAR all speakers are selected based on a “blind”
evaluation of their proposal (this means the people that evaluate the
proposals don’t see the name of the person who proposed it, they only
judge content)
(Only some keynotespeakers are directly asked to speak)
• So we select as fair and unbiased as we can possibly do.

6. Have an interesting story
• Who is your audience?
• Will they be at the conference you are proposing to?

7. Do you have an interesting story?
YES!!
Don’t be shy.
Don’t think your experience is common knowledge to everyone.
What is common for you may be an eye-opener for others!!
(but be aware sometimes it’s the other way around: what is an eye-opener for you,
is common knowledge for many others… So check if your message is already
on the internet, if you find many hits it may not be so special after all)

8. Have an interesting story
• What is your main message?
• What is your goal? (inform, persuade, entertain, …)
• What are your 3 key points? (no more than 3)
• No more than 80% of the theory
(the last 20% is too specialized for your audience)
• Align with the knowledge of your audience
• Make it an interactive experience

9. Have an interesting story
• Use your own personal experience
• An experience story is always more interesting than just some
boring theory
• If you want/need to present theory, wrap it in an experience story
• Present something new
(but not too far-fetched)

10. What presentation type do you propose for?
• Track-talk (45 mins)
• Keynote (45 mins)
• Next Generation Keynote (15 mins)
• Full-day tutorial (7.5 hours)
• Half-day tutorial (3.5 hours)
• Interactive workshop / discussion (90 mins)
• Live Testing Session (45 minutes or 90 mins) *NEW*

11. Have an interesting story
Tips for a tutorial or workshop
• A tutorial or workshop must be hands-on, practical, active
• Describe what exercises you will have for the delegates
• Describe how you will make them learn
• Describe how it will be enjoyable for them
• Describe what kind of handouts you plan to use/create
• Describe how the delegates will benefit in their day-to-day
jobs, from what they learn in your tutorial / workshop

12. Write an interesting proposal
• Good title ➔ catchy, attracting attention, fun, …
• Clear structure (head, middle, tail)
• Concise text (the committee members have to read it all)
• Clear message
• Explain abbreviations, terminology, etcetera
(don’t assume that committee members are experts on your part of the
testing expertise. Although committee members
are experienced quality & testing people, they cannot know
all terms that ever have been invented in testing, and
some terms have different meanings)

13. Write an interesting proposal
• Align with the theme
• Real-life testing experiences
• Your wildest dreams about the world of testing
• Use the Zoo as a metaphor in your story
(and I think using the words “monkey testing” will not make you stand
out in the crowd this year)
• Use (or refer to) the theme in your title and proposal
(the committee likes to see you made the proposal specifically for them)
• Or disregard the theme because you have something
else that everyone will want to know anyway.

14. Write an interesting proposal
• A good story has a simple structure:
• Head
make the reader interested
• Middle
tell what it is about
• Tail
what is your conclusion / call to action / revelation / etc.
(and don’t think that keeping your conclusion a secret is good,
the committee wants to know what you will be talking about.
If you don’t want the audience to know you may ask the
organization not to publish your conclusion beforehand)

15. Criteria the committee uses (two examples)
The programme committee uses several criteria, some of the
important criteria are:
• Does the scope fit in the time? Your score better when proposal:
• Offers clear and limited set (1-3) of strong ideas
• Does not risk overwhelming the audience with too many ideas
• Can be delivered within the time that’s requested for it
• You will definitely get a lower score if your proposal:
Presents a polemic view against or for something without
offering actual proof of experience, or at least a reasoned
argument or viable alternative

16. Have it reviewed
• Remember that the committee members have to evaluate a
large number of proposals. So if they get annoyed by low
quality of your proposal you will end up on the “not” stack
• It may be clear to you, but your colleague, your partner or your
mother will be able to help you improve the story.
• Do a spell-check!! (you are applying for a quality & testing conference,
the committee members are used to looking for faults, so they will
spot the spelling errors and will think you are sloppy)

17. Have it reviewed
• Most conferences publish your proposal
after you have been selected
• So the delegates use your proposal to
see what presentation to go to
• If the text isn’t attractive, not many people
will be in your session

18. Submit it in time
• Observe the deadline
Most conferences are strict with their deadline!!
• (tip: if conferences extend their deadline it’s often because they
don’t have enough proposals, in that case grab your
opportunity, your chance of being selected is relatively high)
• And if you are selected, there will be new deadlines, for
example for sending your presentation

19. Submit in time
EuroSTAR uses a strict template
• Your main text for example can’t be more than 2000 characters,
more is simply truncated. So make your story fit.
• You can start filling in your proposal, save it and continue later.
https://conference.eurostarsoftwaretesting.com/speakers/call-for-submissions/

20. Additional information
• EuroSTAR allows you to upload a video to introduce your
proposal
• Keep the video SHORT (max 3 minutes)
(the committee members won’t like to watch a 60 minute video that
introduces a 45 minute presentation)
• Have a nice and recognizable photo of yourself
• Make sure the information that is publicly available on
the internet aligns with what your write in your proposal.
(committee members know how to use google ☺)

21. If selected:
start phase 2: prepare your presentation
• That’s another webinar …

22. If not selected:
keep on trying, it’s not that it wasn’t good
• Every year EuroSTAR receives about 500 proposals
• EuroSTAR has about 50 entries on the programme
• So you only have a 10% chance to be selected
• And we do not just select the top 10%, we also look at number
of presentations per country, number of similar topics, and
many other things.
• So you may have a top 5% proposal, but it is the fifth
proposal for a specific topic of which we only can use
four you still won’t be selected.

23. Tips to raise your chances
• Get known in the world of testing
It may help if the people in the committee know your name and your face
➔ write blogs, record vlogs, go to meetups, etc.
• Practice public speaking:
Speak for your colleagues, host workshops, present training courses,
organize a meetup
• Record your presentations and publish it on the internet
Committee members like to know if you really can present so
they will search for your video

24. Some don’ts
• Do not send more than 3 proposals
The committee’s generally hate people that just send all possible
proposals they have in an attempt to get selected with no matter what
story. (I personally as a rule don’t select such people at all)
• Do not assume everyone knows you. There are over 100.000
testers in Europe, you are just one of them
• Do not send commercial stories, do not try to sell
The committee looks for real stories, not sales-pitches

25. This would certainly not be selected
(because we still don’t have a clue what it is about)
The project I work in as a test leader uses Scrum, an Agile
variant. Testing is quite a challenge here. I would like to present
about the day-to-day practice, the problems we face and the
solutions we have invented.
We have glued theory and practice together in pragmatism where
the philosophy behind the test methodologies is applied as well
as possible without following a method in detail.

26. Time to answer (some of the) questions

27. Good luck with your conference proposal!!
See you in Antwerp zoo in November 2020