Call for Proposals

Welcome to PyCon India CFP

Technical talks are the most important event at PyCon India, the core of the conference essentially. Two of the four days are dedicated to talks. Talks are short lectures (30 min slot) supported by a presentation. Speakers come from the Python community.

Talks are selected through a CFP (Call For Proposals) process. Interested members of the community propose their talks. An editorial panel designated by the organizers makes the selections. The 2018 edition of the conference saw some 267 proposals, of which 31 were selected.

CFP applications from the previous years can be seen here.

Submit a talk

Salient Points

• There are three parallel tracks
• Talk duration is 30 mins (25 mins for the talk, 5 mins - Q&A)
• CFP closes on 1st July 2019
• Schedule shall be released on 1st September 2019
• Talks will be presented on 12th and 13th October 2019

What to Propose

Anything of interest to Python programmers is welcome. However, there are a few topics that we feel might be great -

• Lessons from using Python in your project. Did you find something against conventional wisdom ? Something confirming conventional wisdom ? Do you have advise for people solving similar problems ? Eg - I tried Python for video processing, or in my medical imaging project, and here are the lessions.

• Something you’re doing to make the language/ecosystem better. Writing a library to solve an interesting problem ? Or have some new ideas on optimization.

• Something you learned from a different language that may be useful to Python community. How about a type system ? Or patterns from functional programming. Or logic programming maybe ?

• Thoughts on tech culture and living. Ideas on improving diversity and inclusiveness. On programmers’ physical and mental health. On getting better at productivity. On workplace issues. Anything that can make an impact, especially if you have used Python for any of the above or have seen someone using Python.

And if you don’t get any ideas along these lines, try plain and simple teaching. Pick up an niche topic (maybe a recent technology, or a scientific paper), and help us learn. A well delivered lecture even at a beginner level is often well received.

The Review Process

• Authors should propose their talks using the CFP application
• CFP volunteers review the proposals for completeness
• Once the proposals are ready, they are be reviewed by a panel of experts
• If the proposal does not look complete, or the reviewers need clarifications, the author is notified via comments
• The panel of experts finally vote on the proposals
• A pre-final shortlist is eventually prepared based on the votes
• The shortlisted proposals go through a round of rehearsals (more details in section below)
• A final list is created and published.

Rehearsals

Shortlisted speakers will be expected to participate in rehearsal sessions. Rehearsals will be done via teleconferencing, where the speaker shall give a mock run of their talks in a time-bound manner. The audience will consist of volunteers, reviewers and possibly other speakers. The speakers will be given feedback if necessary.

The point of this exercise is to make sure speakers are ready with their talks ahead of time. And also, to make sure they can finish the talk in the stipulated time. It is useful for the speakers too as they’d get feedback on the content delivery and presentation.

Participation in the rehearsal sessions is likely to be a required step - chances of an unrehearsed talk making it to the final stage are substantially lower.

Diversity

We in the Python community believe in making our community more diverse. This means we are encouraging content from diverse walks of life. This also means we want to improve participation from under-represented groups.

Our goal is to maximise content from under-represented groups. You can help us by encouraging your friends, family and colleagues to submit talks. You can also help by mentoring.

Also note that we have a strict code-of-conduct. This is to make it clear, in intent and practice, that we are committed to making the conference a pleasant, welcoming and harassment free experience for everyone, especially for under-represented groups.

Best Practices for Speakers

1. Apply

Even if you have a vague idea, submit a proposal. We’re available for help with ideas and feedback (contact information is in the section below). Don’t worry about communication skills or English - we are there to help with that too. And our focus is more on the content.

2. Make it detailed

Add as much detail as possible to the proposal. Add the presentation slides if you already have one. Add a short minute video giving a summary of the proposal. More detail helps reviewers make better judgement.

3. Propose early

We will start the review process as the proposals come in, and not at the end. Proposals submitted early will get more attention and feedback

4. The code of conduct

Take a look at the code of conduct, and be mindful of it. The gist is, avoid using sexist language.

We’ve put together a set of detailed best practices - take a look. It also contains links to some well written proposals from previous years. You can also take a look at a sample proposal outline here.

Questions and Discussions

Ping us on Gitter
Or contact the coordinators through email:
Naren - narenravi92@gmail.com
Abhishek - zerothabhishek@gmail.com
The team: cfp@in.pycon.org