That time is upon us again, folks. PyCon India is back, it's online and the call for proposals has officially opened!

2020 has been a rollercoaster for all of us. As this year's PyCon India 2020 is being organized online (Announcement tweet!), we want your support to make the conference bigger, better, and more accessible to all. After all, PyCon India is made by you, for you and with you at its center.

So, whether you are someone submitting a proposal for talks for the first time or just want to share what you have been up to with Python this past year. This is YOUR time to shine!

Divided by COVID. Connected by Python!

We are looking forward to seeing beginner, intermediate, and advanced proposals on topics mentioned below from beginner, intermediate, and advanced speakers to present those talks. You don’t need to be a 10-year veteran who has spoken at dozens of conferences. For making our conference truly diverse, we are looking for all kinds of people. That’s what our community is comprised of, and that’s what this conference’s schedule should be made from.

Please make note of some important dates as mentioned below:

• CFP opens on 24th April 2020
• CFP closes on 14th August 2020
• Schedule shall be released on 1st September 2020
• Talks will be presented online on 2nd and 3rd October 2020

Where should you submit your proposal?

Read the call for proposals editorial for more information on writing proposals. Next, start with drafting your proposal in the New Proposal page after signing up for an account.

Do make sure to read the best practices before you start typing them proposals especially if you are a first time speaker!

Guidelines for creating Preview Video

With PyCon India 2020 being online this year, we are introducing preview videos to our proposal submission workflow. Preview videos are you talking about your proposal, topics you intend to cover in the talk, and how you intend to cover them. Participants are strongly suggested to upload links of their preview videos while submitting their proposals. It will be immensely helpful for reviewers to go through preview videos and take that into account before making final decisions on your talk proposal. Please keep in mind to strictly follow all guidelines for creating your video preview as mentioned below:-

1. Duration & orientation
   A 1-3 minute video to be recorded, preferably in portrait mode.

2. Upload to YouTube
   The video has to be uploaded on Youtube. If you don’t want other people to find it, mark it as unlisted. Don’t mark it as private or disallow embedding, or we won’t be able to see it. ​

3. Only you talking about your talk
   The video should contain nothing except you talking about your talk.​ Try to make a video that holds our attention and helps us understand more deeply about what's your talk is all about.

4. No effects & No Music
   Please do not add any background music to your video. ​No screenshots or postproduction wizardry please; we don’t want this to turn into a video making contest. If you’re going to spend time making something cool, put that into your slides & proposal instead.

5. No Script
   Please do not recite a script written beforehand. Just talk spontaneously as you would to a friend. People delivering memorized speeches (or worse still, reading text off the screen) usually come off as dull and uninspiring. Think of this as fun activity and let your heart do the talking. Be vanilla!

6. Check Audio
   Try to keep your voice clear and check that its being recorded properly. Make sure there isn't any background noise. Try to record this in an empty room if possible without much going on in the background.

Have any more questions? We are here to help!

Feel free to ping us on Zulip or IRC (#pyconindia) or contact the coordinators through email:

• Anirudha - anirudhastark@gmail.com
• Ritesh - udr.ritesh@gmail.com
• The team: cfp@in.pycon.org

We look forward to seeing your proposals filling our inboxes in the coming months! Till then stay safe, stay vanilla!

Written by Vipul Gupta (@vipulgupta2048)