So around this time of year there are a heap of conference Call for Proposals out.

Here are just a few:

  • OSDC - Closes July 5th 2015
  • Linux Conf AU - Closes July 6th 2015 Extended to August 2nd 2015

There is also a hashtag fluttering about twitter called #beatmikal which is trying to get the record of 300 CfP submissions from Michael Still’s LCA.

That’s a lot of submissions to be competing against. LCA does end up with some of the finest talks of the region though, which makes it a great few days of learning. I highly recommend anyone who can get themselves to Geelong next year.

But if you’re thinking of submitting multiple talks, just be warned: normally, LCA doesn’t take more than one per person, but that’s not a hard rule. There is an old tale of the time that Rusty Russell submitted a few talks, and got three accepted.. that were scheduled alongside each other. This may have been more of a jest than the norm, but it’s still a thing to remember.

When you submit for a conference, if you submit more than one talk, more than one could be accepted. I’ve had this happen before. I gave two talks at OSDC 2014, two at LCA2015, and two again at PyCon AU 2015 next month.

Well, when I say two: for OSDC, my secondary talk was asked to be included due to a speaker being unable to present; for LCA, it was one in the main program and one in a miniconf. But for PyCon AU, it’s two proper full-blown prime time talks. Both of them are in the last slot of the main days, right before lightning talks and the evening social activities. One is even in the main full-size room that keynotes are presented to (that is designed to accommodate all attendees.)

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit scared about presenting at this one. I’m not a python coder by trade, but I’m making sure that I use Python sample code where required, and tailoring it to the audience as best I can.

But it’s just a warning: when you submit for a conference, remember that every submission is based on it’s merit, and unless otherwise specified, you can get called up multiple times.

Just a word to the wise :)