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PyCon 2018 Call for Proposals is Open!

It’s here! PyCon 2018’s Call for Proposals has officially opened for talks, tutorials, posters, and education summit presentations. PyCon is made by you, so we need you to share what you’re working on, how you’re working on it, what you’ve learned, what you’re learning, and so much more.

Before we dive in, the deadlines:
  • Tutorial proposals are due November 24, 2017.
  • Talk, Poster, and Education Summit proposals are due January 3, 2018.
Who should write a proposal? Everyone!

If you’re reading this post, you should write a proposal. PyCon is about uniting and building the Python community, and we won’t advance as an open community if we’re not open with each other about what we’ve learned throughout our time in it. It isn’t about being the smartest one in the room, so we don’t just pick all of the expert talks. It’s about helping everyone move together. “A rising tide lifts all boats,” if you will.

We need beginner, intermediate, and advanced proposals on all sorts of topics. We also need beginner, intermediate, and advanced speakers to give said presentations. You don’t need to be a 20 year veteran who has spoken at dozens of conferences. On all fronts, we need all types of people. That’s what this community is comprised of, so that’s what this conference’s schedule should be made from.

When should you write your proposal? As soon as possible!

What we need now is for your submissions to start rolling in. We review proposals as soon as they’re entered, maximizing your time in front of the program committee and before they begin voting to determining the schedule. While we accept proposals right up to the deadline, the longer your proposal has been available for review, the better we can help you make it. That extra help goes a long way when you consider the large volume of proposals we anticipate receiving.

For PyCon 2017, we received 583 talk proposals, which makes for a 16% acceptance rate. The tutorial acceptance rate was at 27%, with 117 submissions.

Who can help you with your proposal? A lot of people!

Outside of our program committee, a great source of assistance with proposals comes from your local community. User groups around the world have had sessions where people bring ideas to the table and walk away with a full fledged proposal. These sessions  are especially helpful if you’re new to the process, and if you’re experienced with the process, it’s a great way for you to reach out and help people level up. We’ll be sure to share these events as we find out about them, and be sure to tell us your plans if you want to host a proposal event of your own!

We’re also trying something new for 2018 where we provide a mechanism to connect willing mentors and those seeking assistance through our site, helping not only with the brainstorming process but about the proposal, slides, and presentation itself. Read on to find out more and checkout out the “Mentoring” section of https://us.pycon.org/2018/speaking/talks/.

Where should you submit your proposal? In your dashboard!

After you’ve created an account at https://us.pycon.org/2018/account/signup/, you’ll want to create a speaker profile in your dashboard. While there, enter some details about yourself and check the various boxes about giving or receiving mentorship, as well as grant needs. Like proposals, you can come back and edit this later.

After that’s done, clicking on the “Submit a new proposal” button gives you the choice of proposal type, and from there you enter your proposal. We’ve provided some guidelines on the types of proposals you can submit, so please be sure to check out the following pages for more information:
We look forward to seeing all of your proposals in the coming months!

Written by Brian Curtin
Edited by Kaitlin Dershaw Durbin

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