Call For Proposals

We want you! We don’t just want to hear from the experts or famous names–other perspectives are just as valuable! If you’ve done something that you think other people might be interested in or that you think they should know about, please tell us about it! We desire diversity! Our community is made better by a diverse set of voices, perspectives and opinions. We love having an intersectional and diverse group of presenters. So, we especially want proposals from people who reflect the diversity of our community.

We fancy first-timers! If you haven’t spoken at a conference or given a tutorial before, this is your invitation to do so. Don’t let the idea that you’re not famous or an expert stop you from submitting. It certainly won’t stop us from selecting your talk/tutorial or stop the audience from enjoying it!

Plus there are perks! Talk and tutorial givers get free admission to DjangoCon US! Grants to assist with your travel and lodging expenses are available as well. Fill out the Financial Aid application by April 10th, 2017. Decision notifications will be sent on May 15th, 2017.

How about some help?! Presenters, regardless of experience, sometimes want a little help. If you’d like any help in proposing, preparing, or presenting your talk, feel free to contact one of our mentors! A mentor is an experienced presenter who has volunteered to help other presenters. For first-time presenters, non-native English speakers, under-confident or uncertain speakers, or anyone who would just appreciate another set of eyes, our mentors are here to help. You’ll get the best results by forming a relationship with one mentor, rather than contacting several.

And if you would like to be a speaker mentor, let us know!

• Adrienne Lowe, DSF Director of Advancement, DjangoCon US and Django Girls Atlanta organizer, Your Django Story leader.

• Aisha Bello, DjangoGirls Lagos organizer, a Python community enthusiastic with a lot of passion for women tech education in Africa.

• Anna Ossowski, PSF and DSF member, PyCon US and DjangoCon US organizer, PyLadies Remote group leader.

• Frank Wiles, President of the Board, Django Software Foundation, Founder, RevSys.

• Jacob Kaplan-Moss, Former Django BDFL and current Core Contributor. Employed at 18F, partner at RevSys. Jacob would love to work with non-native English speakers.

• Katie McLaughlin, PyCon AU and DjangoCon AU Organiser, PSF Contributing Member.

• Kojo Idrissa, DjangoCon US organizer, Code Newbie, author.

• Dr Russell Keith-Magee is a 11 year veteran of the Django core team, and for 5 years, was President of the Django Software Foundation. He’s also the founder of the BeeWare project, developing GUI tools to support the development of Python software. When he’s not contributing to open source, he does freelance web development from his home in Perth, Western Australia.

• Sebastian Vetter, Vancouver Python Organizer, Senior Engineer @ Eventbase, Conference Enthusiast.

Talks

Length: (20-25 minutes) or (40-45 minutes)

We are looking for original and interesting talks that can benefit the diverse interests of our audience. Don’t feel boxed into Django-centric themes; we also love talks about community, web development, user experience, and more. If you’re a first timer - don’t fret! We would love to be remembered as the conference where you started your speaking career!

Do you have a great idea, but are unsure if you can find the resources to attend? If your talk is selected, your DjangoCon ticket is on us! Plus, we offer financial aid to assist with other expenses like travel and lodging. Fill out our financial aid application by April 10th, 2017. Decision notification will be sent out May 15th, 2017.

Still not convinced? Feel free to reach out to our speaker mentors and take advantage of the helpful hints listed below!

Important elements to include! To make sure that your proposal resonates with the reviewers, be sure you include the following elements in your submission.

• WHAT you’re going to be talking about or teaching (a topic sentence telling us what your audience will learn)
• WHY you think this talk/tutorial is important/interesting/helpful (persuasive sentence)
• HOW you’re going to get your point across (provide an outline, a couple paragraphs on what you plan to say, a link to slides, or a list of concepts you plan to touch on)
• WHO will benefit from your talk/tutorial (especially note concepts that attendees should be familiar with in order to get the most out of your presentation - ex: Models and/or Basic Database Design)

Here are all the talks from DjangoCon US 2016 and 2017:

• DjangoCon 2016 Talks
• DjangoCon 2015 Talks

And some specific examples from past years:

• Pushing the Pony’s Boundaries: Django Admin Customization - Ola Sitarska
• Entomology 101: Effective Bug Hunting - Frank Wiles
• The City as Cyborg: A History of Civic Technology in the First Quarter of the 21st Century - Mjumbe Poe
• Things That Are Tired: Uggs, Segways and You! Coming Back From Burnout - Barbara Shaurette

Tutorials

Length: ~3 - 3.5 hours

We’re open to all kinds of ideas, especially ones we haven’t thought of! Technical tutorials tend to be more popular, but we welcome all topics! Tutorials can be targeted at any experience level, just be sure to indicate clearly what you expect your students to already know or have experience with in your proposal!

Still unsure if you should submit? Not only will we cover your DjangoCon ticket, but tutorials are compensated! However, they do not include the price of your travel or lodging. If you need help with these costs, fill out the Financial Aid application by April 10th, 2017. Decision notifications will be sent on May 15th, 2017.

Important elements to include! To make sure that your proposal resonates with the reviewers, be sure you include the following elements in your submission.

• WHAT you’re going to be teaching (a topic sentence telling us what your audience will learn)
• WHY you think this tutorial is important/interesting/helpful (persuasive sentence)
• HOW you’re going to get your point across (provide an outline, a link to slides, or a list of concepts you plan to touch on)
• WHO will benefit from your tutorial (especially note concepts that attendees should be familiar with in order to get the most out of your presentation)

Here are some examples of what has been accepted over the last couple of years:

• DjangoCon 2016 Tutorials
• DjangoCon 2015 Tutorials

Other Info

Recording

Every session at DjangoCon US will have professionally-produced video recordings published to our YouTube channel.

If you do not wish to have your talk recorded, please note this in your submission. Doing so will not influence the selection process in any way.

Lightning Talks (⚡️Talks)

Time Limit: 5 minutes

Not up for a full on talk/tutorial? Looking to give your first talk at a conference? Lightning talks are talks under 5 minutes with or without slides on almost any topic you want! Even if you’re nervous or shy, remember: it’s a MAXIMUM of 5 minutes. Sign-ups will happen at the conference and more details will be forthcoming.

Selection Process

We’ll choose a selection of talks and tutorials that we feel add up to the most enjoyable and engaging program for our attendees. Volunteers from the Django community are invited to help us pick talks, and we rely heavily on them to help us select ones that are interesting and beneficial to our attendees. Community volunteers and conference organizers will all be reviewing anonymized submissions and collectively deciding which ones to accept. We’ll publish the list of selected talks as soon as we can after the deadline.