Starting with nothing
Well, almost nothing
A lot of conferences have calls for proposals (CFPs) months before the conference, but the speakers often present super-fresh stuff. I had a hunch, so I asked the Twitters:
Have you ever submitted a talk proposal on a topic you knew little about, or for a project you hadn't really started, or an incomplete idea?
— Tiffany Conroy (@theophani) June 12, 2012
Were you successful? Were you selected? How was the talk? Please tell me about it! I'm collecting experiences.
— Tiffany Conroy (@theophani) June 12, 2012
And?
What I found out did not surprise me, but it might surprise you:
@theophani all the time.
— Ole Bahlmann (@ole_b) June 12, 2012
@theophani Definitely.
— Menno van Slooten (@mennovanslooten) June 12, 2012
@theophani That's pretty much my job description. :)
— David Herman (@littlecalculist) June 12, 2012
@theophani yep! and it turned out great!
— Martin Brochhaus (@mbrochh) June 12, 2012
@theophani I gave a talk on indie rappers and similarities between their hustle and businesses building open source once. It went well.
— Corey Donohoe (@atmos) June 12, 2012
It’s totally common in academia
@theophani Yes. presenting on it in 3 weeks.
— moink (@moink_tdr) June 12, 2012
@theophani It's not abnormal in academia - great way to get feedback on the direction you're going. Can take guts though.
— moink (@moink_tdr) June 12, 2012
@theophani Yes. Not uncommon in science as abstract submission can be as much as 9 months before the conference.
— Mark James Adams (@mja) June 12, 2012
@theophani A presenter once said “The best model in the abstract is wrong. This is actually the best model.”
— Mark James Adams (@mja) June 12, 2012
… and in our industry as well
@theophani yes. It went really well as I was forced to understand the topic in detail to write the talk. And my approach to learning...
— Christian Heilmann(@codepo8) June 12, 2012
@theophani ...became part of the talk. It is good for the audience to learn with you rather than just hear from you.
— Christian Heilmann(@codepo8) June 12, 2012
@theophani yes. That’s called Talk Driven Development. (-: /cc @janl
— Sean Coates (@coates) June 12, 2012
@coates @theophani on the organiser side we call that conference driven development, if somebody submits a thing we want to see :)
— Jan Lehnardt (@janl) June 12, 2012
@theophani yep, we at @unhosted call it »conference-driven development«. I also do it for personal projects, got 2 coming up.
— Jan-C. Borchardt (@jancborchardt) June 12, 2012
@theophani @janl not on a topic I didn't know about, but nearly always a incomplete or non-started idea.
— Remy Sharp (@rem) June 12, 2012
And it’s highly recommended
@theophani yup, and this works awesomely for pushing yourself out of the comfort zone - did it several times
— Douglas Campos (@qmx) June 12, 2012
@theophani of course! Best impetus to learn it, finish it, flesh it out.
— Jessica Kerr (@jessitron) June 12, 2012
… though not by everyone
@theophani I gave a talk about Extreme Programming in '99 in a big conference after reading just the books. Was well received. Never again.
— Lalo Martins (@lalomartins) June 12, 2012
@theophani intro to the topic, in a general software conference. Generated interest, which was the goal; but I hate *watching* those
— Lalo Martins (@lalomartins) June 12, 2012
@theophani yes, i did and i succeded. But only on usergroups :-)
— Fabian Blechschmidt (@Fabian_ikono) June 12, 2012
@theophani I thought about, but I have not enough time to read into the topic and made a presentation. Time is missing all the time :-(
— Fabian Blechschmidt (@Fabian_ikono) June 12, 2012
It’s a great way to motivate yourself
@theophani Submitting talk proposals for incomplete projects is my primary method of setting deadlines ;)
— Jan Schmidt (@thaytan) June 12, 2012
@theophani it’s like forcing deadlines for yourself.
— Jan-C. Borchardt (@jancborchardt) June 12, 2012
@theophani Yeah a couple of times. Talks on Primer and Sinewav.es were proposed before I'd really started the project.
— James Coglan (@jcoglan) June 12, 2012
@theophani It's a tremendous motivating force.
— James Coglan (@jcoglan) June 12, 2012
It’s a great way to learn
@theophani @rmurphey absolutely. Nothing gets you learning like the looming threat of a deadline.
— Andy Matthews (@commadelimited) June 12, 2012
@theophani @rmurphey Constantly. For me, it's an opportunity to explore ideas and start a discussion. Always had success with it.
— Jen Myers (@antiheroine) June 12, 2012
But warning: It can be a lot of work
@theophani I totally did it here: conferenciarails.org/speakers.html#… I learnt a lot, had lots of fun and I think the audience enjoyed too. Very positive!
— Sergio (@porras) June 12, 2012
@theophani but it was a massive, ever more than expected, amount of work, much much more than any other talk I've done. Schedule carefuly!
— Sergio (@porras) June 12, 2012
@porras Would you do it again? Would you recommend that experience to others?
— Tiffany Conroy (@theophani) June 12, 2012
@theophani it was one of the best experiences I've ever had as a developer. of course I'd do it again. the only thing I would change ...
— Sergio (@porras) June 12, 2012
@theophani … is making sure I have enough time to prepare it right and actually have some sleep in the previous week
— Sergio (@porras) June 12, 2012
Learning from rejection
These are the success (mostly) stories of people whose talk proposals got accepted. But what if your proposal is rejected? That might suck, right? But even
@theophani have a lot of thoughts/experience with this.will write up later when i have time, and so curious to hear what you collect!
— kathryn rotondo (@krotondo) June 12, 2012
kathryn (@krotondo) made good on her promise to write up her thoughts and experiences: lessons from conference rejections. If you are considering submitting talk proposals, and especially if you are worried about rejection, you should read her post. My favourite line is this one:
my advice: let conference organizers decide – don’t let your intimidation prevent you from sending out a proposal.
Amen.