As the Call for Papers progresses for TEK·X, it dawns on me that I have the distinct privilege of having participated in the Call and Acceptance process of all three of the major PHP conferences, ZendCon, the Dutch PHP Conference, and now TEK. Thinking back, this gives me a unique perspective on the process. Since I get a lot of questions about “how do I get my talk accepted,” I thought I would share some of what I have learned. Here are a few basic rules I have discerned.

Blog it out

This is more important for new speakers than for veterans with a track record. Make sure you blog regularly about your topic. When I was at Ibuildings, I encouraged all potential speakers to blog their talk first. This forces you to think your topic through and make sure you know what you are going to say. The second thing it does for you is give you a good feel for how much content you have.

The first point is for conference organizers. If they see a steady stream of content from you on your particular subject, they can make the determination on whether you will be able to present a good session. Regular blogging (and I don’t mean a spurt of blogs just before the CfP ends) shows that this is a topic that is interesting to you. Conference organizers look for speakers who want to talk on topics they are interested in, not just knowledgeable in.

The second point is just as important. If your session is 45 minutes and you can only come up with 20 minutes of content, you need to find another topic. The same goes for the other end of the spectrum, if you’ve been given 45 minutes, don’t take 50. The best speakers, the ones that get invited back each year, are the ones that don’t cause the organizers problems like going too long.

Blog your topic, blog it a lot, and blog it in depth. Show the organizers that you not only are proficient but are passionate about your topic.

Each conference is different

Regardless of what you might think, conference organizers don’t huddle together once a year and decide who gets to speak on what. Each conference is different and so are the criteria for selection. As luck would have it, each conference tells you exactly what they are looking for in the Call for Papers. For example, talks for last year’s DPC were specifically selected to appeal to advanced PHP developers. The topics, for the most part, were more advanced and there was very little in the way of “An introduction to…” sessions. ZendCon, on the other hand, is much more targeted towards developers working in a corporate environment. They have a lot more sessions on frameworks, IDEs and other tools that improve productivity in a corporate development team. tek has traditionally been a community oriented conferences. There are a good mix of beginner and advanced topics but tek steers clear of specialization, instead making sure that there is something for everyone.

When you are preparing your idea to submit to a conference, make sure you know the focus of the conference and that your talk is appropriate to that conference.

Some topics have experts

There are endless supplies of topics that can be presented at conferences. Some of them however, are dominated by a single speaker or at best two speakers. Take for example the topic of Unit Testing. It’s a popular topic these days, given the popularity of Test Driven Development. However, it’s a difficult topic to get accepted at PHP conferences because the community has a recognized expert, Sebastian Bergmann, author of PHPUnit. The same goes for speaking on Git, Travis Swicegood actually did “write the book” on Git and presents on it regularly at conferences. When Zend framework papers are submitted, they are measured against Matthew Weier O’Phinney, the Chief Architect of Zend Framework.

This is not to say papers submitted on one of these topics won’t get accepted just because they are not by the recognized expert. However, it is more difficult. Papers on these subjects and others with recognized experts in the field have to have a unique angle not being covered by the expert or they need to be complimentary to talks that the experts usually give. There is usually room in the schedule for multiple sessions on a single topic but not for the same content.
If there is already an expert on the topic you want to present on, review old conference schedules to see what they normally present on. Make sure your content is not already covered in their talks and when possible, play off of their topic and add value. If the expert usually presents an advanced course, submit a beginner’s course on the topic and note in the abstract that it would be a good precursor to the expert’s session.

Don’t try to go head to head with the expert, try to complement their session or present new material in a unique perspective.

Be interesting

Ok, you have found your topic, you are confident that it is appropriate for the conference and either there is no recognized expert on the topic or your perspective is unique enough so that it would be complementary. The next step is to get the attention of the selection committee. Here’s a secret, on each selection committee, there is usually only one person who gets paid to manage the process and vote on selections, everyone else is volunteering. Therefore it is important that you get their attention quickly or you will just be passed over. I’ll use one of my own abstracts as an example. For ZendCon09, I presented my “Design Patterns for PHP Developers” talk. I am not the recognized expert on this subject, Jason Sweat is as he wrote a book on it. However, I knew that Jason doesn’t usually speak at ZendCon so I felt safe in submitting it. To get the attention of the selection committee though, I had to be creative. My abstract for this talk was short and sweet.

A respectful jog through the temple of the Gang of Four and then discuss real world use of the most common 4-8 patterns.

I could have just as easily said something like:

In this talk we will discuss the attributes of 4-8 common design patterns and where applicable, show sample code to illustrate their use.

Both descriptions are accurate. The first one however, more properly conveys the attitude of the session. Yes, I present the information in a meaningful way but my personal style of presentation is more whimsical than serious. In the abstract, I tried to grab the selection committee’s action long enough for them to consider the session.

Take care in writing your abstracts because interesting abstracts get more attention than boring abstracts.

Be respectful of the rules

This one is a pet peeve of mine. The rules of the Call For Papers apply to everyone, even those inside the organization running the conference. On two of the conferences I’ve been involved in, I’ve been an employee of the company putting the conference on. In both cases (one more so than the other) after the Call for Papers was closed, employees would submit their sessions for consideration. In each case, I wrote a polite email to them, like I did to non-employees in the same situation, explaining that the Call for Papers was over and that their submission could not be considered. Needles to say, this usually did not make them or their managers happy but it was the right thing to do.

A CfP has an end date for a reason. It is a difficult task to sort through the submissions and put together a schedule that meets the needs of the attendees. It complicates that process greatly if, after some sessions are already selected, new ones are submitted and have to be evaluated. More importantly, it’s not fair to the submitters who did follow the rules and got their submissions in on time.

Make sure you read the rules for submissions, understand them, and follow them to the letter.

Conclusion

Following these guidelines will not guarantee you a speaking slot at any conference. They should however, increase your chances. In the end, it boils down to this.

• Do I know you as an expert on the topic?
• Is your topic relevant?
• Have you spoken somewhere before and was it on this topic?

Conference organizers have to feel comfortable that you will deliver a session that is valuable to their attendees.