Selection Criteria
In terms of the overarching themes or values in the proposals, we look at the following criteria during selection:
Diversity
As a conference, we want to be more inclusive (different approaches, different frameworks, gender, countries, backgrounds etc.). We encourage more women speakers but we won't select any proposal just because it came from them. But given we have to pick 1 out of 2 equal proposal, we'll pick the one, which was proposed by a female speaker.
Balance
We want to strike a good balance between different types of presentations (expert talks, experience reports, tutorials, workshops, etc.) and different types of experience the speakers bring to the conference.
Practicality
People come to a conference to learn, network, have an experience and leave motivated. Proposals which directly help this are always preferred. While a little bit of theory is good, but if the proposal lacks practical application, it does not really help the participants. Also people learn more by doing rather than listening. If a proposal has an element of "learning by doing" it wins over other proposals. Take people on a learning journey.
Opportunity
While we want to ensure the conference has at least 70% rock solid speakers, we also want to give an opportunity to new speakers, who have real potential.
Originality
Original ideas win hands-down over a copied one. People always prefer listening to an idea from its creator rather than second or third person. However, you might have taken an idea and tweaked it in your context. You would have gained an insight by doing so. And certainly all of us want to hear your first-hand experience, even though you were not the creator of the original idea. We are looking for thought leadership.
Radical Ideas
We really respect people, who push the boundaries and challenge the status quo. We have a soft-corner for unconventional ideas and will try our best to support them and bring awareness to their work.
Demand
Votes on a proposal and buzz on social media gives us an idea of how many people are really interested in the topic. (We fully understand votes can be gamed and we will take the lack of community interest into consideration)
Good Proposal Attributes
Once the proposal fits into our value system, here are some basic/obvious stuff we expect when we look at the proposal in the submission system:
- Is the Title matching the Abstract?
- Under the Outline/Structure of the Session, will the time break-up for each sub-topic will do justice to the topic?
- Is there a logical sequencing/progression of the topics?
- Has the speaker selected the best matching theme for the proposal?
- Is the Target Audience specific and correct? Also does it match with the level of the audience?
- Is the Learning Outcome clearly articulated? Ideally 3-5 points, one on each line.
- Based on the Outline/Structure, will the speaker be able to achieve the Learning Outcomes?
- Based on the slides URL, does the speaker have good quality content and good way to present it?
- Based on the video URL, does the speaker have a good presentation (edutainment) skills? Will the speaker be able to hold the attention of a large audience?
- Based on the additional links, does the speaker have subject matter expertise and thought leadership on the proposed topic?
- Are the Labels/Tags meaningful?
Best Selection Chance
Proposal stands the best chance to be selected, if it's unique, fully flushed, ready-to-go. Speaker please ensure to provide links to your:
- previous conference or user group presentations
- open source project contributions
- slides & videos of (present/past) presentations (other conferences or local user group or in-office)
- blog posts or articles on this topic
- and so on...
When selecting a proposal, we pay attention not only to the quality of the proposal, but also quality of the speaker, i.e. whether the speaker will be able to effectively present/share their knowledge with others. Hence past speaking experience (videos & slides) are extremely important. If you don't have a video from past conference presentation, that's fine. Try to setup google hangout in one of your upcoming local user group meeting or internal office meeting, where you are presenting and share that link. This will give the committee a feel for your presentation skills and subject matter expertise.
Compensation for Speakers
Speakers will be compensated as follows:
| 1 proposal accepted | 1 conference access pass + 1 hotel night |
| 2 or more proposals accepted | 1 conference access pass + 2 hotel nights |
IMPORTANT: Hotel night(s) is only available to speakers not staying in Singapore.
IMPORTANT: There is no compensation for co-presenter.
