EmberConf 2019 CFP

EmberConf 2019 is now accepting proposals for talks. Join us March 18-20 in the great city of Portland, OR!

Proposals will be accepted from October 8th through November 18th at 11:59pm pacific time. We'll be voting on talks on a rolling basis, so your odds are indeed better if you submit earlier, though we'll definitely leave slots open to the very end. We'll also attempt to send feedback sooner than our final evaluation, so the earlier you submit, the more chance you'll have to tweak your pitch and improve your odds.

The first several rounds of reviews in our CFP are blind. To respect this process, please refrain from including biographical information in your talk abstract or details. Note that this also means if you receive any feedback, the reviewers don't know who you are. Again, refrain from identifying yourself (or any existing relationships with the reviewer) in any exchanges as part of this process.

Conference talks will be 30 minutes total; if you'd like time to take questions, plan for a 25 minute talk followed by questions, though questions are generally discouraged due to the size of the audience and the logistics involved.

You may also submit Workshop and MiniTalk proposals.

If your Conference Talk or Workshop is selected you'll receive the following:

• —a free pass to attend the conference
• —$500 speaker honorarium
• —invitation to a fantastic foodie-heaven speaker dinner
• —special speaker-only gifts
• —$800 in airfare or hotel funding
• —likely additional expense coverage

...and other special speaker privileges and invitations.

Each year we hope and plan to help put additional moneys towards expenses (as in, in addition to the honorarium and baseline $800), but this will depend upon sponsorships and ticket sales. We're optimistic and will update speakers as things develop. The last four years we were able to reimburse speakers for 100% of travel and accommodation expenses, in addition to the honoraria.

MiniTalks are like Lightning Talks, just with more prep time. They don't include the speaker perks mentioned above, but are a really great opportunity to get in front of the EmberConf audience and be a part of something great. Some will be selected up front with the regular program, with a few slots saved for closer to the conference for timeliness.

General Note: While there are sometimes talks that could be good fits for any generic technical conference, it is important that talks at EmberConf make sure to tie their topics into Ember. For example, if you have a general talk with demos, expect to update your demos to work with Ember.

EmberConf is intended to be an inclusive, welcoming conference for everyone. Our Code of Conduct can be found here: http://emberconf.com/about.html#code-of-conduct.

NOTE: If you are accepted as a speaker and have already purchased a ticket, we'll refund it, 100%. So don't wait, be sure you have a seat either way!

If you have questions others might, or want to brainstorm with Ember friends, there's an ember-conf channel in the Ember Community Discord.

For those of you with family obligations, note that EmberConf will have on-site childcare and nursing mother facilities available both conference days. You'll be asked about this upon registration if accepted, and if purchasing a regular conference ticket.

We will also have closed captioning, an accessible venue, gender-neutral restrooms, vegan/vegetarian/allergy-friendly food options, and a host of other accommodations. Feel free to reach out if you're concerned about anything that isn't spelled out here or in our event FAQ.

Want better chances of getting in?: Submit a video pitch! And by that, I don't mean a pitch for why we should accept your talk. Pretend we did, and submit a video advertising the talk to potential attendees. If your talk is selected, we'll use these clips (:20 to 1:00) to promote you and the conference. Just include a YouTube URL in the field where we ask for your Pitch Video. We won't see these in the blind phase, but we'll go through them when making final decisions and resolving tiebreakers. Not a requirement, and if you're uncomfortable with a video of your person being out there, feel free to be creative and show us something else instead :)

Conference information: http://www.emberconf.com/
Questions? Bugs? email [email protected].

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FAQs:

We'll add to this as we notice questions coming from multiple sources.

1. Can I edit my proposal after I submit it?

Very much yes! In fact, that's the idea—you get feedback, and then you edit to improve, and then you get accepted <3

Also, this means you shouldn't hold up submitting because you haven't finished something like your video yet. Info that doesn't get seen in the blind phase is even less urgent, though we don't want you to put it off indefinitely.

Once the CFP ends of course, things get a lot more final fast.

2. Can I have more than one presenter?

Our thoughts on this are nuanced. The blanket answer is yes, you can submit a talk with as many presenters as you'd like—the app will allow it.

Digging in a bit though, talks with multiple speakers are significantly less likely to get accepted. If we have any, it'll probably be limited to one in the entire program. In practice, they're just incredibly difficult to do well, and so when there are enough single-speaker proposals, we're more likely to choose the less risky path.

Please note: we budget for one honorarium (and eventually, one expense coverage budget) per speaker. Talks with multiple speakers will most likely end up needing to split any funding.

3. I submitted a proposal but haven't received any feedback. Is everything alright?

Yep! Not all submissions will receive feedback. This is partially because our resources are limited, but also because some of them will be 100% clear, and no clarifications will be required. So not getting any feedback isn't an indicator of how your proposal has been received.

Also, of course, the earlier you submit, the more likely it is that you'll receive questions and/or feedback from reviewers.

4. I want to submit a Workshop proposal. Can you tell me more?

To submit a Workshop, be sure you've tagged your proposal as such.

Workshops take place Monday, the day before the first day of the conference. There are morning and afternoon slots and they're each three hours long, including breaks (when and how long are up to the instructor).

Class sizes can range from 30 to 50 depending on instructor comfort levels, and at least one Teacher's Assistant is required (two full instructors may be helpful too, depending on the curriculum). If you have a workshop but no TA, we may be able to help with that, depending on your topic. Just be sure to include any specifications in your Details section.

Primary Workshop Speakers receive all the same perks and reimbursements as regular conference speakers, and a limited number of TA's or secondary instructors (depending on class size) receive free conference admission for each accepted workshop. There may also be additional accommodations for workshops depending on needs and arrangements, and we're happy to work with you to make sure everything feels fair and worthwhile for you.

5. My employer can cover my travel expenses. Can they receive sponsorship credit for that?

They can indeed! Please inform us upon acceptance. We haven't added anything asking about this to the submission form, as we don't want financial considerations to accidentally influence final acceptances. Employer sponsorship helps us greatly on the budgetary front—thanks to you and them for considering it!