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The coolest thing about !!Con (other than the amazing talks) is the blinded talk submission process. Talks are purely evaluated on content, not speaker nor the

The coolest thing about !!Con (other than the amazing talks) is the blinded talk submission process. Talks are purely evaluated on content, not speaker nor the speaker's attributes in any way.

revx 7y ago
Thanks! If I may link my own blog, we have a writeup of our selection process here: https://organicdonut.com/2018/03/the-con-talk-anonymization-and-selection-process/ https://organicdonut.com/2018/03/the-con-talk-anonymization-...
- mmastrac 7y ago
  Thanks for that link. I have not had an opportunity to read the detail on this (only that it _was_ anonymized). I hope this becomes a model for all conferences.
ValentineC 7y ago
> Talks are purely evaluated on content, not speaker nor the speaker's attributes in any way. Personally, I think one problem with evaluating talks purely on written proposals is that the process misses out on whether a submitter is able to attract the audience's attention, and to convey their points within the allocated time. Written proposals can be heavily edited; talks on stage (especially if there isn't a rehearsal beforehand — most conferences wouldn't have the resources to do this) can't.
- bjonnh 7y ago
  So what would work better? Video proposals of an excerpt of the talk in front of a webcam? If you make sure the jury isn't biased why not (they could also be biased with written proposals of course)
  - ValentineC 7y ago
    Ah, I forgot to add: evaluating talks purely on anonymous talk proposals. I admire conferences that rigorously aim for blind selection to give all speaker candidates a fair chance, but I feel that the audience occasionally gets the short end of the stick with a bad presenter. > So what would work better? I think a two-pass approach could work better. The first anonymised pass is for rating and commenting on the written talk proposals. A second pass, with candidate names revealed, would help fine-tune the lineup and make sure that it's the best it can be. It could also include watching the candidate's talks at other conferences, to see if they're good at communicating their ideas.
  - jeremyc96 7y ago
    Something needs to be done. There were men in lipstick and skirts making a mockery of your processes. Perhaps moderators could more actively preview prerecorded submissions and be ready on the banhammer for live ones.
jeremyc96 7y ago
In some cases, that was unfortunately quite apparent.

The coolest thing about !!Con (other than the amazing talks) is the blinded talk submission process. Talks are purely evaluated on content, not speaker nor the speaker's attributes in any way.

revx 7y ago

Thanks! If I may link my own blog, we have a writeup of our selection process here: https://organicdonut.com/2018/03/the-con-talk-anonymization-and-selection-process/ https://organicdonut.com/2018/03/the-con-talk-anonymization-...

mmastrac 7y ago
Thanks for that link. I have not had an opportunity to read the detail on this (only that it _was_ anonymized). I hope this becomes a model for all conferences.

ValentineC 7y ago

> Talks are purely evaluated on content, not speaker nor the speaker's attributes in any way. Personally, I think one problem with evaluating talks purely on written proposals is that the process misses out on whether a submitter is able to attract the audience's attention, and to convey their points within the allocated time. Written proposals can be heavily edited; talks on stage (especially if there isn't a rehearsal beforehand — most conferences wouldn't have the resources to do this) can't.

bjonnh 7y ago
So what would work better? Video proposals of an excerpt of the talk in front of a webcam? If you make sure the jury isn't biased why not (they could also be biased with written proposals of course)
- ValentineC 7y ago
  Ah, I forgot to add: evaluating talks purely on anonymous talk proposals. I admire conferences that rigorously aim for blind selection to give all speaker candidates a fair chance, but I feel that the audience occasionally gets the short end of the stick with a bad presenter. > So what would work better? I think a two-pass approach could work better. The first anonymised pass is for rating and commenting on the written talk proposals. A second pass, with candidate names revealed, would help fine-tune the lineup and make sure that it's the best it can be. It could also include watching the candidate's talks at other conferences, to see if they're good at communicating their ideas.
- jeremyc96 7y ago
  Something needs to be done. There were men in lipstick and skirts making a mockery of your processes. Perhaps moderators could more actively preview prerecorded submissions and be ready on the banhammer for live ones.

jeremyc96 7y ago

In some cases, that was unfortunately quite apparent.