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Show HN: Call to Speakers – Find and track conference speaking opportunities

83 points by conroy 12y ago

tehwebguy 12y ago
Super cool, are you open to non-tech, non-business speakers?
- conroy 12y ago
  Right now I'm only focusing on tech conferences. After that, I'll probably focus on science, health, and medical conferences.
taprun 12y ago
Great idea! I like how you'll email me about upcoming opportunities. I just wish I could add my zip code and get opportunities within a fixed range of my address.
- conroy 12y ago
  I'm planning on adding filtering to the site and email notifications. However, right now there aren't that many new conferences each week (<20), so it's easy to scan through them.
bdcravens 12y ago
You really need to add ability to filter by categories.
- conroy 12y ago
  What categories would you like to filter on? I was thinking `programming language` and location.
  - monkey_slap 12y ago
    Or maybe "technology". For instance I'm only interested in speaking at iOS/app conferences. I speak on design, programming, and business. So, a single language isn't as important to me.
  - bdcravens 12y ago
    Location, but needn't be too localized. (I think most people travel nationwide) I'd filter on language, but also include "concepts" (for instance, mobile, or startups). You also should identify conferences which aren't immediately obvious what the language is, or that cover other languages. (for instance, RIACon was traditionally a ColdFusion conference, but in recent years has added a JavaScript track; Ruby conferences usually have some functional talks, etc)
  - zacharycohn 12y ago
    Honestly, I'd initially just filter by region or continent. Going down to the country region only adds complexity for people who don't mind traveling to countries nearby. And the volume of conferences isn't SO high that you'll get a huge list by selecting just a continent.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - rtfeldman 12y ago
    Technology, not location. Farther-away conferences are a plus if you enjoy travel! However, I'm never going to be an expert in PHP...
bevacqua 12y ago
Excellent resource! I added you to my Twitter conf-stalking list. I assume you tweet about every single CFP posted on the site?
- conroy 12y ago
  Yep! The account is set up to tweet once every three hours. Each conference will be tweeted three times: when it's added, 14 days before closing, and 3 days before closing.
hd243fe 12y ago
This site shouldn't really be called "call to speakers" but "call to attenders". Only last 3 conferences on the list have still open call for papers/speakers. From the other last one closed in July. The deadline counts down to the conference not call for papers deadline. The site itself doesn't really provide any useful information for submitters. You have to dig it all up yourself - I'm wondering beside giving a list of conferences (in pretty near future, cause conferences in March that are last on the site will be closing call for papers pretty soon) - what is the value added?
- conroy 12y ago
  Not sure you're looking at the same list. All conference on the front page have open calls for speakers. The deadline counts down to close for the call, not the start of the conference. What other information are you looking for? I provide the link to the application, as well as all important dates for the conference.
toddgardner 12y ago
Brilliant, very useful. Found and applied to a few that I didn't know were open.
rtfeldman 12y ago
Songkick for Conferences! Love it! I signed up immediately.
- simonw 12y ago
  If you're excited about Songkick for conferences, have you tried http://lanyrd.com/ http://lanyrd.com/ (I'm a co-founder)?
rtfeldman 12y ago
Suggestion: wherever the information is available (with the understanding that it's usually not public), a very helpful thing to know is what the conference's default policy is on travel/lodging for speakers. If a conference is far away, but pays for travel and lodging, that's very different than if you're going to be out a lot of cash if you want to speak there. Knowing this up front can make a big difference in deciding whether to submit a talk.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
up_and_up 12y ago
Suggestion: You should add keyword filtering and allow me to receive an email alert when a speaking opportunity in my speciality becomes available.
dpeck 12y ago
Theres something similar thats become somewhat popular in the infosec space, https://secore.info/ https://secore.info/ Its a bit clunky and has been around for a while without getting a lot of attention, but its been quite useful.
simonw 12y ago
Lanyrd also has a calls for speakers feature: http://lanyrd.com/calls/ http://lanyrd.com/calls/ (I don't want to detract from this post, just want to make people aware of the data we have. Having a dedicated service that curates and emails out this kind of information is definitely a plus for the community - our CFP feature isn't particularly well publicised)
signal 12y ago
Speaking of speakers: The official deadline has just past (we just missed this!) but I'd love to have some HNers submit for DevOps Days Toronto here: http://devopsdays.org/events/2014-toronto/propose http://devopsdays.org/events/2014-toronto/propose

83 points by conroy 12y ago

tehwebguy 12y ago

Super cool, are you open to non-tech, non-business speakers?

conroy 12y ago
Right now I'm only focusing on tech conferences. After that, I'll probably focus on science, health, and medical conferences.

taprun 12y ago

Great idea! I like how you'll email me about upcoming opportunities. I just wish I could add my zip code and get opportunities within a fixed range of my address.

conroy 12y ago
I'm planning on adding filtering to the site and email notifications. However, right now there aren't that many new conferences each week (<20), so it's easy to scan through them.

bdcravens 12y ago

You really need to add ability to filter by categories.

conroy 12y ago
What categories would you like to filter on? I was thinking `programming language` and location.
- monkey_slap 12y ago
  Or maybe "technology". For instance I'm only interested in speaking at iOS/app conferences. I speak on design, programming, and business. So, a single language isn't as important to me.
- bdcravens 12y ago
  Location, but needn't be too localized. (I think most people travel nationwide) I'd filter on language, but also include "concepts" (for instance, mobile, or startups). You also should identify conferences which aren't immediately obvious what the language is, or that cover other languages. (for instance, RIACon was traditionally a ColdFusion conference, but in recent years has added a JavaScript track; Ruby conferences usually have some functional talks, etc)
- zacharycohn 12y ago
  Honestly, I'd initially just filter by region or continent. Going down to the country region only adds complexity for people who don't mind traveling to countries nearby. And the volume of conferences isn't SO high that you'll get a huge list by selecting just a continent.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- rtfeldman 12y ago
  Technology, not location. Farther-away conferences are a plus if you enjoy travel! However, I'm never going to be an expert in PHP...

bevacqua 12y ago

Excellent resource! I added you to my Twitter conf-stalking list. I assume you tweet about every single CFP posted on the site?

conroy 12y ago
Yep! The account is set up to tweet once every three hours. Each conference will be tweeted three times: when it's added, 14 days before closing, and 3 days before closing.

hd243fe 12y ago

This site shouldn't really be called "call to speakers" but "call to attenders". Only last 3 conferences on the list have still open call for papers/speakers. From the other last one closed in July. The deadline counts down to the conference not call for papers deadline. The site itself doesn't really provide any useful information for submitters. You have to dig it all up yourself - I'm wondering beside giving a list of conferences (in pretty near future, cause conferences in March that are last on the site will be closing call for papers pretty soon) - what is the value added?

conroy 12y ago
Not sure you're looking at the same list. All conference on the front page have open calls for speakers. The deadline counts down to close for the call, not the start of the conference. What other information are you looking for? I provide the link to the application, as well as all important dates for the conference.

toddgardner 12y ago

Brilliant, very useful. Found and applied to a few that I didn't know were open.

rtfeldman 12y ago

Songkick for Conferences! Love it! I signed up immediately.

simonw 12y ago
If you're excited about Songkick for conferences, have you tried http://lanyrd.com/ http://lanyrd.com/ (I'm a co-founder)?

rtfeldman 12y ago

Suggestion: wherever the information is available (with the understanding that it's usually not public), a very helpful thing to know is what the conference's default policy is on travel/lodging for speakers. If a conference is far away, but pays for travel and lodging, that's very different than if you're going to be out a lot of cash if you want to speak there. Knowing this up front can make a big difference in deciding whether to submit a talk.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

up_and_up 12y ago

Suggestion: You should add keyword filtering and allow me to receive an email alert when a speaking opportunity in my speciality becomes available.

dpeck 12y ago

Theres something similar thats become somewhat popular in the infosec space, https://secore.info/ https://secore.info/ Its a bit clunky and has been around for a while without getting a lot of attention, but its been quite useful.

simonw 12y ago

Lanyrd also has a calls for speakers feature: http://lanyrd.com/calls/ http://lanyrd.com/calls/ (I don't want to detract from this post, just want to make people aware of the data we have. Having a dedicated service that curates and emails out this kind of information is definitely a plus for the community - our CFP feature isn't particularly well publicised)

signal 12y ago

Speaking of speakers: The official deadline has just past (we just missed this!) but I'd love to have some HNers submit for DevOps Days Toronto here: http://devopsdays.org/events/2014-toronto/propose http://devopsdays.org/events/2014-toronto/propose