Submit a Talk to PyCon ZA 2018

What Kinds of Proposals are we accepting?

  • Talks: Talks have a 45-minute slot. The talk should be 30 minutes leaving 10 minutes for questions and 5 minutes for moving between venues.
  • Keynotes: A keynote is a 30-45 minute talk on a broad topic that should be of interest to almost all of the attendees.
  • Tutorials: Tutorials are in-depth sessions held the day before the main conference. Tutorials can be up to 4 hours long.
  • Demos: Demos are cool things for attendees to see and interact with. For example, a large LED display attached to a Python sandbox that attendees can submit code to have the output displayed in the lounge outside the main talk venue.
  • Open Spaces: Open spaces are open discussion forums where communities with a common interest gather to present views, ask questions and meet people interested in the topic. These can be arranged during the conference as well, but registering an open space allows us to advertise it before and during the conference.
  • Sprints: Sprints are coding and hack days that happen after on the Saturday and Sunday after the conference. There's no need to register a sprint topic upfront, but doing so allows us to advertise your sprint to attendees.

Submission Deadline

Tutorial submissions close on Friday, 31st August 2018.

The deadline for talk submissions is Friday, 17th September 2018.

Talk tracks

To simplify scheduling, and help reviewers, this year we are dividing the submissions into a number of tracks, including an official PyData track.

See the track details page for more information.

How To Submit A Proposal

  • Create a PyCon ZA 2018 account (or login if you already have one) by clicking on the Create Account/login button on the top right.
  • On your profile page, click Edit User and fill in your name if you didn't do so during account creation.
  • On your profile page, click Edit Profile and fill in a contact number. Contact numbers are never displayed on the site but organizers need them in case they need to contact speakers urgently (e.g. shortly before or during the conference).
  • On your profile page, click Submit talk proposal on the right.
  • Fill in the title and abstract for your talk and select the appropriate speaker (or speakers).
  • Select the appropriate talk type for your proposal.
  • Select the appropriate talk track for the proposal. If you're unsure, just use Other.
  • Done!

What Happens Next?

  • After you've submitted a talk, we'll email you to let you know that we've received your talk proposal. We'll ask questions if we're unsure of anything and help you make your abstract as shiny as possible.
  • Then there'll be a long wait while other proposals to come in.
  • We'll start accepting talks at the end of August (tutorials will be settled earlier). If it's important for you to know before then, let us know and we'll work something out.

What If I'm New to Speaking?

If you're new to speaking and would like assistance preparing your talk, email team@za.pycon.org with a rough draft of your talk proposal and we'll find a suitably experienced speaker to act as a mentor.

Financial aid

PyCon ZA is a small conference and as a result, we have a limited budget. We do try to make some funding available, but it is limited, and we cannot guarantee that we will be able to fund any specific proposal. (More information on financial aid and how to apply for it.)

FAQ

If I'm a speaker, do I need to purchase a ticket?

Yes. Python conferences have long had a policy of everyone pays. Even the organizers have to purchase tickets.

How do I edit my talk submission?

Your talk submissions will be listed on your profile page. If you go to the individual proposal page by clicking on the talk title, you should see an "Edit" button to the right of the title. Note that you can only edit the proposal while it's under consideration. Once a final decision has been made, it can no longer be edited. If you need to add or edit something after a proposal has been accepted, please contact the talk committee with the details.

Can I submit multiple talks / tutorials / other?

Talks and Tutorials are treated independently, so it's fine to submit both a talk and a tutorial.

You can also submit multiple Talk and Keynote proposals, but, to encourage speaker diversity, we will generally only accept one of your proposals. If you do submit multiple proposals, please let us know which proposal you would most like to present, so we can use that as a potential tie-breaker.

Multiple proposals for the other options are fine, but we do expect you to be realistic when submitting multiple proposals.