4 Step Process to write a conference proposal and get selected
Interested in speaking at a conference? Want to inspire people through your stories? The first step towards doing that is writing a conference proposal. Then, submit it to a conference of your choice.
I am a program chair of several testing conferences. I have reviewed hundreds of proposals and also have submitted to several conferences to get a chance to speak. Based on this experience, I figured out the 4 step process to write a great conference proposal to maximize your chances of getting selected to speak.
Have a catchy title
First of all, I am going to blow your mind by spilling the beans here. Conference reviewers are practitioners like you and me who volunteer their time to help out a conference. They DO NOT get paid. Secondly, they usually batch up ten to fifteen proposals at a time to review in midst of their busy schedule.
With this being said yours need to stand out from the rest of the proposals and one way to do that is to have a catchy title.
Limit yourself to 2 paragraphs
Your abstracts shouldn't be more than two paragraphs. Trust me, reviewers do not want to read long and verbose abstracts because they have limited time.
Have a structure
Get, right to the point. The first paragraph is where you set the stage for your talk. Start with an introduction to your talk and discuss some problems and challenges related to your topic.
The second paragraph should have information on what will be covered in your talk, what attendees are going to learn from it and why they should come to your talk.
Mention Key Takeaways
Add 3-4 bullet points clearly mentioning the key takeaways from the talk. This helps to give a short and quick synopsis of your talk to the reviewers