Submit A Talk

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 one and a half hours long and have a smaller venue with space for ten to twenty attendees.
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.
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.
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.

How To Submit A Proposal

Create a PyConZA 2016 account (or login if you already have one) by clicking on the Create Account / Log in 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.
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.
The talk committee will consider all talk proposals and in each case decide whether to accept it or not for the conference.
We'll likely start accepting talks sometime in August. 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 suitable experienced speaker to act as a mentor.

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. We do have a limited financial assistance program, so if funding is a big issue, please email team@za.pycon.org and we'll see if we can help.

When is the talk submission deadline?

PyConZA is a small conference and as a result we seldom have many more talk submissions than places for talks. As a result, we're often accepting talks until shortly before the conference. A deadline for talk submissions would discourage late submissions, which we'd like to avoid doing. The important date is the beginning of August, which is when we start accepting talks. :)

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 on 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.