Call for Proposals – The Details

This document applies to Oxidize Berlin CFP. The proposals will be reviewed by our CFP Committee.

We are inviting the Rust community to submit talks for our conference! Our CFP process is based on the process used at JSConf EU 2012, eurucamp 2012-2015 and QtDevCon.

Oxidize welcomes experienced and newcomer speakers alike. Your talks will be graded on topic fit first and foremost. If you've never been on stage before, we're happy to be the conference where it happens!

Session length

Talks are 15 minutes or 30 minutes long, with 30 minutes being the default. Sometimes, a topic works better in brief though, so we give the option to submit in that length!

Topics for Oxidize

Oxidize is a Rust event with a specific angle. We are looking for Rust topics or topics relevant to professional Rust use in the industry. This can range from presentations about past and ongoing projects to thoughts about opportunities (and also gaps) in the language. Community topics that cross the intersection between Rust communities and other communities of practice are also very welcome.

Oxidize talks can be technical and deeply technical, but should come out the context of a project.

Talks should:

• Bring practical knowledge for the attendees.
• Be applicable in a short time.
• Discuss the unique challenges of creating Rust applications and/or adopting it in industry settings.
• The goal of the conference is to make the attendees better Rust programmers. Talks about general aspects of programming may be off-topic for this conference (as interesting as they may be).

If you feel unsure about whether your topic fits that angle, we recommend to still submit, but also consider our friends from RustNL and RustFest Zürich for a submission.

Open slots and chances of acceptance

Oxidize comprises of two days of talks, the exact schedule and some talk formats to still be defined (e.g. we may host a panel if we find an interesting group).

Most slots are open and will be filled through the CFP. Only the keynote speakers and workshop hosts are invited.

Expecations

The chances of your proposal getting accepted depend on the quality of your abstract.

While we don’t need to see your entire presentation in advance, your abstract should still be detailed enough to make the committee members able to assess your talk on its merits. Therefore, your abstract should make the committee members understand what your talk will be about, what specific topics will be discussed, which limitations the proposed approach has (if applicable; e.g., is it platform specific?), and so on. If the talk was already presented in the past, please mention so, and possibly discuss what is going to be different since the last time it has been presented.

Especially important are the take-aways from your talk. What will the audience have learned? How will it improve the attendees’ everyday life as software developers using Rust or how will it help make people the decision for Rust?

Our goal at Oxidize is to expand the understanding of how Rust is being used in corporate settings and the breadth of technology being developed in the language. Successful proposals should help us meet that goal.

We Do Help

There are about a million reasons why you don’t consider yourself a speaker. We are here to prove you wrong. We are your conference, regardless of whether this is your first time on stage or you are an experienced speaker. If you are unsure, feel free to contact us:

• We are happy to brainstorm your interests to see if a great topic is hiding.
• We are happy to connect you with mentors early on to help prepare your submission.
• We are happy to review and advise on how to produce a slide deck.
• If you need practice giving talks, get in touch, we can hook you up with local groups or set up a stage for you and a bunch of friends in advance, so you can practice in front of a friendly crowd.
• Again, whatever else you might need, we’re here to help.

Get in touch: speakers@oxidizeconf.com (just don’t use this to submit a proposal).

If you need more encouragement, check out the following site from Tiffany Conroy, We Are All Awesome that tries to convince you to speak. For guides on the practical parts, see Zach Holmans speaking.io.

Accessibility

OxidizeConf care about accessibility a lot. Please see the details at the main conference page.

The Selection Process

Here is how we select speakers:

• Anonymise submissions, so we don’t bias against anything related to the submitter.
• Two rounds of voting:
  • The first round rates each talk on a scale from 1 to 5.
  • The top-N (~30) submissions are selected into the second round.
• De-anonymise so we can (finally) bias against speaker details (e.g. to find a mix across industries). We do want new speakers on the conference, so don't fear losing out to "the pros" in the last minute. "We don't know you" is a slight plus point.

We expect more submissions than speaking slots. The process helps us to select the right ones.

Guidelines

Submit your proposal by the communicated closing time. No excuses. We are lenient in case of technical failure.

All talks are in English. If English is not your first (or even second) language that is totally okay, our attendees understand and are supportive. Should that still be a barrier, let us know and we may find, but not commit, to a way to support you.

Talks are usually 15 or 30 minutes long (for longer talks we’d get in touch with you directly). That includes 3-5 minutes of Q&A. We will be on a tight schedule and enforce the end of a talk rigorously. Please notify us in advance how long you want your slot to be. We suggest timing your presentation in advance.

Make sure you care and make sure we see you care. Proper formatting and correct writing make it easier for us to review your proposal. Please note, that a lack of the above might affect the chances of approval. Of course we are lenient around second-language English speakers mistakes.

Don’t overdo it either. If you need more than two paragraphs to get to the point of your topic, we need to ask you to slim things down. With the amount of submissions we get, the quicker you can make a good impression, the better.

“I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time” — Blaise Pascal

Original Topics. One of the things we want to do with Oxidize is to push the industry forward. We can’t do this if the same people keep talking about the same things all the time. Thus, we favour original content. If you want to discuss a topic that you have talked about elsewhere, try to add a twist, or new research, or development, something unique. Of course, if your talk is plain awesome as-is, go for that :).

The Perks

If you get selected as a speaker at RustFest, here’s what you get:

• Entrance to the conference. We can’t guarantee ticket availability by the time we’re done with speaker selections, so if you want to make sure you can attend, you may want to purchase a ticket regardless. If you get selected to speak and if you need to, we can refund your ticket, but if you don’t, we can spend more money on making the conference more awesome.
• Hotel costs for you and possibly significant other and family, given budget. Please get in contact soon after your acceptance.
• Travel coverage on request for those that need it.
• Companies covering the travel of their employees get an equivalent rebate on sponsorships and will be credited.

Misc

All talks may be recorded, transcribed and published on the internet for free, along with a recording of the slide deck, live-demo or other on-presenter-screen activity.

We do this for the benefit of the larger Rust community and those who can’t make it to the conference. We hope you want to help out, but if you are uncomfortable in any way, let us know and we will work things out.

You retain full ownership of your slides and recording. We’d like to ask you to make your materials and recording available under a creative commons or other open source license.

This Call for Papers closed on 2024-04-02 23:59 (Europe/Berlin).