There are two types of talks to propose during the CFP:

• A talk during the conference part: these are 30 minute slots that will have the full attention of all attendees, as everybody will be in that one room.
• An Ignite talk that will be presented during the Ignite sessions. These are 5 minutes slots with slides changing every 15 seconds (20 slides total) which are also presented to all attendees in one room.

Our main criteria to make it to the top selection are:

• original content: content not yet presented at other conferences, or a new angle to an existing problem
• new presenters: people who are new to the space and have insightful stuff to say; we want to hear everybody’s voice
• no vendor pitches: as much as we value vendors and sponsors, we just don’t think this is the right forum. You can demo at your table or during Open Space.
• culture & practices, not tools: while you’re welcome to submit technical talks, we favor selection of topics that are not specific to a single technology or tool.
• case studies: specific examples and projects introducing DevOps culture and practices and new systems, processes, or technologies in your company.

Rules:

• Be specific… we aren’t mind readers (a description of about 20 lines is about right)
• Detail is good… but not as important as explaining why your proposal would be interesting
• Propose your own talk; don’t have someone else do it for you.
• Nominations welcome… if you know someone who has content/experience relevant to the DevOps conversation, please point us in their direction!
• Multiple proposals welcome… just follow the other rules