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Why Your Excellent Conference Talk Was Rejected

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Re: Why Your Excellent Conference Talk Was Rejected

#51

Post by edthrowaway »

There's a possible ugly 5th heartbreaker: "we love your topic and experience but you look too old and unhip for our hip frontend conference".

I've been rejected for conferences where every speaker that was accepted looked well under 30. At the least, no one had grey hair.

It's frustrating to me because the very same conferences are highly vocal about seeking diversity, and do usually end up with some gender diversity (although non-Asian/non-White speakers are almost always poorly represented). But there's no age diversity: everyone on stage is between 20-30, or else goes to a plastic surgeon and dresses to look that age.

Re: Why Your Excellent Conference Talk Was Rejected

#52

Post by erroneousfunk »

jazzyk wrote: post #44

There is a big elephant in the room here: Most conferences have been converted to strictly money-making entities. Here is how it works: - a RFP is published - you submit - you get a response: "Unfortunately, your proposal did not get accepted, however, we have a limited number of time slots for sponsors. If you become a silver sponsor..." In other words, you can submit any crap, as long as you provide "sponsorship".…

Although conferences are hard work to put on, and I certainly don't want to imply that the organizers don't deserve to be paid well, I've noticed a large rise in other types of (sleazy) money-making conferences as well.

I've been cold-called by several conferences before (not totally unusual, I've spoken at a few large ones, and my name's out there) where they ask me to speak, but "don't have the budget" for payment and don't reimburse or offer a stipend for travel costs. Unsurprisingly, they charge hundreds of dollars for admission, have extremely cheap venues, and a somewhat lackluster roster of gullible "expert speakers."

Sure, there's a large gray area between "not a very good conference" and "scammy ripoff" but it's another thing to watch out for.

Re: Why Your Excellent Conference Talk Was Rejected

#53

Post by zerooneinfinity »

chrisseaton wrote: post #45
jazzyk wrote: post #44

There is a big elephant in the room here: Most conferences have been converted to strictly money-making entities. Here is how it works: - a RFP is published - you submit - you get a response: "Unfortunately, your proposal did not get accepted, however, we have a limited number of time slots for sponsors. If you become a silver sponsor..." In other words, you can submit any crap, as long as you provide "sponsorship".…

I've never seen that. Has anyone else? I've had talks rejected from places even where we were sponsoring.

I've seen that in every gaming competition I've ever entered. Which is probably over twenty at this point.

Re: Why Your Excellent Conference Talk Was Rejected

#54

Post by verelo »

How has no one mentioned the gears in the background on this page yet? It's a touch distracting, but there is some smart stuff going on to make them line up.

Sadly the CSS is optimized, which makes understanding its implementation a little tough, but i suspect it'd make for fun reading!

Re: Why Your Excellent Conference Talk Was Rejected

#55

Post by draw_down »

edthrowaway wrote: post #51

There's a possible ugly 5th heartbreaker: "we love your topic and experience but you look too old and unhip for our hip frontend conference". I've been rejected for conferences where every speaker that was accepted looked well under 30. At the least, no one had grey hair. It's frustrating to me because the very same conferences are highly vocal about seeking diversity, and do usually end up with some gender diversity…

Yes, no one really wants to talk about the ageism thing. I'm not sure how much the plastic surgery thing actually happens in real life, but I too find it frustrating and sad how it's never included in the topic of diversity. It's a problem that literally everyone who sticks around long enough will gave to contend with.

Re: Why Your Excellent Conference Talk Was Rejected

#56

Post by st3v3r »

eganist wrote: post #26

> Heartbreaker #4 – The N00b > [...] > This presentation would have been accepted if we had seen speaker talked at local meetup groups, had a recorded presentation we could view, or maintained a blog so that we could foresee of how he would present his ideas and build an argument. Perhaps we were outliers, but @buu700 and I were accepted to BlackHat and DEF CON with no prior speaking experience outside from a dry run…

I don't think the article is saying those without experience shouldn't apply. It's just saying that, if you don't have experience, even if your abstract was good, that's probably why you weren't selected.

Re: Why Your Excellent Conference Talk Was Rejected

#57

Post by carsongross »

Heartbreaker #6 - The Your Company Did Not Sponsor This Conference Topic

Heartbreaker #7 - The You Don't Have Any Personal Contacts on The Conference Circuit And Aren't Particularly Attractive Or Personable Topic

Heartbreaker #8 – The intercooler.js You Are All Doing It Wrong And You Should Feel Bad Topic

Re: Why Your Excellent Conference Talk Was Rejected

#58

Post by baby »

Seems like a lot of people don't understand the noob part. Let me explain:

Imagine you pay a lot of money to attend a conference. And I'm not even talking about flight+food+hotel as some conferences' cover are pretty high (blackhat). Now you go in a talk and discover that the speaker is just horrible. The topic might be interesting but you get nothing out of it because the speaker is just bad.

Now this is a problem because as an attendant you're no happy, and this is the responsibility of the judges of the CFP. They need to work to protect you from these kind of talks.

I'd much tolerate beginners at smaller conferences, or meetups. This is where you can get experience before going to a bigger one. A one that might even give you money and pay for your travel+accommodation.

By the way, I think most of you people have no idea how bad talks can be. In more academic conferences, foreign speakers make a big chunk of the talks and some of them can't speak english at all. It's painful for everyone to sit through that kind of talk. (Note that I'm a foreigner myself, just saying that some of us are EXTREMELY BAD AT ENGLISH (not going to point fingers).)

Re: Why Your Excellent Conference Talk Was Rejected

#59

Post by st3v3r »

bcantrill wrote: post #42

Like many here, I totally and vehemently disagree with the fourth reason for rejection (the "n00b"): if someone has a proposal that is worthy of presentation, they should be given the opportunity to present -- regardless of their age or experience. There are many reasons for this, including the most obvious one that if every conference insists on experience, no one will be able to get that experience. But the reasons…

"if someone has a proposal that is worthy of presentation, they should be given the opportunity to present -- regardless of their age or experience"

At the same time, it sounds like they had many, many submissions that were worthy of presentation, and this was a bigger conference. There are smaller conferences which are not as inundated with presentations to which newer speakers can apply, and from there apply to the bigger ones.

It's just like everything else in life, where you have to prove yourself on a smaller scale before being allowed on bigger things.

Re: Why Your Excellent Conference Talk Was Rejected

#60

Post by st3v3r »

krschultz wrote: post #25
wirrbel wrote: post #8

Can't argue much with these criteria. Yet why "previous presenter experience"? If you are afraid of inexperienced speakers to deliver a boring talk, why Not just give them a 10-15 minute slot? Them, I am reminded that many speakers tour many events with the same talk. I rather like the idea of having fresh speakers on stage over the 4th instance of the very same old talk.

I think of it as a ladder that you progress through as a speaker. This reduces risk for the organizers, but it's also good for your growth as a speaker. If you think you can just hop right into a conference talk with no warmup, then the earlier steps should be a breeze. - Short meetup talk (10-20 minutes). - Long meetup talk (20-40 minutes) - Conference talk. The only gotcha is that most meetups are not recorded. Tha…

Most meetups would not have an issue with you bringing a friend who would record the talk for you on their phone or with a camera. As with all these things, make sure to ask the organizers first, though.
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