Re: [Debconf-team] Draft of the "Call for Proposals"

[Allison Randal <allison@lohutok.net>]

On 03/04/2015 01:43 PM, Michael Banck wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 03, 2015 at 03:21:02PM +0100, martin f krafft wrote:
> > Second, do you see any way to move the deadline earlier, e.g. end of
> > April?
> >
> > Not only would this help with press releases and attract attention.
> > It also helps people to know a vague schedule before registering.
> > Not all of us can just go to DebConf for its entire duration without
> > knowing what will be on offer when.
>
> Last year we accepted quite a few talks early, and I think we should do
> this again.  So I think we should also mention this in the CfP, like "we
> plain to accept a first round talks by April 15th" or whatever date we
> come up with. Depending on how many submissions we get, we could even do
> a second round, filling up 50-70% of the slots.

Accepting a first round of talks is a good approach. Early notification 
is helpful to speakers who need to get permission to attend, and an 
early round of accepted talks published to the schedule is helpful for 
attendees who are trying to convince their managers it's worth the time 
off, and helpful for fundraising convincing companies it's worth sponsoring.

Really, it would probably be better to move the whole proposal 
submission deadline earlier, but if that's too much for this year, we 
can think about it next year.

Allison