Speaking at DjangoCon US
Our Call for Proposals is now closed. Decision notifications will be sent by July 8th, 2024.
Why Speak at DjangoCon US?
- Presenters receive a free ticket to DjangoCon US and up to $500 in travel cost reimbursement!
- A professionally produced video of your talk will be published on our YouTube channel. (You may opt-out of this.)
- Professional photographer on hand to photograph your talk. (Also optional.)
- Expose the Django community to new tools, practices, or ideas.
- Expand your technical, professional, and personal networks.
- Share your discoveries with a large audience.
- Give back to the Django community!
COVID-19
Please see our COVID-19 Policy for more information.
At this time, we are planning on most presenters being in Durham to present their talks in person. Things may always change depending on how the pandemic progresses over the year. As in 2022, we will have a handful of online-exclusive talks that will air during the in-person breaks and meals.
Please indicate your format preference (in-person or online) as part of your proposal.
Proposing to DjangoCon US
Selection process
We’ll choose a selection of talks and tutorials that we feel add to the most enjoyable and engaging program for our attendees. Volunteers from the Django community are invited to help us pick talks, and we rely heavily on them to help us select interesting and beneficial ones for our attendees. Community volunteers and conference organizers will review anonymized submissions and collectively decide which ones to accept.
Talks (September 23rd, 24th, & 25th)
Length: 25 minutes or 45 minutes
NOTE For online talks especially, these times are a hard limit and cannot be exceeded.
We are looking for original and exciting talks that can benefit the diverse interests of our audience. Don’t feel boxed into Django-centric themes; we also love talks about community, web development, user experience, etc. If you’re a first-timer - don’t fret! We would love to be remembered as the conference where you started your speaking career.
Here are some examples of what has been accepted over the last couple of years:
Online talks
Just like in 2023, most talks will be in-person, and we will have several online-exclusive talks that air during breaks in the in-person session. These will air across all three talk days (Monday through Wednesday). Please indicate your preference for online or in-person in your submissions. There’s a required question in pretalx asking your preference.
Deep Dive Talks (September 18th)
This year, we will be curating a deep dive day to focus on exploring Django and Django-adjacent topics in detail. Deep dive day is meant to follow in the footsteps of Django Under the Hood and will provide a range of topics presented in-depth, targeting varying levels of Django experience. Talks of this nature will mix community submissions and personal invitations. If you believe your talk is a good fit, please indicate so on your submission to our CFP by choosing the “deep dive” tag!
Tutorials (September 22nd)
- Length: 3-3.5 hours
- Format: In-person
We’re open to all kinds of ideas, especially ones we haven’t thought of! Technical tutorials tend to be more popular, but we welcome all topics! Tutorials can be targeted at any experience level, just be sure to indicate clearly what you expect your students to already know or have experience with in your proposal!
Still unsure if you should submit? Not only will we cover your DjangoCon ticket, but tutorials are compensated! However, they do not include the price of your travel or lodging. If you need help with these costs, fill out the opportunity grant form by April 29, 2024. Decision notifications will be sent by June 14, 2024.
New Expectations for Tutorials
In order to streamline the tutorial process, we’re going to offer volunteer staffed office hours for tutorial attendees to help them get their machine set up. Tutorial presenters are not required to participate in these office hours. We will require that all tutorials include a setup guide by October 1st. This guide is what will be followed during the office hours.
The setup guide should include a step confirming that the setup has been complete. For example, if the tutorial requires a working Django application, having the user create a superuser, run runserver, then log into the Django Administration site would suffice. The goal here is to uncover and resolve setup issues so that the tutorial’s time can be spent on content. A thorough example for a setup guide can be found here.
Lightning Talks (September 23rd, 24th, & 25th)
Not up for a full-on talk or tutorial? Looking to give your first talk at a conference? Lightning talks are talks under 5 minutes with or without slides on almost any topic you want! Even if you’re nervous or shy, remember: it’s a maximum of 5 minutes. Sign-ups will happen at the conference.
Speaker Travel Assistance
As we have in the past, this year, we have set aside up to $500 per speaker to help offset the cost of travel to the conference. In order to maximize the amount we can provide, we ask that speakers who will be reimbursed by their employer decline the assistance offered so it can be spread out among speakers who do not receive travel reimbursement. Receipts for travel expenses will be required.
Online speaker gear reimbursement
If you are speaking online, we are pleased to offer up to $500 for recording gear reimbursement to be used on qualifying expenses (camera, light, microphone, etc.). This cannot be used in conjunction with the above travel reimbursement (it’s an either/or proposition).
Pre-conference information
You will have the option to upload a rough transcript of your talk approximately two weeks before the conference to give the captioning team a chance to train on any jargon you might use in your talk. This is by no means required but it will provide a more accessible experience to your audience.
The organizing team reserves the right to request a review of draft slides at any point up to the start of the conference for any reason including but not limited to content, messaging quality, and more. Failure to provide these slides in a timely manner may result in your removal from the program. We understand that the slides are draft quality and will not be shared outside the program and code of conduct teams.