Scroll down for the submission form.  Bur read the words between here and there if you have not read them yet.

The main conference site is https://cposc.org/



These Lightning Talks may be serious, funny, or both. They may be given by experienced speakers already giving full length talks or by first time speakers just starting out (this is a great way to get started if you have something to say). If you are a first time speaker you will win a tie with an experience speaker when the schedule is made if it comes to it. Today's first time speaker could be tomorrow's keynote speaker.

We will have about several Lightning Talks of 5 minutes each. Submit your talk through this form. The first deadline is one week before the conference starts and many proposals will be accepted. At least one speaking spot will be held open until the day of the talks. However if you wait for the later deadline note that there are fewer spots available and you are less likely to be accepted so please try to submit more than a week before the conference.

In addition to the five minute Lightning Talks where you get to use your computer, slides, and any other tool, we will also have some Lightning Advertisements. These are only 30 seconds, you don't have to submit a proposal, you don't get any slides, and you will speak while the next presenter is getting their screen share setup.   If you have a user group meeting to announce, are hiring, or any other short message you can use the transition time that would be otherwise wasted between Lightning Talks to share your message.



CHANGES THIS YEAR

As we are in the Cloud this year we will have to make a few changes from the normal arrangement.

To speak you will need to be participating in the interactive HopIn version of the conference (not YouTube) so be sure to register using the link at the top of the website.

Traditionally we start the conference with only part of the schedule full and fill the rest of the slots during the conference.  We would really like to get most speakers selected and through a quick practice session on Hopin before the conference starts to avoid technical difficulties which will be much harder to gloss over in this environment.

If you think you might have technical difficulties consider having a backup plan where someone else can display your slides and you say when to go to the next one.  A nice firm 'ping' or 'beep' like in old AV displays in school in the pre internet era would make many in the audience think kindly of you.

During the week before the conference you will get a chance to display a slide or two in a HopIn session for practice and to make sure your connection and camera are all set.  Talk with rGeoffrey in Slack, the Hopin chat, or responding to your acceptance email to make arrangements.  You don't need your full set of slides during the practice, but a few slides in the correct program for a fair test would help.

After you are accepted you will be invited into a Slack channel for lighting talk speakers (provided you have a Slack account) and that is where you can ask the rest of your questions or see the answers from those who asked before you.

Traditionally advertisers just sit in the front row and speak during the time speakers are swapping laptops.  This year be in the HopIn room and chat to rGeoffrey either in HopIn or Slack and be ready to be called on between speakers.  The speakers will get their screen shared while you speak.

When a speaker reaches the 1 minute to go mark a bell will sound.  When time is over, the gong.  At that point rGeoffrey will announce which speaker is setting up their screen share to go next and which advertiser gets to speak.  When the ad is done and the speaker is ready, rGeoffrey will announce the next advertiser and tell the speaker to begin.  Lather, rinse, repeat.



WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO DO A LIGHTNING TALK?

Maybe you've never given a talk before, and you'd like to start small. For a Lightning Talk, you don't need to make slides, and if you do decide to make slides, you only need to make three.

Maybe you're nervous and you're afraid you'll mess up. It's a lot easier to plan and deliver a five minute talk than it is to deliver a long talk. And if you do mess up, at least the painful part will be over quickly.

Maybe you don't have much to say. Maybe you just want to ask a question, or invite people to help you with your project, or boast about something you did, or tell a short cautionary story. These things are all interesting and worth talking about, but there might not be enough to say about them to fill up thirty minutes.

Maybe you have a lot of things to say, and you're already going to give a long talk on one of them, and you don't want to hog the spotlight. There's nothing wrong with giving several Lightning Talks. Hey, they're only five minutes.

On the other side, people might want to come to a lightning talk when they wouldn't come to a long talk on the same subject. The risk for the attendees is smaller: If the talk turns out to be dull, or if the person giving the talk turns out to be a really bad speaker, well, at least it's over in five minutes. With lightning talks, you're never stuck in some boring lecture for forty-five minutes.

Still having trouble picking a topic, here are some suggestions:

1. Why my favorite module is X.
2. I want to do cool project X. Does anyone want to help?
3. Successful Project: I did project X. It was a success. Here's how you could benefit.
4. Failed Project: I did project X. It was a failure, and here's why.
5. Heresy: People always say X, but they're wrong. Here's why.
6. Here's what is wrong with our community.
7. Call to Action: Let's all do more of X / less of X.
8. Wouldn't it be cool if X?
9. Someone needs to do X.
10. Wish List
11. Why X was a mistake.
12. Why X looks like a mistake, but isn't.
13. What it's like to do X.
14. Here's a useful technique that worked.
15. Here's a technique I thought would be useful but didn't work.
16. Why algorithm X sucks.
17. Comparison of algorithms X and Y.

Of course, you could give the talk on anything you wanted, whether or not it is on this list. If we get a full schedule of nothing but five minutes of ranting and raving on each topic, a good time will still be had by most.