There are two ways to propose a topic at DevOpsDays:

• A 30-minute talk presented to the entire conference audience, usually in the morning.
• A Lightning talk presented during the Lightning sessions. These are 5-minute talks with a hard 5 minute cut-off.

General Guidelines:

• Be concise but include as much detail as necessary to convey your idea.
• Please provide at least three concrete takeaways that the audience will get from your talk.
• Multiple entries are welcome.
• Submissions must be made by one of the proposed presenters; we do not accept proposals submitted on behalf of others.
• All presentations must conform to the code of conduct.
• Proposals must be submitted via Sessionize. If you have questions about our CFP process, please email [tampa@devopsdays.org]

Ideas:

We're looking for answers to questions like:

• "The Real Impact of DevOps: Benefits and Challenges"
• "The Culture of DevOps: Its Reach and Limitations"
• "Beyond IT: How DevOps Transforms Other Business Units"
• "Essential Tools for Successful DevOps Transformation"
• "Navigating the Challenges: Lessons Learned from a DevOps Transition"
• "Adapting Skills for a DevOps Environment"
• "The Technological Shift: How DevOps Changes Our Tech Stack"
• "The Influence of DevOps on Business Strategy"
• "Personal Reflections: The Impact of DevOps on Our Work Experience"
• "QA in a DevOps World: Strategies for Integration"

Remember, the main goal is to share experiences, insights, and lessons learned in a way that can help others on their DevOps journey. The topics should be relatable, engaging, and provide clear takeaways for attendees.

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

• Broad appeal: How will your talk play out in a room of people with a variety of backgrounds? Technical deep dives need more levels to provide value for the whole room.
• New local presenters: You are the only one who can tell your story. We are very interested in the challenges and successes being experienced in our local area. We are happy to provide guidance/coaching for new speakers upon request.
• Under-represented voices: We want to hear all voices, including those that may speak less frequently at similar events. Whether you’re in a field not typically thought of as a technology field, you’re in a large, traditional organization, or you’re the only person at your organization with your background, we are interested in your unique experience.
• Original content: We will consider talks that have already been presented elsewhere, but we prefer talks that the local area isn’t likely to have already seen.
• No third-party submissions: This is a small community-driven event, and speakers need to be directly engaged with the organizers

Unpacking the Talk Selection Process

It's completely normal to have an idea that excites you immensely but find it challenging to articulate it in a way that equally enthuses others. This situation is not indicative of your competence as a speaker or a communicator. It's just a part of being human. To alleviate this dilemma, we would like to give you a glimpse into our talk selection process. This will provide you with an understanding of what we are looking for and the considerations we make beyond simply "a talk about ${technology or tool}."

Our selection process involves two stages. The first stage is an evaluation of the abstract and title only, while the second stage includes the speaker's names and details. In the first stage, we focus mainly on the talks themselves and their content. During the second stage, we consider which talks complement each other, who exhibits strong storytelling skills, and aim for a diverse group of speakers.

During the content evaluation in the first stage, we also need to understand the intended audience of the talk and their expected takeaways. To assist us in this, please ensure you include:

• A clear indication of the audience level (beginner, intermediate, advanced, or all audiences)
• The key takeaways from your talk
• If your talk is about solving a problem for a specific scale (startup, enterprise, or in-between) or a specific industry (regulated, finance, health, aviation, etc.), kindly highlight this!
• If your talk is about an uncommon use case or tech stack, this can also be beneficial. For example, we may receive numerous talks about Kubernetes, but fewer talks about Perl or ham radio.

In addition to the content, we also assess the presentation, which is where storytelling comes into play! We want talks that ignite deeper thought and constructive conversations in Open Spaces and post-conference. While writing your short description and abstract, highlight your storytelling ability. However, ensure that you don't lose clarity amidst the narrative. For further guidance, you can refer to these blog posts written by technical conference speakers about their successful and unsuccessful talk submissions and presentations:

• The Art of the (Conference) Talk by Zan Markan
• Why your excellent conference talk was rejected by Sarah Gray

Concerning speaker backgrounds, we strive to balance between local and remote/visiting speakers, new and seasoned, and speakers from underrepresented groups in technology. If you are comfortable, please inform us if any of these categories apply to you in the Additional Information section of your submission. Avoid including identifying information in the Notes section as it will appear with the title and abstract during our first stage.

In closing, we are genuinely excited about your talk! We are eager to showcase a wealth of expertise to the DevOps community in Tampa Bay and want as many people as possible to be a part of it. So bring us your thoughts, stories, code, and, most importantly, your authentic self!