Please read this brief in its entirety before submitting a proposal, we are not having the usual talk RFC this year.

It’s been 10 years, and we’ve all learned from our own DevOps journeys in that time. Many of you have come and shared at DevOpsDays Austin before. We’re at an inflection point for DevOps, and ongoing pandemic concerns means we want a small, intimate event focused on reflection, discussion, and looking forward.

So the theme of DevOpsDays Austin this year is a ten year DevOps class reunion, with people coming back together to interact and share what they’ve learned from their journey. 

Talk Formats

Retrospective Talks

The main presentation format will be a 20 minute talk (slides optional) on what you’ve learned from your DevOps journey. This can be broad or focused (think the range of responses you get at an actual class reunion if you asked someone “what have you been up to for the last ten years” or “what’s been the most important to you over the last ten years”). It’s OK for these to be conversational and intimate. 

Retrospective talk pitches must be submitted by the CFP deadline and should contain a general idea of what you intend to cover. We know it may change as you reflect, but we need enough information to select your talk over others’ and to verify it’s not a normal conference talk and adheres to the format.

Reunion Toasts

Come and share who/what/why you are grateful for from the world of DevOps in a 5 minute lightning talk format. This year we are going to experiment with the Ignite/Lightning format a bit more so it is true to the reunion spirit. Slides are optional, it can be just a standup/talk format. Share a short story of gratitude related to your DevOps Journey.

Reunion toast pitches must be submitted by the CFP deadline, and in the submission please include a few sentences about your toast topic.

Retrospective Essays for the Yearbook

We are also planning on creating a printed yearbook prior to the event. Since we anticipate we will get far more great retrospectives than we have speaking spots for, we also have some opportunities for short retrospective essay submissions for inclusion in the yearbook. 

The theme and spirit for the essays is the same as the talk submissions and focused on the journey and reunion. We suggest that essays are more focused on a one pivotal point in your journey expanded in more detail/depth to accommodate the written format. Essays should be no more than 500 words (classic short essay format). 

Essay pitches must be submitted by the CFP deadline. You do not have to write the whole essay when you submit but include enough details so we understand what your writing will be about so we can make a selection for the yearbook. Since this will be printed in the yearbook that we will have on site at the event, we will have a strict final submission deadline of March 15th. These essay opportunities are still for those who will be attendees at the event, not a substitute for participation. We’d love to have you participate in openspaces etc. around the essays at the event.

Who are we looking for as speakers?

We would love to hear from you and learn about your DevOps journey.

Everyone can submit, but former DoDA speakers and those who have been engaged in the Austin tech community over time will have priority in our selection for the retrospective talks. We will choose the talks that are most attuned with the spirit of the event. 

Why the retrospective talk format?

A lot has happened in the last decade of DevOps. There are a lot of things changing about the community and practice, how we do things, what problems we solve and what technology we build. There is a beating heart in that equation, and that is “us”, the people that make it all happen. 

With the Retrospective talk format, we want to focus on that “us” core. We want to understand and learn from the personal journey of our fellow practitioners. We want to sense the triumphs and empathize with their let downs. We want to passionately learn and re-connect.

What to include (and not) in your retrospective talk/essay

Tell us your story of your DevOps Journey. This could be the major steps on your path, the things that really worked for you, or the achievements that made you proud and why. What is the most meaningful thing to you Was it a piece of great code or a system you built, was it a great team you worked with, was it solving a gnarly problem, or a particular torturous bug you squashed, was it recovering from burnout? What and where did you cross the shallow waters, where did you stumble or fall? What did you discover and what wisdom would you impart to your fellow community? What excites you about the future and what frontiers you are exploring?

Make it personal, we care to learn about you and from you. 

Feel free to weave technology into the tapestry of your journey. However, we are not looking for product pitches or Kubernetes tutorials, content that is valuable but readily available online.  

We will not be accepting the kind of talks you usually see at DevOpsDays events - technologies, “culture talks”, etc. Those are great fits for other events (and other years of this event) but for DevOpsDays Austin 2022, we want to do something different and will only be accepting retrospective talks. Kelsey Hightower’s talk at DevOpsDays Austin 2017 is the only example of a talk given at a DevOpsDays Austin that would be appropriate to our format this year.