The DevOpsDays Portland Call for Proposals is now open! The CFP closes April 15, 11:59:59 PM PT, and speakers will be notified in mid-May.

DevOpsDays Portland takes place September 11th and 12th at the Oregon Convention Center.

Please use this form to submit for one of the eight 30-minute talk slots or a 5-minute Ignite talk. There will also be open space sessions at the event, but both proposal and selection will happen during the event. All selected speakers will receive a free ticket to the event.

If you are selected as a full-length speaker, based in North America, and your employer doesn’t cover the trip, we are happy to offer travel assistance though reimbursement up to a certain amount. We’ve been super successful and want to share our success with you! This isn’t part of the consideration during the selection process — in fact, we won't ask if you want to take part until after speakers have been selected. The question of if your employer covers it is on the honor system.

More information about the selection process

• Talks will be initially reviewed anonymously, meaning that the committee will not see proposals with names attached. Software isn’t that clever, so if you identify yourself in the body of the abstract, we’ll see it. It does block out all the sections you'd expect to have identifying information, including website, email, and photograph.
• Original talks, and/or a fresh angle on relevant topics, are encouraged.
• Vendor pitches will not be selected. Sales pitches are much better suited for sponsor booths, and sponsors at or above the Gold level will have an opportunity to give short pitches between talks. (If this sounds like what you want, learn more about our available sponsorship options.)
• Multiple submissions are fine, within reason.
• Talks submitted for a third party will be summarily rejected. If your organization requires someone else propose for you, please contact us via email (organizers-portland-2019@devopsdays.org), and we’ll figure something out.
• We’d love to hear from new speakers, local folks, and underrepresented voices in tech.

Helpful hints for proposing

• Be specific. The more information you can give us about what to expect from your talk, the better.
• Highlight what you think attendees will take away from the talk.
• If you’re unsure if your topic is appropriate, we recommend perusing past schedules on devopsdays.org to get a sense of what’s been successful at previous events.
• When in doubt, submit!
• If you’ve given a similar talk before, link us there (if it’s available online) and tell us how this talk will be different.

Questions?

Direct any questions to organizers-portland-2019@devopsdays.org. We’re happy to chat if you want to run some ideas by us — don’t hesitate to reach out if you’ve got thoughts to work through before submitting.