Call for Speakers

We strongly encourage potential speakers to submit more than one submission on more than one topic. The more submissions you contribute, the more options you give us to pick you. Be sure your talk title and abstract define the exact topic you want to talk about and what you hope people will learn from the session. In previous years, some submissions sounded interesting but we just didn’t have enough detail for them to make the final cut.

• You can send as many proposals as you want - we recommend you submit at least 2
• Selections will be made 2-3 weeks after all proposals are in and the CFP is closed
• Talks are 50 minutes, including Q&A (although Q&A is completely optional)

Speaker Package

We love our speakers, and aim to treat speakers as good or better than any other conference you will speak at. We are a non-profit foundation, so we can’t pay a stipend, but we will cover all costs so you won’t have any expenses out of pocket to speak at ThunderPlains.

• Airfare / Transportation Expenses paid up to $500 USD/$800 USD International
• Hotel for 2 nights in OKC in walking distance of the conference
• Ride to/from the airport or Taxi/Lyft/etc. reimbursement
• Free Conference Ticket (right? duh.)
• Speaker Dinner with Organizers and Volunteers

Topics

ThunderPlains IS A TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPER CONFERENCE that specializes in highlighting web and browser based technologies and other technologies related to it.

These are some example topics to get you started, but are by no means an exhaustive list of what could be presented. Get creative! We love to hear about new and different topics.

• 3D / WebGL / VR
• AI / LLMs
• Async
• Art
• APIs
• Continuous Delivery
• Data Visualization
• Database / Big Data
• DevOps / Deploying JavaScript
• Dev Tools
• Distributed Programming
• Front-end technologies (React, Angular, Svelte, Vue, etc.)
• Functional Programming
• Hardware / Nodebots
• Machine Learning with JS
• New JavaScript/TypeScript features
• Node.js
• .NET
• Java
• Performance
• Reactive Programming
• Security
• Testing
• UI/UX or design
• Other

Selection Process

We select talks in two (2) passes:

1. Blind selection where we only look at the talk title and abstract to see if the talk seems interesting to our developer audience and is not spam (eliminates 80%+ of submissions)
2. Full deeper selection where we also then look at the speaker's biography to consider expertise, and location to consider cost.

We typically only select 2-3 speakers that require airfare travel per year to keep the attendee cost low.

Talk selection criteria:

• Topic and content - No matter who you are, we will take into account the topic and content of your talk - so make sure to write a good abstract! :)
• Helpfulness / Relevance - Most developers are not on the “bleeding edge” of the latest and greatest JS tech. We like talks that are very helpful and have wide appeal to our diverse audience just trying to “get stuff done” in their jobs.
• Would this be better as a blog post or written article? - Some topics and ideas are interesting, but are better conveyed in written form. Great talks about new techniques or technologies require demonstration or offer some unique angle or insight that is hard to convey in written form.
• Speaker Expertise - Is the speaker a demonstrated expert in this topic? Have they done any real work with it? Have they written or talked about it anywhere? This can often be the difference between an accepted talk and a rejected one if there are several talks submitted on the same/similar subject.
• Talk Originality - Everyone needs the basics, but we also like to mix it up with some new talks every now and then

Airfare / Transportation Expenses paid up to $500 USD/$800 USD International Hotel for 2 nights (3 nights for international speakers) Ride to/from the airport or Taxi/Lyft/etc. reimbursement