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Phew! Having reviewed 163 CFP submissions for @localfirstconf.com over the last week, I have some thoughts Here's some tips for an effective talk proposal!

Adam Wiggins

@adamwiggins.com

1. Pitch me, get me excited Make your proposal a short, exciting teaser for your talk. Keep backstory minimal. Highlight problems that speak to your audience and the unique insights you've gained through hard-won expertise.

15/5/26, 10:40 am0 reposts5 likes

Adam Wiggins

@adamwiggins.com

15 May

❌ Bad "In this talk I will discuss Project Giraffe, which is a prototype I made some years ago but never released. Maybe I will publish the source code before I give the talk. I had some different ideas about data migrations. I will try to do a demo if I can get it running again."

Adam Wiggins

@adamwiggins.com

15 May

✅ Good "Migrations in distributed systems can be a nail-biting adventure in avoiding data corruption. I led the team which handles this at BigScaleCo, where we found that standard transactional migrations break down. Instead ...

Adam Wiggins

@adamwiggins.com

15 May

... we use rolling migrations with a library we built for the purpose (now open source), data lenses for realtime data, and a live regression monitor to catch corruption before it multiplies. Plus: why we've counterintuitively found that Friday afternoon is the best time to run migrations!"

Adam Wiggins

@adamwiggins.com

15 May

2. Tell me who you are Ideally two links: your bio website that lists the major projects of your career, and a link to the company or project you're representing. Don't drown me in numerous links, or make me hunt around to figure out what your career has been about so far.