Casey Cameron's Weblog

Monday January 03, 2005

How NOT to Have Your Talk Accepted for the JavaOne Conference

The 2005 JavaOne conference Call for Papers is open now (till January 31).

Maybe you've submitted proposals to the JavaOne conference in the past? And maybe you've wondered why your proposals weren't accepted? Read on.

You're not alone. The competition is stiff: last year we got over 2000 submissions. The Conference is only four days long, and it's always a challenge to cram those days with as many talks and BOFs as physics will allow. As humorist Steven Wright once said, "You can't have everything. Where would you put it?"

Anyway, every year we catch flak about the talk selection process:

"Who picks the talks, anyway?"
"I don't understand how they could have rejected my talk on flying wombats."
"I submitted 62 proposals last year and they didn't accept any of them."

We understand the confusion -- it's natural to wonder how we select the talks –- and this blog is my attempt to shed some light and offer some tips from backstage here at Sun.

So I asked the PC for input.

“The PC”?

That's my handle for the JavaOne Conference Program Committee, a pack of the top dogs in Java technology at Sun. They are a brilliant, passionate, focused, and overworked group of ubergeeks, steeped in the history and evolution of the Java platform. Their mission is to review, select and oversee the content submitted in the Call for Papers (technical talks, BOFs) for each year's conference.

Me? I help plan and manage the PC meetings, and look for ways to enhance the technical talks at the JavaOne conference.

So I asked the PC: What can you tell our developer community about the common pitfalls in the Call for Papers routine? Here's what they said.

Pitfall #1: Crappy Abstracts
Sloppy, slight, vague, uninspiring... you get the idea. And let me say that any incomplete submissions with "TBD" as a placeholder just won't cut it. A good abstract is a reassuring thing: it may mean -- though it doesn't guarantee – a REALLY GOOD TALK! The PC reviewers want to see a well-composed abstract with enough detail (and please add an outline, it does help) to know if you know what you're talking about. If the abstract is dull or inarticulate, then no matter how expert you are, the reviewers fear your talk will be, too.

Pitfall #2: Scattershot Submissions
This is where you or your company submits a blizzard of abstracts, hoping one of them will hit the mark. It doesn't work: on this end we see a big bunch of little flakes, not even enough to make a snowball, because there is so little detail or definition in any of them.

Pitfall #3: Product Talks Positioned as "Learning"
Most of you understand this. Some of you, a minority thank goodness, will try to sneak your product pitches in anyway. This strategy backfires on so many levels. JavaOne is a developer conference: it's supposed to be a forum for acquiring new or better skills, not anyone's favorite branded things.

Pitfall #4: Niche topics, Not of General Interest to Most Java Technology Developers
Your abstract may be top-notch, but if your subject seems to be interesting to only a few rare birds, it won't fly.

Pitfall #5: Old and Beaten-to-Death Topics with No New Approaches
Enough said. If you're not sure what topics are “old,” see the JavaOne Online program archives.

There are other pitfalls, of course, but lest you think all we do is criticize, I should mention that we do LOVE a good proposal, and so many of them are. So hit us with your very best submissions and please make our selection process a lot more difficult!

I'll be back with more postings on the content selection and speaker program later on. In the meantime, if you have questions about the 2005 JavaOne conference, please send them to j1papers@sun.com.

(2005-01-03 12:36:09.0) Permalink Comments [18]