Scope:
This document is the expectations and scope of what the CFP team should be & do for DevOpsDays Austin. Most of these are points are expected, but to be completely clear this is minimal expectations.
The CFP commitee (or team) is the group of individuals that brings the agenda together for the event. Without the CFP committee, the event would have a challenging time bringing people together to discuss and engage in our DevOps focused event. Many of the talks that we help curate help shape the conversations and Open Spaces for DoD ATX, and takes commitment throughout the year to understand what would bring the best conversations to Austin.
- Write a compelling CFP (the CFP committee)
- Engage with the Open Source communities that we are privileged to be a part of
- Vote and read all the CFPs that are proposed
- Attempt to be at every meeting for the smaller and larger team (things can change quickly and CFPs can be affected)
- Recruit or identify possible keynote speakers
- Work closely with the Sponsorship and Core team to make sure that the ratio of talks to workshops to open spaces is reasonable
- Comment or filter out "sales pitches" actively through the Open CFP process
- Administer the CFP software for DoD ATX
- Timely answer any and all questions for that come in from possible or future speakers
- Attend and Run the Office Hours, pre and post CFP for new and experienced speakers
- Finalize the speaker list
- Send out acceptances
- Send graceful rejections (w/ encouragement to attend)
- Maintain "on deck" contingency speakers, ready in case of dropouts
- Schedule the speakers in coordination with core
- MC the stages day of in coordination with core
- Timely answer any and all questions for that comes in from possible or future speakers
- Attend and Run the Office Hours, pre and post CFP for new and experienced speakers
- Create and lead the Program Committee
The program committee is a selection of (at least) 5 people who will be voting on the proposed CFPs for our conference. The program committee membership should reflect principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion. This should allow a wider cross section of perspectives when it comes to selecting talks. They will help shape and decide on the agenda and content; this is a fundamental job responsibility; please only volunteer if you understand and are willing to commit to it. Committee members should not propose talks/workshops/panels due to the conflict of interest; if they plan on offering content to the event, they should recuse themselves from the program committee.
- Copy and use the feedback form.
- Verify the voting is still relevant.
- Recruit N (at minimum 5) number of committee members; DoD ATX has anywhere between 100-200 CFPs and expects chunks of 15-20 CFPs per member with overlap.
- Copy and use the spreadsheet to help organize the committee
- Distribute the CFPs and feedback form to the members, receive them when completed, and transfer relevant information to the organization spreadsheet
- Set a reasonable timeline for feedback forms; normally, we have a “week” between the close and announcement of the acceptances.
- They should only vote if “needed” on talks; if there is a gap in coverage of only 1 person voting, a Leader can fill in for it. Voting should come from non-leadership members to help get non-biased opinions.
- Set up an introduction meeting with the members and a “scoring” meeting with the members, and be willing to work with the members if needed.
- Read through each CFP that is assigned to you.
- Understand that there is a real-time commitment to being a committee member; you must research and make real decisions on the agenda.
- Understand the voting, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2 rubric
- -2 Extremely Negative, “You don’t think it fits or have strong negative opinions.”
- -1 Negative, “This doesn’t seem to fit the bill, or something isn’t right.”
- 0 Indifferent, “You have no real feeling about this talk.”
- 1 Positive, “You believe this could fit, but I won’t fight for it.”
- 2 Extremely Positive, “You want this talk at our conference.”
- Attend any meeting that needs to happen to build the agenda or give a reason why you cannot.
- Copy the previous year's CFP and make any changes for the new theme from Core
- Verify that the CFP software is ready from Global Core
- Start discussing with the Venue team to verify options if the venue has changed for workshops and breakout spaces
- Prepare the CFP
- Announce the CFP where you can. Coordinate with Core and Marketing.
- Start discussing with possible people for keynote slots or conversations they believe they would like to share.
- Recruit speakers!
- Recruit speakers!
- Recruit speakers!
- Start a cadence of the Office Hours (once a week or some reasonable process)
- Close down the CFP
- Start to vote and recruit others from either outside or inside the Org team to help vote on the speakers
- Send out the speaker acceptances
- Continue a cadence of the Office Hours (once a week or some reasonable process)
- Verify the speakers and nothing has changed last minute
- Continue a cadence of the Office Hours (once a week or some reasonable process)
- Work in partnership with the core team to build out the schedule for the event.
- Maintain communication with the speakers.
- Provide feedback on alignment with the theme and focus on attendee experience.
- Be prepared to MC the breakout rooms
- Be there for the speakers and what they may need
- Remember you are the representive of DoD ATX to many of these speakers, be there and friendly!
- Spend "real time" with the CFP software before opening the CFP. It can be tricky.
- You DON'T have to "promote" a someone in via the CFP, you can help recruit keynote speakers and provide feedback when needed from core
- Gain the muscle to find "sales pitches" abstracts, but don't beat yourself up if one slips through