DevOpsDays Boston 2024 is currently accepting 30-minute talk proposals from interested speakers. We request that speakers are able to attend the conference in person for both days.
Some topics that are typically sought after by our attendees include, but are not limited to:
We also welcome submissions on perennially popular technical topics from previous DevOpsDays:
Our programming is focused on three goals:
We’re eager to provide a platform to our speakers, so if the DevOps industry hasn’t included people like you in the past, tell us about it in your proposal. We want to make a space for the perspectives of people that are underrepresented in or excluded from technology: people of color, women, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, students, veterans, and many more. In the more specific context of this event, we want to hear about DevOps from a wide set of roles: QA testers, security teams, DBAs, network administrators, compliance experts, UX designers, government employees, scientists, and other technologists who face unique challenges.
Sure, we know that AI is hot right now - but what’s going to be hot next year? What about in five years? Present the right idea at the right time, and you could help shape that! To help keep our content fresh, we add points for local speakers, talks that have never been presented at a conference, and for speakers who aren’t regulars on the conference circuit.
Most session submissions focus on how to use a specific piece of technology - and most of those are not accepted. The most memorable talks question assumptions, make predictions, or draw conclusions. It’s even okay to (respectfully) tell someone that they’re wrong - we’d much rather have a disagreement than a room full of nodding heads! DevOpsDays are centered around open spaces, and a good session should act like fertilizer for them, giving people something to start talking about.
We’re also very interested in nominations. Did you see an awesome presentation at another conference? Is one of your friends hoping to break into the conference circuit? Let us know who to reach out to, or send an introductory email yourself! You can reach us at [email protected].
However, please consider that novelty is heavily encouraged as per our guidelines above. These topics are popular, but every year we receive more submissions about them than we can accept.
Please keep these guidelines in mind:
If you’re selected to speak at DevOpsDays Boston, we expect that you are able to participate in the physical event. This means attending both days of the conference, October 21st and 22nd, in person at our venue in Boston. Unfortunately, we are not able to reimburse travel expenses such as airfare, train, Uber, personal mileage, and so forth. We do plan on having a partially subsidized hotel block for speakers who cannot feasibly commute into Boston.
Many of our most successful talks are by people who sell products in the same area they’re speaking about. But if your talk is only interesting to someone paying money for your product, it’s a bad fit for DevOpsDays.
We take pride in respect and empathy for all. Speakers and audience members enter our event on equal footing, and adherence to the Code of Conduct is a must for everyone.
For example: no threats, no sexualized language or imagery, no insulting audience members.
We’d rather have a lackluster abstract about a very interesting topic than a detailed outline of a topic that isn’t a good fit.
Our reviewers will receive only the talk name and description to review, which helps ensure that talks are selected on their own merit. We invite you to talk about yourself in the Bio section, which we will feature prominently with your talk if you are selected, but please refrain from putting this information in the description itself.
We also ask that speakers refrain from explicitly calling out company names in their talk names and descriptions - they often make just as much sense without that information.
We all love technology, but this isn’t a programming language conference or a Docker conference. Talk about tools in the context in which they’ll be used, and relate them to the business or cultural problems that they solve. (Or tell us about how tools can make those problems worse!) You should especially consider whether the technology you’re talking about impacts diversity, retention, ability to learn, etc.
In order to maximize the types of programming we offer, we limit our event to one talk per speaker. If you send in five proposals, we'll accept at most one, that we deem to be the best fit for the conference.
These notes are meant for the organizers, and won't be made public. In addition to any requests or needs that you have for your talk, we'd love to know if you have prior speaking experience, as well as whether you identify as a member of a group who is underrepresented in the DevOps space.
