Description

We Want to Hear from You!

Interested in sharing your Selenium or WebDriver ecosystem test automation experience? Then we want to hear from you! We are looking for presentations from a diverse range of speakers from across the automated testing community - the Selenium Conference thrives on having talks ranging from introductory to advanced. Have something to say but don’t have any speaking experience? We welcome your proposal and can provide guidance and feedback to help you share your story. If you are reading this, and you are interested in speaking at the next in-person SeConf, we want you to submit a proposal.

Before sending us your submission please take the time to read through this page. If you'd like to discuss anything related to the call for proposals or your talk idea, feel free to reach out to us by email at [email protected].

What topics are we looking for?

We’re expecting over 400 QA, test automation and agile development professionals to join us in Chicago next year. Attendees are hungry for actionable information - ideas, implementations, experiences, solutions, coding samples - that they can take back to their team or organization at the conclusion of the event and put them to use. If you have practical and/or useful experience with Selenium, the WebDriver ecosystem, or related test automation subjects, and want to share your expertise with the community, then we would love to hear from you. Suggested topics might include:

• Getting started with Selenium 4.0
• Experiences with the WebDriver ecosystem - using frameworks like WebDriver.io, Selenide, Serenity/JS and others to complement and enhance Selenium
• Developing software with testability in mind
• Design patterns and development strategies like Domain Driven Design and Page Objects
• Adding continuous testing to SDLC pipelines
• Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
• Scaling test automation
• Testing smarter - quality vs. quantity
• Quality engineering - leading/managing automated testing projects & teams

Presentations are 40 minutes long, including Q&A (if you want to set aside time for this - there’s always the “hallway track” to meet with attendees who want to discuss your presentation). The schedule will be divided into 2-3 tracks, grouping talks by topic whenever possible. Most importantly, all speakers must agree to abide by the conference Code of Conduct.

Speaker Travel Support

If your talk is selected, you'll receive:

• Economy airfare & ground transportation
• Minimum 3 night's lodging at the conference hotel depending on your itinerary
• Documentation to support any required visa application
• A free ticket to the conference (of course), excluding workshops
• Invitation to attend a speakers' dinner before the conference

We will be recording all talks and will make them available for free following the conference. The copyright on the talk will belong to the speaker.

We welcome applications from less experienced speakers and will work with you to help you prepare.

Timeline

• August 29, 2022 - Call For Proposals opens.
• October 23, 2022 - Call For Proposals closes.
• November 7, 2022 - Accepted speakers notified.
• November 15, 2022 - Speakers confirmed.
• December 1, 2022 - Full agenda posted on conference website
• March 29-30, 2023 - SeConference keynotes/track sessions
• April, 2023 - Recordings available on our Youtube channel.

Resources

Your submission stands the best chance to be selected if it's unique, well-written, and fully fleshed out - put yourself in the audience’s shoes; after reading your presentation description, would you be interested in hearing the talk? Here are some additional resources to help out:

Selection Criteria

In terms of the overarching themes or values in proposals, we look at the following criteria during selection:

Diversity – As a platform, we wish to be more inclusive (different approaches, frameworks, tools, and also gender, countries, background, etc.)

Balance – We strive to strike a balance between different types of presentations and experience level (getting started, intermediate, advanced) that speakers bring to the conference.

Equality – We truly encourage women, persons of color, students and participants from under represented communities to submit a speaking proposal. However, this does not mean that we are biased and we select just about any proposal based only on the fact that it came from an under-represented community. Nevertheless, if we have to make a choice between one out of two equal proposals, we will pick the one proposed by someone from one of these communities.

Practicality – People come to a conference to learn, network, have an experience and leave the conference feeling motivated. Proposals that facilitate this are therefore always preferred. Though some theory is good, if the proposal lacks practical application, it does not really help participants.

Learning – People learn more by doing rather than listening. Therefore, the winning proposals are those that take people on a learning journey and incorporate an element of “learning by doing”.

Originality – It is true that people usually prefer hearing about an idea from its original creator rather than someone else. However, you may take an idea, tweak it in your context, and gain some insight(s) while doing so – People also like to hear first-hand experiences from those who are not creators of the original idea. Ultimately, we are looking for thought leadership.

Radical ideas – We have great respect for people who want to push boundaries and challenge the status quo. Given that we lean towards unconventional ideas, we try our best to support such people and bring greater awareness to their work.

Tips for Proposals

Submit your proposal early. The program committee will provide feedback on talks that come into our system, and we will work with you to improve your proposal, but this is only feasible if your proposal is submitted well before the deadline.

When writing your proposal, please consider the following:

• Who is the intended audience for your presentation? (be specific; “Selenium users” is not a good answer to this question).
• What will attendees learn from your presentation? When they leave the room, what will they know that they didn’t know before?
• Your speaking proposal should include 3-5 bullet points highlighting key takeaways.
• It is not necessary to have completely written your talk already, but you should have an idea of what
• Ensure that your presentation will be relevant to a non-trivial set of people.
• Include links to source code, articles, blog posts, videos, or other resources that add context to your proposal.
• If you’ve given a talk, tutorial, or other presentation before, especially at an earlier SeConf or another conference, include that information as well as a link to slides or a video if they’re available.

Good Proposal Attributes

Summary: The summary must convey excitement, be convincing, and sell. Since it is the only thing attendees see, it should be created in a way to draw them into your session instead of the numerous others that they can visit at the same time. Attendees should also be able to show the abstract to their manager/team and easily make them understand the value of the session.

Catchy title: A catchy title helps build a stronger mental model and focus the session’s abstract better. But do keep in mind there is a fine line between catchy and corny.

Sell yourself: Reviewers should be confident that you are a good presenter and that you will successfully facilitate the session. Remember to include links to other material/websites that may be instrumental in validating yourself as a great presenter.

Prior experience with sessions: Share your prior experiences giving sessions – Include links to slides, videos or people’s blogs about those sessions. If you plan to do a test run at the local user group, mention the same – It makes a huge difference to the reviewers’ confidence about the quality of delivery.

Clarity: Create a clear statement of what the attendees will do or expect, and what will be done in the session. Proposers sometimes err by focusing so much on selling their ideas in a catchy way, that it remains unclear on what exactly will be done in the session. Highlight if you will be including coding samples or a demo.

Clear learning objective: Clearly state how the lives of attendees will become better, more effective, and more enjoyable as a result of attending the session.

Enjoyment: Make the reviewer feel that the attendees will really enjoy themselves during the session. At best, they should learn specific concepts, skills, principles, approaches, and frameworks.

Language:

Do’s

• Use active language:
• ‘Learn/experience…”
• Use words/phrases like “Master”, “Learn”,
• “Experience”, “Do”, “Participate
• “As you participate, you learn…”

Don’ts

• Include passive language:
• “This session allows you to learn…”
• Include words like “Might”, “Could”, “Intend”
• “You can participate”