PyCon 2020 - Maintainers Summit

Call for Proposals (CFP)

Maintainers Summit at PyCon USA is seeking to build a community of practice for project maintainers and key contributors. We are inviting Python community members to share their insight and experience how to maintain and develop sustainable projects and thriving communities with the PyCon 2020 audience. We strongly encourage talk proposals from first-time speakers and Pythonistas from the underrepresented groups within the tech community.

Event

Date: Friday, April 17, 2020

Time: 11:00am (11:00) to 4:00pm (16:00)

Location: David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Room 408, 1000 Fort Duquesne Blvd.,  Pittsburgh, PA 15222, United States

Dates to Remember

CFP Opens: Monday, February 10, midnight AoE

CFP Closes: Monday, March 16, midnight AoE

CFP Acceptance Notifications: Monday, March 20, midnight AoE

Schedule Announcement: Monday, March 20, midnight AoE

Slide Deck Due Date (if using): Friday, April 10, midnight AoE

Event Date: Friday, April 17, 2020

Presentation Format & Topics

Lightning talks (10 minutes or less).

Talks must be based on your own experience and expertise.

Here are some ideas for the topics to help you get started:

•     Technology What tools and techniques have helped you to maintain and advance your Python project, and what challenges have yet to be addressed? Potential topics: developer tooling & workflows, internationalization, building and evolving APIs, creating/improving documentation.

•     Community What have been your biggest challenges when growing your project’s community? Potential topics: communication, retaining contributors, burnout, managing expectations, governance, culture.

•     Resources How has your project found the resources it needs – or, if it hasn’t, what is the impact on your project and the project community? Potential topics: funding, volunteer recruitment, legal advice, hosting.

•     Wild card Any topics related to Python project maintenance and leadership that aren’t covered by the first three.

We ask all speakers to be present at the Maintainers Summit Open Discussion (the same day, 2:30pm to 4pm) to facilitate a round-table discussion on the topic of their presentation or areas of their expertise/interest.

Talk Proposal Format

Talk proposals should include the following:

1. Title
2. Topic summary
3. Key Takeaways (why/how it benefits the Maintainers Summit audience)
4. Outline of the main talking points
5. Abstract
6. Speaker intro and links for the audience to connect before and after the event

Sharing the links to the slides or videos of your previous presentations is encouraged, as well as linking to blog posts, articles, etc that the proposed talk will be based on. Also, you are welcome to submit lightning talk versions of the proposals you’ve submitted to PyCon 2020. This will not affect the chances of your talk proposal being accepted by the PyCon 2020 Program Committee.

Selection Process

We actively balance for diversity in as many ways as we can, which means that we do not review talks anonymously. We have a small panel of proposal reviewers, and make sure to have a similar diversity in the panel as we're aiming for in our speaker lineup.

Financial Assistance

Please note that talk acceptance does not include financial assistance to attend PyCon US 2020. If you require assistance with the costs of traveling to the conference, you must submit a separate financial aid application through us.pycon.org/2020/financial-assistance/.