Call for Papers

The call for papers has ended.

Program Committee

Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum
(chair, non-voting)

Adjust

Chris Ellis

Nexteam

Pavlo Golub

Cybertec

Stefanie Janine Stölting

ProOpenSource OÜ

Selection Process

We are often asked about the selection criteria and process for selecting the presentations among all the submitted proposals that will make up the schedule.

All submissions are looked at and considered by the program committee by reading abstracts, titles, and submission notes. The program committee members each vote on every submission with a score of 1 through 9. It is customary to abstain from voting on submissions by coworkers. When a presenter has multiple submissions, the committee considers which subject will be the best fit for the conference as we try very hard to not have repeat speakers during the event. Submissions are also de-duplicated to minimise repetition, such that the schedule is balanced overall.

Program committee members are — like every other position in the PGDay UK organisation — an unpaid volunteer position. There are many talk submissions at every PostgreSQL Europe event so committee members often spend many hours reviewing submissions.

The talks are then sorted by their average score and the final selection is made by the committee in conference calls amongst the top rated.

Abstract

It has shown over the years that a clear and concise abstract is a good indicator of a clear, understandable thought process and well received presentation. The program committee thus puts a very large emphasis on the abstract. To improve your chances of being selected for PGDay UK:

• make sure the abstract is clear and to the point;
• show the knowledge that will be gained by the audience;
• be concise, do not post a full script.

Submission Notes

Do not keep secrets or surprises from the committee. If your abstract teases the audience about some research or a new project you are planning to reveal during the talk, make sure you tell the committee what that is in the submissions notes. Your secrets are safe with us, but we need to know what the content of our conference is.

Subject Relevancy

How clear is the connection to PostgreSQL? Broader topics are of course welcome, if the connection to PostgreSQL is made clear. Known speakers are generally more trusted to connect to PostgreSQL on general topics, so if in doubt make sure to include in the abstract how it relates to PostgreSQL.

It is also important to not try to cover too much ground in a session; there is only so much the audience can absorb in 45 minutes. Trying to cover every GUC in a single talk is, while most likely feasible, unlikely to translate well into a live presentation.

Presentations about potential future features in PostgreSQL should also make it clear in the submission notes where the patch is currently. Is it in a CommitFest or is it still under heavy development?

Submissions about a commercial service offering, or product demonstrations, are not generally a good fit at PGDay UK, as it is primarily focussed on community PostgreSQL and it's ecosystem.

Speaker Profile

Make sure to be very clear in your speaker profile, and supply your full name within the submission process. Although your followers on social media may know you as xyz, that might not be true for all the members of the program committee and/or the conference participants. If the speaker profile explains why you are the best speaker for the proposed topic, that is of tremendous value. As the profile is published for all scheduled talks, that may also help attendees select your talk when planning their day at the event.

Number of Speakers

We prefer that a talk is delivered by one speaker, two at max. When submitting a talk, please add a speaker note with the name of the additional speaker. If your talk requires more than 2 speakers in total, please contact us.

Travel Sponsorship and Location Requirements

If you require or request anything, please be upfront and open about it in the submission notes, for example if a whiteboard is needed or if travel reimbursement is required for you to attend. We aim to make PGDay UK as affordable as we can for everyone, but that means that we are unable to fund all speakers for travel and accommodation. The norm is that all regular speakers organise and fund their travel by themselves. If you do require help with travel in order to attend, please let us know and we will do what we can to help you should your talk be accepted.