

Show HN: Call to Speakers –  Find and track conference speaking opportunities - conroy
https://calltospeakers.com

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rtfeldman
Suggestion: wherever the information is available (with the understanding that
it's usually not public), a very helpful thing to know is what the
conference's default policy is on travel/lodging for speakers.

If a conference is far away, but pays for travel and lodging, that's very
different than if you're going to be out a lot of cash if you want to speak
there.

Knowing this up front can make a big difference in deciding whether to submit
a talk.

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taprun
Great idea! I like how you'll email me about upcoming opportunities.

I just wish I could add my zip code and get opportunities within a fixed range
of my address.

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conroy
I'm planning on adding filtering to the site and email notifications. However,
right now there aren't that many new conferences each week (<20), so it's easy
to scan through them.

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simonw
Lanyrd also has a calls for speakers feature:
[http://lanyrd.com/calls/](http://lanyrd.com/calls/)

(I don't want to detract from this post, just want to make people aware of the
data we have. Having a dedicated service that curates and emails out this kind
of information is definitely a plus for the community - our CFP feature isn't
particularly well publicised)

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bdcravens
You really need to add ability to filter by categories.

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conroy
What categories would you like to filter on? I was thinking `programming
language` and location.

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bdcravens
Location, but needn't be too localized. (I think most people travel
nationwide)

I'd filter on language, but also include "concepts" (for instance, mobile, or
startups). You also should identify conferences which aren't immediately
obvious what the language is, or that cover other languages. (for instance,
RIACon was traditionally a ColdFusion conference, but in recent years has
added a JavaScript track; Ruby conferences usually have some functional talks,
etc)

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hd243fe
This site shouldn't really be called "call to speakers" but "call to
attenders". Only last 3 conferences on the list have still open call for
papers/speakers. From the other last one closed in July. The deadline counts
down to the conference not call for papers deadline. The site itself doesn't
really provide any useful information for submitters. You have to dig it all
up yourself - I'm wondering beside giving a list of conferences (in pretty
near future, cause conferences in March that are last on the site will be
closing call for papers pretty soon) - what is the value added?

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conroy
Not sure you're looking at the same list. All conference on the front page
have open calls for speakers. The deadline counts down to close for the call,
not the start of the conference.

What other information are you looking for? I provide the link to the
application, as well as all important dates for the conference.

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up_and_up
Suggestion: You should add keyword filtering and allow me to receive an email
alert when a speaking opportunity in my speciality becomes available.

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signal
Speaking of speakers: The official deadline has just past (we just missed
this!) but I'd love to have some HNers submit for DevOps Days Toronto here:
[http://devopsdays.org/events/2014-toronto/propose](http://devopsdays.org/events/2014-toronto/propose)

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dpeck
Theres something similar thats become somewhat popular in the infosec space,
[https://secore.info/](https://secore.info/)

Its a bit clunky and has been around for a while without getting a lot of
attention, but its been quite useful.

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tehwebguy
Super cool, are you open to non-tech, non-business speakers?

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conroy
Right now I'm only focusing on tech conferences. After that, I'll probably
focus on science, health, and medical conferences.

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bevacqua
Excellent resource! I added you to my Twitter conf-stalking list. I assume you
tweet about every single CFP posted on the site?

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conroy
Yep! The account is set up to tweet once every three hours. Each conference
will be tweeted three times: when it's added, 14 days before closing, and 3
days before closing.

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toddgardner
Brilliant, very useful. Found and applied to a few that I didn't know were
open.

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rtfeldman
Songkick for Conferences! Love it! I signed up immediately.

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simonw
If you're excited about Songkick for conferences, have you tried
[http://lanyrd.com/](http://lanyrd.com/) (I'm a co-founder)?

