Tag: Call for Papers

Alfresco Summit 2014 Save-the-date & Call-for-papers

I am pleased to announce that Alfresco Summit 2014 will be held this year in San Francisco and London. Similar to last year, we’ll have an optional “Day 0” which will include training and a hack-a-thon and then the main conference will start on the following day. This year, the main conference lasts only two days, regardless of the tracks you are interested in.

San Francisco
Hyatt Regency San Francisco
September 23, 24, & 25

London
Hilton London Metropole
October 7, 8, & 9

San Francisco and London are two of my favorite cities so I’m looking forward to spending time in each one.

The Program At-a-Glance

The business tracks were popular last year so we’re going to do those again. Laurence Hart is heading up the business tracks this year. I expect the business sessions, two tracks full of non-technical presentations from customers as well as a few sessions from Alfresco product management, will be well-attended.

I’m taking the technical tracks again, which is always fun. Several of you said you had too many tough choices last year so we’re moving from four technical tracks down to three. So that’s two full days of technical content for both beginners and experts delivered by Alfresco engineering, partners, and other community members.

The solutions track will work the same way as it did last year with Joe Tong and Peggy responsible for selecting content that showcases entire solutions built for the Alfresco platform. And the ever-popular lightning talks that Richard Esplin puts together every year will also be on the agenda.

Another change we made in response to your feedback is that we’ve reduced the sessions from 50 minutes to 40 minutes, which effectively doubles the time between sessions. This will give you more time to network in the “hallway track” and to browse the booths in the exhibit hall.

We Need Your Great Content!

I’ll fill you in on the killer keynotes, the can’t-miss party, and other details later. None of that really matters without one key ingredient: Outstanding content. This is where you come in. Every year we get some great responses to our call-for-papers. I expect this year to be no different.

You should submit a proposal to speak at Alfresco Summit. Your colleagues want to hear:

  • What have you been doing with Alfresco that others could learn from?
  • What was the good, the bad, and the ugly from your last project?
  • What are those tips and tricks that would have saved you days or weeks had you only known beforehand?

This kind of information is invaluable to the broader community.

Before I tell you how to submit your idea for a topic, let me give you some hints on what I think makes a great Alfresco Summit topic abstract.

Think about what everyone else is going to propose, then pick something different

A good abstract is one that shows us you’ve got a unique or innovative topic. At the same time, the topic can’t be so niche or specialized that it’s only interesting to a handful of people. If your talk is one of ten just like it, you’re odds aren’t very good. Think new and different.

Related to this, try to avoid topics an Alfrescan is likely to propose. For example, a talk on the latest features of Alfresco One is something that the Alfresco One product managers will present.

Explain who will attend your session and what they will take away

When you are writing your abstract, figure out who will want to attend. This might be job titles or even specific individuals. With those people in mind, ask yourself what is it that they are trying to get out of your talk. A good abstract explains who will attend, why they are interested, and what they will take away from your talk.

Be descriptive, but succinct

When you write your abstract, be descriptive but be succinct. I want to know why this is going to be an interesting talk and why you are the best person to give it, but I don’t need your life story. This year some of the fields have character limits to keep length reasonable.

Don’t Wait, Submit Today!

To have your topic considered you must submit a complete form by the end of April regardless of whether you are submitting for a business talk, a technical talk, or a lightning talk. Solution talks will be handled separately through Joe and Peggy.

The form itself is pretty simple: You’ll tell us who you are, what you are presenting, and what Alfresco products the talk is related to.

If you are selected to present a full session you will receive a free conference pass. We won’t pay for your travel expenses, but you’ll save on registration. You’re in it for the glory anyway, right?

I look forward to another bumper crop of great topic ideas. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to let me know.

Alfresco Summit comes to Barcelona & Boston in November 2013

Alfresco Summit Slogan: Put your content to workHopefully you saw my previous post about Alfresco DevCon expanding to include not only great technical content but also new content around the business of Enterprise Content Management. The new, expanded conference is called Alfresco Summit.

I am pleased to announce that Alfresco Summit will take place this November in Barcelona from the 4th through the 7th and in Boston from the 12th through the 15th.

As we’ve done with previous DevCon events, the first day will be a pre-conference day consisting of training workshops (additional cost), a hack-a-thon, and a Partner Summit. The main conference starts on the next day. The full schedule will be on the Alfresco Summit site some time this Summer.

We expect registration to go live in June.

You Should Speak

We always have a great mix of content from Alfrescans, customers, partners, and other community members and I want to make sure that continues this year. Whether you are a developer who wants to give a down-and-dirty technical talk or you are an IT decision-maker, project manager, or ECM practitioner who wants to share thoughts on how to make ECM implementations successful, we want you to be front-and-center because no matter which edition or solution you are using–Enterprise Edition, Community Edition, Cloud, or Workdesk–you have tips, tricks, best practices, and solutions that the rest of us want to know about.

The call-for-presenters closes June 15. If you need some help thinking about what to present, check this out. Don’t feel like you have to stick to that, of course, but it might improve your chances.

I look forward to seeing what you submit and to catching up with you in-person this November!

How to suggest or propose a DevCon 2012 talk

If you want to give a talk at DevCon, here are your options:

  • Read the call for papers, then submit a proposal for a traditional session no later than May 19
  • Come to the conference and sign up for a Lightning Talk
  • Come to the conference and participate in a Birds-of-a-Feather session

If you have an idea for a session but you don’t want to speak, reply to this thread in the forums with your idea and maybe it will inspire someone else to give the talk.

Alfresco DevCon 2011 Call for Papers

I’ve just posted the official call for papers for Alfresco DevCon 2011. I know a lot of ecmarchitect.com readers have done some really cool things with Alfresco. This is a great opportunity for you to share those stories with the rest of us.

Also, let me know if there is anything significant missing from the proposed list of tracks, which is:

  • Alfresco as a Platform
  • Best Practices
  • Customizing Alfresco
  • Case Studies
  • BPM
  • Building WCM Solutions with Alfresco

Just like last year, we’ll have three sessions running concurrently throughout the day. We’ll start Day 1 with opening remarks from me, then move right into a keynote from John Newton, which is always a crowd favorite. Then I was thinking it would be good to have a “What’s New in 4.0?” general session, then split into breakouts after that. The only other general session I could see us doing would be an Engineering Panel Discussion, maybe on the morning of Day 2.

Any and all feedback is welcome!