EclipseCon Europe 2012 and OSGi Community Event 2012 Submission FAQs

Thank you for taking the time to consider presenting at EclipseCon Europe 2012 (ECE) and the OSGi Community Event 2012. Your submissions make up the heart and soul of our conferences, and we look forward to reading your proposals.

If you have a question that isn't answered below, please email us. The FAQs will be updated regularly, so check back occasionally for new information..

When is the submission deadline?
The last day for proposals to be submitted is July 31, 2012. If you want to be considered as an Early Bird Selection, the last day to submit is July 15.

What is an Early Bird selection?
Before the submission deadline, the program committee will pre-select a short list of their favorite talks and publish these on the conference website. You'll get early notification that your talk is accepted, and some special publicity that will generate interest in your session. If you want to be considered, submit your talk by July 15.

Are speakers compensated for speaking?
Speaking at our events gives you exposure to an audience of highly skilled developers and other software professionals from around the world. Logos from our ECE Friends page will help you publicize your talk on your website or blog. For the hard cash type of compensation, each talk earns a discount of either 50% or 100% on registration fees. Standard talks earn one 50% discount, Extended talks earn one 100% discount, and Tutorials earn two 100% discounts. Two standard talk discounts may be combined into one 100% discount.

Please note: the first speaker listed on a standard or regular talk gets the discount; the first and second speakers listed on a tutorial get the discounts. For details, see the Speaker FAQs. We do not pay speaking fees or reimburse speakers for travel costs.

Who is choosing the program?
The program committee, made up of volunteers, chooses the program with help from the Eclipse community. The community indicates the submissions they like through votes and comments. The 2012 program committee is Christian Campo (chair), Bernd Kolb (chair emeritus), Cédric Brun, Benjamin Cabé, Jonas Helming, Simon Kaufmann, Martin Lippert, Achim Lörke, Alexander Nyßen, Susan Schwarze (OSGi), and BJ Hargrave (OSGi).

When will I know if my talk has been accepted?
Accept/decline notices are expected to go out during the last week of August. The program will be published on the website shortly after that.

How do I submit a talk?
You must have an account on the ECE 2012 website before you can submit a talk. If you already have an Eclipse Bugzilla account, log in using those credentials. To create an account, click on the "Create new account" link.

• Enter short, descriptive, and catchy Session Title
• Choose the Session Type: Standard (25 minutes), Extended (55 minutes), or Tutorial (3.5 hours)
• Enter the Speaker name(s)
• Enter Tags (your choice) to help describe the content (modeling, SOA, "success story", etc.)
• Before writing the Description, read the advice below on increasing your chances of being accepted
• Choose the Track (see track descriptions below)
• Choose the Experience Level

Please note that the submission system does not send an auto-email to confirm that your talk was successfully submitted. To verify that your talk is in the system, use the filters on the list of submissions page to locate it. If you don't find it, please send email to speakers@eclipsecon.org.

What are the track descriptions?
The themes below are the tracks for ECE 2012 talks.

• Eclipse Technology. Eclipse is a host for a lot of great open-source projects such as Mylyn, Orion, Equinox, and Xtext, and technologies such as modeling, runtime, application lifecycle management, embedded, and so on. New tools and techniques and state-of-the-nation talks would also be found here.
• Building Industry Solutions. Eclipse has proven to be a powerful platform for building flexible and extensible applications. Many organizations are building platforms that address the needs of a specific industry, such as aerospace, automative, banking, insurance, and others. This track will feature case studies that explore the technology, architecture, and policies required to build industry solutions.
• Community and Collaboration. How do we function as a community, especially in industry collaboration? What is important about the Eclipse development process and our stewardship of Eclipse as a platform? What will the future bring for Eclipse?
• OSGi. ECE 2012 is co-locating with OSGi Alliance Community Event 2012. Choose this track if you are submitting for the Community Event.
• Other Cool Stuff. Not everything will fit easily into one of these themes. If your talk is one that's hard to categorize, submit it under this track.

How will I know if someone comments about my submission?

If you want to be notified if someone comments on your submission, be sure to check the box at the bottom of the submission page that says "Notify me when new comments are posted" and then check the "All comments" box.

What can I do to increase my chances of being accepted as a speaker?

• Choose the Session Type, Track, Experience Level, and Tags carefully – try to get it right the first time
• If you receive an email from a program committee member, respond promptly
• Be prepared to work with the program committee to modify your talk to fit into the program; this can mean shortening it, combining it, etc.
• Take time to write a good Session Title – descriptive, yet short and interesting
• The bar is higher for tutorials! For tutorials, include an outline that covers the content and the hands-on exercises you expect to have in the tutorial
• And above all, make sure your Description is good – if your title is longer than your description, you have more work to do. All descriptions should indicate
• What you are presenting
• Why it is important
• What someone can expect to take away from the presentation
• What makes your presentation unique

What are some useful tips to know before submitting?

Thank you for asking. We hope you find these tips useful!

Quality presentations are a lot of work! If you are not prepared to spend the time putting together a quality proposal, it is unlikely that you will find the time to prepare for the presentation. Take the time to think clearly about what you want to say, and more importantly, ask yourself this question: Why would someone want to use their valuable time listening to this presentation?

After each conference we survey the attendees, and they have been consistent and clear about how to improve our technical talks. You will have a better chance of being selected as a speaker if you do the following:

• Tell your story. Technical deep dives are interesting. But so is your experience! What have you been doing? How have you combined the various Eclipse technologies? Did everything work well? What have been the problems and how did you solve them?
• Provide your presentation materials ahead of time. Either upload a file with your submission, or choose a file-sharing site for your materials and add the URL to your Description. Providing advance materials is a great advertisement for your talk and increases attendee interest in your presentation. It helps the attendees pre-select sessions, providing you with an audience that is already interested in your topic.
• Be clear about requirements and expectations. Should attendees have software pre-installed? Should they know how to use a particular plug-in in order to get the most benefit from your session? Should they be proficient in a certain technology? For tutorials, this type of information is required.
• Provide detail about your talk. Have you given this talk before? If so, where and when? Will your talk include a demo? Hands-on exercises? Singing and dancing?
• Get organized before your talk. This is especially true – and required – for tutorials. Instead of spending the first thirty minutes helping attendees install software from a flash drive, use your Description to tell attendees how to prepare for the session, and provide a link to items they should download ahead of time. Then you and your audience can get to the interesting stuff right away.
• Upload a photo and bio with your account. Use the bio to explain why your experience, knowledge, and presentation skills will help make your talk worthwhile.

Choosing a good Session Title can be tricky. Your title should be short, descriptive, and catchy. If you want people to attend your talk, work on the title! Here's a simple test: If you are faced with choosing between the following two talks, which one would you choose?
Pimp My Editor
or
Improving the Visual and Functional Attributes of the Eclipse Editor Through the Addition of Compelling Visual Communication Elements

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