Fluent Conference CFP: Countdown

I'm honored and incredibly lucky to be helping co-chair the Fluent Conference again in 2018. 2017 was amazing, and if the proposals we've already received are any indication, next year will be even more so! I'm biased, obviously -- I've been to every single Fluent! -- but Fluent Conference is the premier conference for web professionals.

Speaking of speaking and proposals, our Call For Proposals (CFP) has been underway the last couple of weeks. We're in the final stretch -- just 36 hours left, to be specific -- accepting proposals for our conference.

UPDATE! We've extended the CFP deadline to Monday, Dec 11, at Midnight.

I can barely contain my excitement as I read through the list of talks we've received so far, but I also dread how difficult it's going to be for us and the Program Commmittee to narrow down to only the few we can fit into the schedule!

Which brings me to why I'm writing this post. I noticed that we're missing something very important in the list of submitted talks. Any idea what it is? What I realized was that what we really need to ensure this is the greatest web conference out there: you!

Submit A Talk

Ummm... Uhhh...

I know, I know. I can hear your thoughts right now. You just thought to yourself, "I don't really have anything I can talk about that others would want to hear." And I heard you, "I've never given a talk before, I'd be so scared to stand up in front of others!" Someone else just thought, "I have something I've been working on, but it's not ready, yet." Oh, and you over there, yeah I heard you, "But... there's already so many others that are smarter than me."

All the self doubts in the world start creeping up as soon as someone asks you to put yourself out in public and speak to others. I know, because I was in exactly those shoes just 9 years ago. And it's not just me. Here's a little secret: every single person who's ever stood up to give a conference talk was once in exactly the spot you are in now.

So what's the difference between them and you?

It's not that they're smarter than you are. It's not that they have some magical mastery over a topic that you don't have yet. It's not because they were born with a microphone in their hand and they've never been intimidated in front of a crowd. It's not that they're somehow so popular that they easily stand out among a flood of other proposals.

No, all those are the made up excuses we tell ourselves of why someone else should speak and not us. And they're all lies. Lies, lies, lies.

Here's the difference: they realized that sharing their journey to learn something... is the most critical part of the journey! So they stood up and shared as they were going along, instead of waiting until they had it all figured out.

If you wait until you're smart enough, or a master guru, or are brimming over with self confidence, or the most popular of web celebrities -- you waited too long. It would mean we all missed out on the most important part of your story: how you got there.

So when is the perfect time for you to decide to speak at a conference? Right Now! We want you at Fluent Conference.

If you're practicing, learning, exploring, pushing, reinventing, churning, questioning, evolving, challenging, leading -- in short, if you are part of the web community, then you're part of defining what the web is, and where it's headed, and we want to hear from you!

You don't have to have it all figured out. Those are the most boring conference talks, anyway. You just have to be willing to give us a glimpse into your journey.

So... what are you waiting for?!?

Submit A Talk

OK, But How!?

I think maybe, just maybe, I convinced a few of you to take the leap. Great! Now what?

We've organized the areas of interest for the conference into three main tracks/themes:

1. Developer Experience Track: Tools, Platforms, and Techniques
2. Web Pillars Track: Performance, Security, Accessibility
3. Beyond Code Track: The Business Side of the Web

What kinds of things around the web are you most passionate about at the moment? Not just how are you earning your next paycheck, but what gets you stay up late or wake up early to tinker and explore?

I'm certain at least one of those themes touches on your area of passion and interest. So, pick one and dive in.

Next, clarify:

Developer Experience Track

• Frontend
• Backend
• Mobile & Desktop

Web Pillars Track

• Frontend Performance
• Security
• Accessibility

Beyond Code Track

• Creating Effective Teams
• Technical Leadership & Business Solutions

What topics are jumping out at you from that list?

See!?! I told you, if you're part of the web, you're part of moving the web, and that means we want you to be part of Fluent!

Next, it's time to narrow down even further to a specific talk category. For a big list of topics to get those creative juices flowing, head over to the CFP page.

By the way, Fluent is not limited to what's listed there. If it's web, it's Fluent, and we want to hear about it.

My Picks

I want to close this post by sharing a few things that I personally am really hoping to see more talks about at Fluent Cofnerence.

Pillars

The Web Pillars theme -- specifically Performance, Security, and Accessibility -- is one of the most important areas of increased emphasis for Fluent Conference over the last couple of years. I'm so thrilled that Fluent is reflecting this importance by dedicating an entire track to them.

But let's be honest, these are not always the most exciting topics. You're not going to sit in on a talk in this track and see someone controlling a flying drone from their watch using only CSS transitions, or some other crazy/amazing/mindblowing thing!

The thing is, pillars are how foundations are built to be strong, robust, lasting. Without these pillars, the web wouldn't be the universal human experience platform that it is. The web couldn't realize its full potential if we forget about the foundational pillars that hold everything up.

So... I want to see more talks, many, many, many more talks, proposed in these areas. And I don't just want to see a talk like, "How to make your site load fast".

I want to see a bunch more talks on a variety of topics that each weave in these Web Pillars into the discussion. So for example, I'd rather see a talk like, "How We Found More Happy Customers" and talk about how your company focused on these Web Pillars as a priority and what that did to improve customer satisfaction.

What IS The Web, Anyway?

What is the web? If you asked that question a decade ago, the answer was, "a collection of browser-viewed pages of information, each located at unique URLs, that variously link to each other." Sounds basic enough, right?

But I think the definition is shifting, and I think it's shifting faster than we even realize.

Is the URL even part of what makes the web, the web, anymore? We have complex web applications that dominate our user experience, and each of those intermediate interaction states are places we might like to capture, share, or come back to. But if there's no URL to represent that moment, how can we?

Is the web even still visual? Increasingly, we're interacting with each other and with information and computers, using our voices, our physical gestures and facial expressions, our physical locations, and (before long!) our thoughts. Is the web now just whatever Siri reads off to us as we talk to our watches?

And maybe the web isn't even about what people consume? Maybe the web is becoming just the language that computers and robots speak to each other?

I'd like to see talks that examine what's happening with the expansion and evolution of the web. These are not just things that happen to us, we're an integral part of deciding what the web becomes, and I think if the history of technology teaches us anything, it's that we should be aware of and intentional rather than just waking up one today to realize we're not in Kansas anymore.

Submit, Already!

Stop reading this post, and go start working on a talk idea to submit!

On behalf of my other co-chairs Ally and Tammy, and the rest of the Program Committee, let me just say that we're anxious with excitement to see what you have to share with the rest of us!

Hurry, just 36 hours left!

Submit A Talk