Dave's Adventures in Business Intelligence

ASUG Annual Conference is taking a new approach to getting speakers for their sessions this year. In the past, this conference (as most of the others I have been a part of) has opened a “call for speakers” web page and allowed folks to submit ideas (abstracts). Those ideas are then evaluated and placed into the agenda. This is fine, but it leaves the conference committee at the mercy of the speaker community. If the speakers don’t submit enough ideas for a particular track, then the conference folks might be left scrambling as they work to fill out the overall agenda.

This year they’re asking speakers to share their initial ideas first, even before sending in any abstracts. The intention is not to make extra work, but to make a better conference. By getting an early indication of what the speakers are interested in, the conference committee can see where gaps might be and work to fill them during the call for speakers process. It sounds like an excellent plan to me! I hope it works well.

If you are interested in speaking at the conference, please consider filling out the call for presentations survey and let ASUG know what you’re thinking about.