You may have noticed, it has taken us a bit longer to admit that the CFP is over and sessions are posted… we have made a number of changes to the speaker-management back-end systems this year and, while it has fixed a number of things, it has slowed a few others down. As you probably know, our CFP opened on 8/15, closed on 8/31, and the speakers were announced right at the end of September. Once again, we had a record number of submissions (over 1,400) for the same 235 session slots. While we normally list a number of stats here, I’d like to give a bit of a “peak behind the curtain” if you will.
I have been leading the content selection committee for the past five years and we have made changes each year. This year we made one of the biggest changes yet in that we nearly gutted and replaced the entire selection committee. The folks who have helped us for the past number of years have done a wonderful job and I am incredibly grateful for them. However, we all have different perspectives and we felt that it was time to introduce some fresh eyes into the selection committee. It has always been our plan to do this… actually to rotate a few each year so that the group is never quite the same, but schedules and timing have gotten in the way and we’ve never really rotated many off. This year, we brought in a completely new group and they did a great job. I am quite pleased with the session selection and the breadth of talks that were selected. I believe the conference will add significant value to our attendees and I hope you all are looking forward to it.
As always, we are interested in your feedback and support. During the conference, we ask that you provide feedback via the session surveys to help us know what you thought… we read/review every submission. Additionally, feel free to shoot a note to speakers@codemash.org if you have questions before or after the conference.
Thanks again – I hope to see you all in January,
Rob