Call for Speakers – #DallasTechFest
Hey all – just wanted to let you know that #DallasTechFest has officially started! Scheduled for April 17th, 2009 at the Westin Stonebriar Resort in Frisco, TX, we’re opening up a CALL FOR SPEAKERS to anyone and everyone passionate about technology! Like last year, there will be separate tracks for .NET, Java, Ruby, PHP, Cold Fusion and Flex/Flash, so if you’re passionate about these topics send me the following information (chris.koenig@microsoft.com):
Speaker Name:
Contact Email:
Contact Phone:
Session Title: (Short, catchy name for your session)
Session Abstract: (Longer description, including any needed prerequisites, or expectations on the audience)
Session Level (100-400): (100 being introductory, 200 being basic skill level, 300 being advanced skill level, 400 being OMG my brain hurts)
Previous Delivery: (where and when have you delivered this session before?)
With our current thinking, the .NET and Java communities will get 2 tracks each with everyone else getting one track. Each track will contain 5 sessions, so space is definitely limited. Evaluations of the speaker submissions will be done by members of our #DallasTechFest committee over the next week. We’re looking for a mix of content between skills for today and skills for tomorrow, across a variety of experience levels.
DEADLINE TO SUBMIT is Friday, March 6th, so put your abstract together and send it over ASAP. We’ll be posting the tracks next week and sending more information to the selected speakers after they’re chosen.
This week we will be cutting over to a new #dallastechfest website at https://dallastechfest.com (this link currently points to the old site with some updated information about the new event). Additionally, you can register for the event at https://dallastechfest.eventbrite.com. The decision was made to charge $50 for the event, but check with your local user group leader for a discount code to reduce the registration amount down to $25. Hopefully, this will help us alleviate the serious no-show problem we had last year…
If you have any questions, concerns, comments or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I want #DallasTechFest to be very successful this year, and will do whatever it takes to help make this event something to remember :-)
Technorati Tags: dallastechfest,dallas,event,.net
Comments
Anonymous
March 02, 2009
Is the Dallas Tech Fest only developer focused?Anonymous
March 02, 2009
@KeithCombs: Doesn't have to be - you interested in helping run an Infrastructure/SQL track? Cheers! ChrisAnonymous
March 02, 2009
Hey, Chris! I have a question about the scheduling of the event. Do you know why it was decided to have the event on a weekday? I really enjoyed attending last year, and it was easy to do since it was on a Saturday. Though I think I would enjoy it again this year, I don't think I could convince my employer to let me off for it, and I'd rather not use one of my scant vacation days. Was there significant feedback from last year's attendees that they'd like it on a weekday, or a venue scheduling issue, or something else? BrianAnonymous
March 05, 2009
@Brian The committee putting together the event decided to do this as a trade off for asking people to give up their weekends. There are many of us that are used to going to events on a Saturday, but we're starting to see a trend where people are less likely to do a 6th day of work, even if it is training, to have an event on a Saturday. #TulsaTechFest this past year had almost 2x the number of attendees on Friday as they did on Saturday. With the huge amount of no-shows we had last year, this is one way we're trying to make sure that the people that sign up actually come. I know it's not convenient for people who are travelling to make a Friday event, and for that I'm sorry. Hopefully your boss will see this as a great training opportunity and allow you to go. Cheers! ChrisAnonymous
March 06, 2009
Chris, Thanks for the response! That totally makes sense. Hopefully I'll be able to convince my boss to let me go! :-) Brian