Submission stages

We have several stages after submission of proposals to help make the conference the best it can be.

Feedback

Until the CFP closes, you can receive feedback on your proposal to help make it the best it can be before it goes into the review stage. Sessions can be modified and resubmitted until the final deadline of 16th March 2020. The sooner you submit, the more time you have to receive and respond to feedback.

We like each submission to have at least three pieces of feedback, so sessions will be ordered such that those with fewest feedback items are at the top but it’s up to you which sessions you give feedback on. The more feedback you have time to give, the better, as it can be very helpful to session proposers, especially those not as familiar with SPA Software in Practice or new to presenting.

At this stage, feedback is seen by the submitter themselves along with everyone else who has access, so it’s important to be constructive. Don’t forget that some of these people may be submitting to a conference for the first time ever, and your comments may be the first feedback they have received for their conference proposal. The point of this stage is to help submitters make the best proposal they can so ask them to clarify things, suggest modifications to the session, and of course, positive feedback is welcome!

Review

The review stage is between 16th March 2020 and 22nd March 2020.

During the review stage we are closed to new submissions and existing submissions can’t be edited, and this is the stage at which we decide which sessions we’d like to include in the conference. We mark submissions on four criteria:

Is this session worthwhile? For example, does it deliver tangible benefits to attendees?
Will this session work? For example, will it achieve its stated goals in the time allotted, is the process clearly defined?
Is the session exciting?
Overall, do you think we should accept this session?

There is more context to help you answer these questions in the review form.

We also make suggestions about the submissions - for example if we feel a session would be really good, but would require more shepherding.

Submitters do not get notified of the reviews, but if they have been involved in the feedback stages (and we encourage everyone to get involved) they will have access so it’s still important to be constructive. And it would be bad form to down-vote a session you see as a competitor to one you have submitted!

Again, ideally we would like every session to receive at least three reviews so that we can be sure the conference will have wide appeal.

We encourage everyone to get involved in reviewing as well, even if you haven’t been to SPA Software in Practice before - the basis is whether you would like to attend the session or think it would be valuable.

Programme meeting

The programme meeting will be on dates TBC in Central London. The exact timing and venue will be announced closer to the time. If you would like to be involved in the programme meeting, please contact us.

At this stage, submissions are still anonymous. We lay out cards with all the sessions and their scores, and formulate a draft programme. High scores are not the only thing we look at, as we want the programme to be as varied and balanced as possible, so we might not want four sessions on Node.js, for example. Those present are also given the opportunity to advocate for particular sessions, for example if it has received average reviews but they feel it would complement other sessions at the conference.

We then reveal names to check that no-one has too many sessions in, or several at the same time.

We will contact successful submitters after the programme meeting and we’ll announce the programme in End of April 2020.

Shepherding

All presenters are assigned a shepherd. A shepherd is someone who has experience presenting, maybe at SPA Software in Practice, and ideally in a similar area to the session leaders. They offer advice and support to help people prepare their sessions, and may meet with the session leaders and perhaps help arrange dry-runs prior to the conference. (We do recommend that you have at least one dry-run of your session.)

We are always looking for people to help shepherd, so please do let us know if you’d like to get involved in this.

Key dates

Feedback: until 16th March 2020
CFP closes: 16th March 2020
Review: 16th March 2020 – 22nd March 2020
Programme Meeting: dates TBC
Shepherding: 1st April – 20th July 2020
Programme announced: End of April 2020

If you have any questions or would like to be involved, please contact us at [email protected] (Jason Ayers, Programme Chair, SPA Software in Practice 2020).