The SciPy Conference is in awe of the work that is being done in the community. We receive many interesting and thought-provoking proposals but we have a limited number of spaces. Please take a look at our tips below to improve your chances of having a talk or poster accepted by the conference. In the unfortunate event that your proposal is not accepted, please keep in mind that you are welcome to give a lightning talk, book a room for a Birds of a Feather discussion, or talk to the Program Committee about displaying your work as a poster in lieu of a talk.  

• Submit your proposal early. While early submission does not factor into the proposal evaluation process, proposals submitted early tend to be higher quality. You can edit your proposal up until the deadline and get advice at the Program Committee’s office hours. 

• In your description, be sure to include answers to some basic questions: Who is the intended audience for your talk? What, specifically, will attendees learn from your talk?  

• Ensure that your talk will be relevant to a broad range of people. If your talk is on a particular Python package or piece of software, it should be useful to more than a niche group.  

• Include links to source code, articles, blog posts, or other writing that adds context to the presentation.  

• If you've given a talk, tutorial, or other presentation before, include that information as well as a link to slides or a video if they're available.  

• SciPy talks are 25 minutes with 2-3 minutes for questions. Please keep the length of time in mind as you structure your outline.  

• Your talk should not be a commercial for your company’s product. However, you are welcome to talk about how your company solved a problem, or notable open-source projects that may benefit attendees.  
  

Many of these tips are adapted from the PyCon Proposal Resources. Thanks PSF!