Incorporate Sacha's changes + Leo's note on office hours for 2021 CFP

2 files changed, 249 insertions, 269 deletions

diff --git a/2021/cfp.md b/2021/cfp.md
index 4ff60cd8..226fbe81 100644
--- a/2021/cfp.md
+++ b/2021/cfp.md
@@ -1,45 +1,59 @@
 [[!meta title="Call for Proposals - DRAFT"]]
-[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2020, 2021 Amin Bandali, Sacha Chua, David Bremner"]]
+[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2020 Amin Bandali, Sacha Chua, David Bremner
+Copyright © 2021 Amin Bandali, Sacha Chua, Leo Vivier"]]
 
 **This document is a draft.**
 
 **EmacsConf 2021 | November 27 and 28, 2021 | Online Conference**
 
-The Call for Proposals for EmacsConf 2021 is now open, until
-**September 30, 2021**.
+[[EmacsConf 2021|2021]] will be a virtual conference on **November 27
+and 28, 2021 (Sat-Sun)**.  If you wold like to present at the
+conference, please [[submit your proposal|cfp]] by **September 30,
+2021**.
 
-After a successful [[EmacsConf 2020|2020]], we are back again this
-year and are once again calling for your participation!
+EmacsConf 2021 is about the joy of [Emacs][emacs] and Emacs Lisp.
+Come share your experiments and adventures with the Emacs text editor
+/ operating system / way of life!  We welcome speakers of **all
+backgrounds** and **all levels of experience**, including newcomers
+giving their first talk.  What have you found exciting about Emacs
+lately?  What do you wish someone had told you when you were starting
+out or learning more?  What part of your workflow might inspire
+someone to get into Emacs or go deeper?
 
-EmacsConf is the conference about the joy of [Emacs][emacs], Emacs
-Lisp, and memorizing key sequences.
-
-We are holding EmacsConf 2021 as a virtual (online) conference again
-this year.  We remain fully committed to freedom, and we will continue
-using our infrastructure and streaming setup consisting entirely of
-[free software][freesw], much like previous EmacsConf conferences.
+A great way to get started with writing a proposal is to start by
+exploring the programs from previous years: [[2020|2020/schedule]],
+[[2019|2019/schedule]], [[2015|2015/schedule]], [[2013|2013#program]].
+You might also find some neat ideas on the [[ideas]] page.  Feel free
+to add yours there too!  If you are still not sure, come by our IRC
+channel `#emacsconf` on `irc.libera.chat` and say hi.  You can join
+the chat using [your favourite IRC client][libera-emacsconf], or by
+pointing your web browser to [chat.emacsconf.org][chat] which runs our
+self-hosted instance of [The Lounge][thelounge] free software web IRC
+client.
 
-We welcome speakers of **all backgrounds** and **all levels of
-experience**, including newcomers submitting a proposal to give their
-first talk!  This year, we are doing more to help bring more people on
-board -- as speakers *and* potentially as new EmacsConf organizers,
-for those interested in gaining hands-on experience with organizing a
-volunteer-run fully online conference alongside other EmacsConf
-organizers (keep on reading for more on this!) -- and would love to
-have you along as well.
+All kinds of people use Emacs for all kinds of things.  We would love
+it if EmacsConf 2021 could highlight interesting perspectives and
+reflect the diversity of our community.  If you know someone who might
+have a good idea for a talk, please reach out to them and encourage
+them to submit a proposal.  Many people (especially from
+underrepresented groups such as women, people of colour, and
+non-developers) might not consider themselves expert enough to share
+their thoughts.  If you let them know that you value their knowledge
+and maybe even suggest something that you think others would like to
+hear more about, they may realize that they have something worth
+sharing and that we would love to hear from them.
 
 ## Important dates
 
-Mark your calendars: EmacsConf 2021 will take place on November 27-28!
-We're planning for 9am to 5pm Toronto/EST (2pm-10pm UTC, 3pm-11pm
-Zurich/CET).  Depending on people's availability, it might be two
-half-days.
+For EmacsConf 2021, we are planning for 9am to 5pm Toronto/EST
+(2pm-10pm UTC) on November 27 and 28.  Depending on people's
+availability, it might be two half-days.
 
 <table>
 <tbody>
 <tr>
 <td colspan="2" align="left">CFP opens</td>
-<td colspan="2" align="right">August 2, 2021</td>
+<td colspan="2" align="right">August 4, 2021</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td colspan="2" align="left">CFP closes</td>
@@ -60,146 +74,125 @@ half-days.
 </tbody>
 </table>
 
+If you are not available during the conference itself but you have a
+neat idea that you would like to share, please propose it anyway!
+You can always handle questions after the conference, and we might
+even be able to coordinate with other Emacs meetups for regional
+events (if you're an Emacs meetup organizer and would like to make
+this happen please get in touch with us!).
+
 Please note that although we will try our best to stick to the above
 dates in the coming months, given the current state of the world, we
 may have to move things around a bit in case of unforeseen events.
-Thank you for bearing with us as we all navigate these trying times.
+Thank you for your patience and understanding.
 
 <a name="formats"></a>
 ## Talk formats
 
-The following are the main formats for EmacsConf 2021 talks:
+We would like EmacsConf 2021 to inspire lots of different people to
+explore lots of different things in Emacs.  We hope to put together a
+stream of quick ideas followed by lots of conversation over IRC and/or
+Q&A sessions, with occasional deep dives into topics that many people
+might find interesting or useful.
+
+As you think about your talk, consider what you can share in:
+
+- **Up to 10 minutes total:** What is the core idea?  What do you want
+  people to do or remember?  You can show just enough to get people
+  interested and then point them to where they can learn more
+  afterwards.  You can answer questions over IRC, the pad, or the
+  wiki, and there is no limit to how long that conversation can go.
 
-- **10 minutes** (Lightning talk): Quickly present a cool project,
-  concept, or trick in 10 minutes or less!
+- **Up to 20 minutes total:** How would you flesh out some of the
+  points from your 5-10 minute presentation?  How can you show the
+  pieces working together?
 
-- **20 minutes** (Standard talk): Introduce the audience to a new
-  Emacs mode, concept, or just talk about something not necessarily
-  shiny and new but that you find really neat nonetheless.
+- **Up to 40 minutes total:** What would benefit from a deep dive?
+  How do you keep it engaging?
 
-- **50 minutes** (Extended talk): Take your time going more in depth,
-  and/or do a demo!  Extended talks are a great way of really
-  educating the audience about something you enjoy.
+When you write your proposal, outline what you plan to talk about if
+you have 5-10 minutes.  If you would like to propose a longer talk,
+outline what you might include for a 5-10 minute talk, a 20-minute
+talk, and optionally a 40-minute talk.
 
-We hope to have lots of great submissions this year, just like last
-years.  In order that as many people as possible can present, it helps
-if presenters can be flexible about their time slots.  So, for
-non-lightning talk submissions, please let us know besides your main
-preferred format if a shorter format would also work for your talk.
+Example for a 40-minute talk:
 
-Q&A time is **included** in the Standard and Extended time slots;
-please time your presentation accordingly.  If you would like to take
-questions live, we recommend aiming for a 15-minute presentation for
-the Standard time slot, and for 40-45 minutes for the Extended time
-slot.  However, as the speaker, the exact allocation of your time is
-up to you, so long as it does not exceed the allocated time slot.
+- 5-10 minutes: quick demo of the abc package working together with
+  xyz package
+- 20 minutes: + some customization options to accommodate a different
+  workflow
+- 40 minutes: + modifying the behaviour of the package in order to add
+  something new
 
 Other session formats such as tutorials, workshops, and hangouts are
 welcome as well, especially considering all that is going on around
-the world, in case you would find those other formats preferable to a
-traditional talk format.  If you are interested in these or other
-session types, please get in touch with us publicly or privately; we
-will be happy to work something out with you.
-
-To help minimize disruptions in case of potential technical issues
-that may arise during the conference, we ask that our speakers either
-schedule a short tech-check with us, or submit a prerecording of their
-talk (especially for lightning talks, where the allotted time slot is
-rather small and any issues that cannot be resolved quickly will
-greatly detract from the presentation).  We will send an email about
-this with more details further down the line.
-
-Keynote speaker(s) for EmacsConf 2021 will be introduced in a future
-announcement.
+the world, in case you would find those other formats preferable to
+a traditional talk format.  If you are interested in these or other
+session types, please get in touch with us publicly or privately.
+We will be happy to work something out with you.
 
 ## Office hours
 
-TODO
+We are aware that it can be a bit intimidating to submit a proposal to
+a conference, so we thought we would try and help!  This year, we are
+opening up the doors of our virtual offices for you to come talk to us
+about your proposals with hopes of helping you with any hurdles you
+may be facing with preparing your proposal.
 
-## Topic ideas
+We would like to publish a schedule of availabilities of volunteers
+for holding office hours.  Currently these volunteers consist of some
+of the EmacsConf organizers, but we would love to have the help of
+other members of the Emacs community as well for the office hours.
+If you are a more experienced Emacs user and would like to help with
+this, please get in touch!
 
-Not sure what to talk about?  You might find some neat ideas on the
-[[ideas]] page.  Feel free to add yours there too!  If you're still
-not sure, come by our IRC channel `#emacsconf` on `irc.libera.chat`
-and say hi.  You can join the chat using
-[your favourite IRC client][libera-emacsconf], or by pointing your
-web browser to [chat.emacsconf.org][chat] which runs our self-hosted
-instance of [The Lounge][thelounge] free software web IRC client.
-
-A great way to get started with writing a proposal is to start by
-exploring the programs from previous years: [[2020|2020/schedule]],
-[[2019|2019/schedule]], [[2015|2015/schedule]], [[2013|2013#program]].
+Our first office hour this year is planned for Saturday, August 14,
+from 3pm to 4pm UTC with zaeph (Leo Vivier) at the following
+BigBlueButton room: https://bbb.emacsverse.org/b/ban-qye-fd1-5kw.
 
-## Submission
+## Submitting your proposal
 
 Once you're ready to submit your proposal, the [[submit]] page has the
 instructions on how to submit your talk.
 
-All kinds of people use Emacs for all kinds of things.  We would love
-it if EmacsConf 2021 could highlight interesting perspectives and
-reflect the diversity of our community.  If you know someone who might
-have a good idea for a talk, please reach out to them and encourage
-them to submit a proposal.  Many people (especially from
-underrepresented groups such as women, people of colour, and
-non-developers) might not consider themselves expert enough to share
-their thoughts.  If you let them know that you value their knowledge
-and maybe even suggest something that you think others would like to
-hear more about, they may realize that they have something worth
-sharing and that we would love to hear from them.
+We use an anonymized submission process to reduce bias and encourage
+contribution.  Identifying information will be removed from
+submissions by a conference organizer who will not participate in
+talk selection.  The anonymized submissions will then be reviewed by
+a selection committee.
 
-This year, we are experimenting with an anonymized submission process.
-Identifying information will be removed from submissions by a
-conference organizer who will not participate in talk selection.  The
-anonymized submissions will then be reviewed by a selection committee.
-We hope this will help reduce bias and encourage contribution.  We
-look forward to hearing from you (and the people you want to nudge to
-speak)!
+If your talk is approved, we would love it if you could help us make
+sure the conference runs smoothly.  After we email you with the time
+alloted for your talk, we will ask you to:
+
+- prepare a prerecording of your talk, or record it with our help
+  if that would be easier for you; and
+- schedule a short tech-check if you would like to answer questions
+  in a live session.
 
 ## Getting involved
 
-We are very happy and humbled that EmacsConf has been received so well
-by Emacsians all around the world and it's been growing!  Last year
-EmacsConf 2020 saw a ~30% increase in number of talks and had more
-than double the participants and viewers compared to EmacsConf 2019,
-and we are hopeful that it keeps on growing and reaching more Emacs
-users and enthusiasts.
-
-As EmacsConf keeps on growing, it would need more volunteers and
-organizers to help make it the awesome conference that it is and make
-it even better each year, and we would love to have your help for
-that!
-
-### Help review EmacsConf proposal submissions
-
-This year, we are inviting interested community members to help review
-talk proposal submissions as part of the selection committee
-previously consisting only of EmacsConf organizers.  If you are
-interested in helping review this year's session proposals, please
-write to one of the [emacsconf-org][emacsconf-org] or
-[emacsconf-org-private][emacsconf-org-private] mailing lists and/or
-come say hi to us at `#emacsconf-org` on `irc.libera.chat`.
-
-### Help with planning, organizing, and other aspects of EmacsConf
-
-If you would like to get involved with the various aspects of
-organizing the conference, such as planning the sessions and helping
-with the infrastructure, see our [[planning]] page and come say hi to
-us at `#emacsconf` on `irc.libera.chat`.
-
-As we strive to make EmacsConf more and more accessible each year, we
-would love to have help from stenographers and/or any volunteers who
-would be so kind to help transcribe and/or describe what is happening
-during each talk in the `#emacsconf-accessible` IRC channel.  We could
-later gather these logs and post them on the EmacsConf website for
-each talk where applicable.
-
-Last but not least, please don't forget to subscribe to our mailing
-list, [emacsconf-discuss][emacsconf-discuss], for discussion and
-announcements about the EmacsConf conference.
+If you would like to help with the conference (planning the sessions,
+reviewing proposals, helping with infrastructure, making sessions more
+accessible, editing video transcripts, etc), see our [[planning]] page
+and come say hi to us at `#emacsconf-org` on `irc.libera.chat`.
+
+
+Subscribe to our mailing list, [emacsconf-discuss][emacsconf-discuss],
+for discussion and announcements about the EmacsConf conference.
 
 We look forward to your ideas and submissions!
 
 
+---
+
+## Commitment to freedom
+
+We remain fully committed to freedom, and we will continue
+using our infrastructure and streaming setup consisting entirely
+of [free software][freesw], much like previous EmacsConf conferences.
+
+
 [emacs]: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/
 [freesw]: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
 [chat]: https://chat.emacsconf.org
diff --git a/2021/emacsconf-2021-cfp.org b/2021/emacsconf-2021-cfp.org
index 464cdfc0..a24e0db4 100644
--- a/2021/emacsconf-2021-cfp.org
+++ b/2021/emacsconf-2021-cfp.org
@@ -3,190 +3,177 @@
 #+date: November 27 and 28, 2021
 #+options: author:nil
 
-# Copyright (C) 2021 Amin Bandali, Sacha Chua, David Bremner
-
 DRAFT
 
-#+begin_comment
-- SC: I made some significant changes, so I decided to just put mine
-in a different version: [[file:emacsconf-2021-cfp-sacha.org][emacsconf-2021-cfp-sacha.org]] #+end_comment
-
-The [[https://emacsconf.org/2021/cfp/][Call for Proposals]] for [[https://emacsconf.org/2021/][EmacsConf 2021]] is now open, until
-*September 30, 2021*.
-
-After a successful EmacsConf 2020, we are back again this year and are
-once again calling for your participation!
+[[https://emacsconf.org/2021/][EmacsConf 2021]] will be a virtual conference on *November 27 and 28,
+2021 (Sat-Sun)*.  If you wold like to present at the conference,
+please [[https://emacsconf.org/2021/cfp/][submit your proposal]] by *September 30, 2021*.
 
-EmacsConf is the conference about the joy of [[https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/][Emacs]], Emacs Lisp, and
-memorizing key sequences.
+EmacsConf 2021 is about the joy of [[https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/][Emacs]] and Emacs Lisp.  Come share
+your experiments and adventures with the Emacs text editor / operating
+system / way of life!  We welcome speakers of *all backgrounds* and
+*all levels of experience*, including newcomers giving their first
+talk.  What have you found exciting about Emacs lately?  What do you
+wish someone had told you when you were starting out or learning more?
+What part of your workflow might inspire someone to get into Emacs or
+go deeper?
 
-We are holding EmacsConf 2021 as a virtual (online) conference again
-this year.  We remain fully committed to freedom, and we will continue
-using our infrastructure and streaming setup consisting entirely of
-[[https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html][free software]], much like previous EmacsConf conferences.
+A great way to get started with writing a proposal is to start by
+exploring the programs from previous years: [[https://emacsconf.org/2020/schedule/][2020]], [[https://emacsconf.org/2019/schedule/][2019]], [[https://emacsconf.org/2015/schedule/][2015]], [[https://emacsconf.org/2013/#program][2013]].
+You might also find some neat ideas on the [[https://emacsconf.org/2021/ideas/][ideas]] page.  Feel free to
+add yours there too!  If you are still not sure, come by our IRC
+channel =#emacsconf= on =irc.libera.chat= and say hi.  You can join
+the chat using [[ircs://irc.libera.chat:6697/emacsconf][your favourite IRC client]], or by pointing your web
+browser to [[https://chat.emacsconf.org][chat.emacsconf.org]] which runs our self-hosted instance of
+[[https://thelounge.chat][The Lounge]] free software web IRC client.
 
-We welcome speakers of *all backgrounds* and *all levels of
-experience*, including newcomers submitting a proposal to give their
-first talk!  This year, we are doing more to help bring more people on
-board -- as speakers /and/ potentially as new EmacsConf organizers,
-for those interested in gaining hands-on experience with organizing a
-volunteer-run fully online conference alongside other EmacsConf
-organizers (keep on reading for more on this!) -- and would love to
-have you along as well.
+All kinds of people use Emacs for all kinds of things.  We would love
+it if EmacsConf 2021 could highlight interesting perspectives and
+reflect the diversity of our community.  If you know someone who might
+have a good idea for a talk, please reach out to them and encourage
+them to submit a proposal.  Many people (especially from
+underrepresented groups such as women, people of colour, and
+non-developers) might not consider themselves expert enough to share
+their thoughts.  If you let them know that you value their knowledge
+and maybe even suggest something that you think others would like to
+hear more about, they may realize that they have something worth
+sharing and that we would love to hear from them.
 
 * Important dates
 
-Mark your calendars: EmacsConf 2021 will take place on November 27-28!
-We're planning for 9am to 5pm Toronto/EST (2pm-10pm UTC, 3pm-11pm
-Zurich/CET).  Depending on people's availability, it might be two
-half-days.
+For EmacsConf 2021, we are planning for 9am to 5pm Toronto/EST
+(2pm-10pm UTC) on November 27 and 28.  Depending on people's
+availability, it might be two half-days.
 
-| CFP opens             | August 2, 2021           |
+| CFP opens             | August 4, 2021           |
 | CFP closes            | September 30, 2021       |
 | Speaker notifications | October 15, 2021         |
 | Schedule published    | October 31, 2021         |
 | EmacsConf 2021!       | November 27 and 28, 2021 |
 
+If you are not available during the conference itself but you have a
+neat idea that you would like to share, please propose it anyway!
+You can always handle questions after the conference, and we might
+even be able to coordinate with other Emacs meetups for regional
+events (if you're an Emacs meetup organizer and would like to make
+this happen please get in touch with us!).
+
 Please note that although we will try our best to stick to the above
 dates in the coming months, given the current state of the world, we
 may have to move things around a bit in case of unforeseen events.
-Thank you for bearing with us as we all navigate these trying times.
+Thank you for your patience and understanding.
 
 * Talk formats
 
-The following are the main formats for EmacsConf 2021 talks:
+We would like EmacsConf 2021 to inspire lots of different people to
+explore lots of different things in Emacs.  We hope to put together a
+stream of quick ideas followed by lots of conversation over IRC and/or
+Q&A sessions, with occasional deep dives into topics that many people
+might find interesting or useful.
+
+As you think about your talk, consider what you can share in:
 
-- *10 minutes* (Lightning talk): Quickly present a cool project,
-  concept, or trick in 10 minutes or less!
+- *Up to 10 minutes total:* What is the core idea?  What do you want
+  people to do or remember?  You can show just enough to get people
+  interested and then point them to where they can learn more
+  afterwards.  You can answer questions over IRC, the pad, or the
+  wiki, and there is no limit to how long that conversation can go.
 
-- *20 minutes* (Standard talk): Introduce the audience to a new Emacs
-  mode, concept, or just talk about something not necessarily shiny
-  and new but that you find really neat nonetheless.
+- *Up to 20 minutes total:* How would you flesh out some of the points
+  from your 5-10 minute presentation?  How can you show the pieces
+  working together?
 
-- *50 minutes* (Extended talk): Take your time going more in depth,
-  and/or do a demo!  Extended talks are a great way of really
-  educating the audience about something you enjoy.
+- *Up to 40 minutes total:* What would benefit from a deep dive?
+  How do you keep it engaging?
 
-We hope to have lots of great submissions this year, just like last
-years.  In order that as many people as possible can present, it helps
-if presenters can be flexible about their time slots.  So, for
-non-lightning talk submissions, please let us know besides your main
-preferred format if a shorter format would also work for your talk.
+When you write your proposal, outline what you plan to talk about if
+you have 5-10 minutes.  If you would like to propose a longer talk,
+outline what you might include for a 5-10 minute talk, a 20-minute
+talk, and optionally a 40-minute talk.
 
-Q&A time is *included* in the Standard and Extended time slots; please
-time your presentation accordingly.  If you would like to take
-questions live, we recommend aiming for a 15-minute presentation for
-the Standard time slot, and for 40-45 minutes for the Extended time
-slot.  However, as the speaker, the exact allocation of your time is
-up to you, so long as it does not exceed the allocated time slot.
+Example for a 40-minute talk:
+
+- 5-10 minutes: quick demo of the abc package working together with
+  xyz package
+- 20 minutes: + some customization options to accommodate a different
+  workflow
+- 40 minutes: + modifying the behaviour of the package in order to add
+  something new
 
 Other session formats such as tutorials, workshops, and hangouts are
 welcome as well, especially considering all that is going on around
-the world, in case you would find those other formats preferable to a
-traditional talk format.  If you are interested in these or other
-session types, please get in touch with us publicly or privately; we
-will be happy to work something out with you.
-
-To help minimize disruptions in case of potential technical issues
-that may arise during the conference, we ask that our speakers either
-schedule a short tech-check with us, or submit a prerecording of their
-talk (especially for lightning talks, where the allotted time slot is
-rather small and any issues that cannot be resolved quickly will
-greatly detract from the presentation).  We will send an email about
-this with more details further down the line.
-
-Keynote speaker(s) for EmacsConf 2021 will be introduced in a future
-announcement.
+the world, in case you would find those other formats preferable to
+a traditional talk format.  If you are interested in these or other
+session types, please get in touch with us publicly or privately.
+We will be happy to work something out with you.
 
 * Office hours
 
-TODO
-
-* Topic ideas
+We are aware that it can be a bit intimidating to submit a proposal to
+a conference, so we thought we would try and help!  This year, we are
+opening up the doors of our virtual offices for you to come talk to us
+about your proposals with hopes of helping you with any hurdles you
+may be facing with preparing your proposal.
 
-Not sure what to talk about?  You might find some neat ideas on the
-[[https://emacsconf.org/2021/ideas/][ideas]] page.  Feel free to add yours there too!  If you're still not
-sure, come by our IRC channel =#emacsconf= on =irc.libera.chat= and
-say hi.  You can join the chat using [[ircs://irc.libera.chat:6697/emacsconf][your favourite IRC client]], or by
-pointing your web browser to [[https://chat.emacsconf.org][chat.emacsconf.org]] which runs our
-self-hosted instance of [[https://thelounge.chat][The Lounge]] free software web IRC client.
+We would like to publish a schedule of availabilities of volunteers
+for holding office hours.  Currently these volunteers consist of some
+of the EmacsConf organizers, but we would love to have the help of
+other members of the Emacs community as well for the office hours.
+If you are a more experienced Emacs user and would like to help with
+this, please get in touch!
 
-A great way to get started with writing a proposal is to start by
-exploring the programs from previous years: [[https://emacsconf.org/2020/schedule/][2020]], [[https://emacsconf.org/2019/schedule/][2019]], [[https://emacsconf.org/2015/schedule/][2015]], [[https://emacsconf.org/2013/#program][2013]].
+Our first office hour this year is planned for Saturday, August 14,
+from 3pm to 4pm UTC with zaeph (Leo Vivier) at the following
+BigBlueButton room: https://bbb.emacsverse.org/b/ban-qye-fd1-5kw.
 
-* Submission
+* Submitting your proposal
 
-Once you're ready to submit your proposal, the [[https://emacsconf.org/2021/submit/][submit]] page has the
+Once you are ready to submit your proposal, the [[https://emacsconf.org/2021/submit/][submit]] page has the
 instructions on how to submit your talk.
 
-All kinds of people use Emacs for all kinds of things.  We would love
-it if EmacsConf 2021 could highlight interesting perspectives and
-reflect the diversity of our community.  If you know someone who might
-have a good idea for a talk, please reach out to them and encourage
-them to submit a proposal.  Many people (especially from
-underrepresented groups such as women, people of colour, and
-non-developers) might not consider themselves expert enough to share
-their thoughts.  If you let them know that you value their knowledge
-and maybe even suggest something that you think others would like to
-hear more about, they may realize that they have something worth
-sharing and that we would love to hear from them.
+We use an anonymized submission process to reduce bias and encourage
+contribution.  Identifying information will be removed from
+submissions by a conference organizer who will not participate in
+talk selection.  The anonymized submissions will then be reviewed by
+a selection committee.
+
+If your talk is approved, we would love it if you could help us make
+sure the conference runs smoothly.  After we email you with the time
+alloted for your talk, we will ask you to:
+
+- prepare a prerecording of your talk, or record it with our help
+  if that would be easier for you; and
+- schedule a short tech-check if you would like to answer questions
+  in a live session.
 
-This year, we are experimenting with an anonymized submission process.
-Identifying information will be removed from submissions by a
-conference organizer who will not participate in talk selection.  The
-anonymized submissions will then be reviewed by a selection committee.
-We hope this will help reduce bias and encourage contribution.  We
-look forward to hearing from you (and the people you want to nudge to
-speak)!
+Don't forget to subscribe to our mailing list, [[https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacsconf-discuss][emacsconf-discuss]],
+for discussion and announcements about the EmacsConf conference.
+
+We look forward to your ideas and submissions!
 
 * Getting involved
 
-We are very happy and humbled that EmacsConf has been received so well
-by Emacsians all around the world and it's been growing!  Last year
-EmacsConf 2020 saw a ~30% increase in number of talks and had more
-than double the participants and viewers compared to EmacsConf 2019,
-and we are hopeful that it keeps on growing and reaching more Emacs
-users and enthusiasts.
-
-As EmacsConf keeps on growing, it would need more volunteers and
-organizers to help make it the awesome conference that it is and make
-it even better each year, and we would love to have your help for
-that!
-
-** Help review EmacsConf proposal submissions
-
-This year, we are inviting interested community members to help review
-talk proposal submissions as part of the selection committee
-previously consisting only of EmacsConf organizers.  If you are
-interested in helping review this year's session proposals, please
-write to one of the [[https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacsconf-org][emacsconf-org]] or [[https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacsconf-org-private][emacsconf-org-private]] mailing
-lists and/or come say hi to us at =#emacsconf-org= on
-=irc.libera.chat=.
-
-** Help with planning, organizing, and other aspects of EmacsConf
-
-If you would like to get involved with the various aspects of
-organizing the conference, such as planning the sessions and helping
-with the infrastructure, see our [[https://emacsconf.org/2021/planning/][planning]] page and come say hi to
-us at =#emacsconf= on =irc.libera.chat=.
-
-As we strive to make EmacsConf more and more accessible each year, we
-would love to have help from stenographers and/or any volunteers who
-would be so kind to help transcribe and/or describe what is happening
-during each talk in the =#emacsconf-accessible= IRC channel.  We could
-later gather these logs and post them on the EmacsConf website for
-each talk where applicable.
-
-Last but not least, please don't forget to subscribe to our mailing
-list, [[https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacsconf-discuss][emacsconf-discuss]], for discussion and announcements about the
-EmacsConf conference.
+If you would like to help with the conference (planning the sessions,
+reviewing proposals, helping with infrastructure, making sessions more
+accessible, editing video transcripts, etc), see our [[https://emacsconf.org/2021/planning/][planning]] page and
+come say hi to us at =#emacsconf= on =irc.libera.chat=.
+
+Subscribe to our mailing list, [[https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacsconf-discuss][emacsconf-discuss]], for discussions and
+announcements about the EmacsConf conference.
 
 We look forward to your ideas and submissions!
 
 
+* Commitment to freedom
+
+We remain fully committed to freedom, and we will continue
+using our infrastructure and streaming setup consisting entirely
+of [[https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html][free software]], much like previous EmacsConf conferences.
+
 * COMMENT Copyright & License
 
-Copyright (C) 2020, 2021 Amin Bandali, Sacha Chua, David Bremner
+Copyright (c) 2020 Amin Bandali, Sacha Chua, David Bremner
+Copyright (c) 2021 Amin Bandali, Sacha Chua, Leo Vivier
 
 The EmacsConf 2021 Call for Proposals is part of the EmacsConf wiki,
 and is dual-licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons