[[!meta title="Call for Participation"]]
[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2020 Amin Bandali, Sacha Chua,
David Bremner
Copyright © 2021 Amin Bandali, Sacha Chua, Leo Vivier,
Sebastian Crane
Copyright © 2022 Amin Bandali
Copyright © 2023 Sacha Chua"]]
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# Call for participation
What have you found exciting about [Emacs](https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/) lately? Have you figured out
a good workflow? Used Emacs for something interesting? Come share
what you've been learning at EmacsConf 2023 and meet other enthusiasts
along the way! All backgrounds and all levels of experience are
welcome. Emacs isn't just a text editor, it's a way of life!
Not sure what to talk about? We've shared a few [ideas](https://emacsconf.org/2023/ideas/) to help you get
started.
[EmacsConf 2023](https://emacsconf.org/2023/) will be a virtual conference on **December 2 and 3, 2023
(Sat-Sun, 9AM-5PM UTC-5 / 2PM-10PM UTC)**. If you'd like to present at the
conference, please **[submit your proposal](https://emacsconf.org/2023/cfp/)** by **September 14, 2023
(Friday)**.
# Talk formats
Ideally, talks will be prerecorded so that you can script and edit
them as tightly as you want, and so that they can be captioned for
accessibility. Here are the talk options:
- **5-10 minute lightning talk:** just the essentials! If you can
squeeze your prerecorded talk into 5-10 minutes by focusing on the
essentials (not by talking super quickly!), we might be able to
repeat it during the conference in order to fill gaps.
- **20-minute talk:** short enough to keep people's attention, long
enough to get into some details.
There will be time for questions and answers after your talk, so you
don't need to include that in your talk timing. Just like in EmacsConf
2022, you can answer questions via a BigBlueButton room, IRC, the
Etherpad, the wiki, or e-mail (your choice). The stream will move on
to the next talk at the scheduled time, but interested people can keep
hanging out with you for a longer conversation.
If you are not available during the conference itself but you have a
neat idea that you'd 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 events in other
timezones.
We may have time for a few longer sessions. If you'd like to be
considered for a longer time slot, please include an outline for the
extra time in addition to your 20-minute proposal. Other session
formats such as tutorials, workshops, and hangouts are welcome as
well.
# Submitting your proposal
[Send us your idea](https://emacsconf.org/2023/submit/) as soon as you can, so that you can have more time
to work on your talk. (Proposal deadline: September 14, 2023) This
year, we'd like to experiment with accepting proposals throughout the
CFP process. If there are similar proposals, we'll work with people
so that the talks can cover different facets.
If you need help, you can e-mail us publicly at [emacsconf-org@gnu.org](mailto:emacsconf-org@gnu.org)
or privately at [emacsconf-org-private@gnu.org](mailto:emacsconf-org-private@gnu.org). You can also come and
say hi to us on our IRC channel `#emacsconf` on `irc.libera.chat`
using [your favourite IRC client](ircs://irc.libera.chat:6697/emacsconf), or by visiting [chat.emacsconf.org](https://chat.emacsconf.org) in
your web browser.
You can do the whole submission process with free/libre software if
you want, just like the rest of the conference.
# Know someone who might have something to share?
All kinds of people use Emacs for all kinds of things. We'd love it if
EmacsConf 2023 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, non-developers, etc.) might
not consider themselves proficient enough to share their thoughts. If
you let them know that you value their knowledge and experiences, and
maybe even suggest something that you think others would like to hear
about, they may realize that they do have something worth sharing and
that we would love to hear from them.
# Want to volunteer?
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 [volunteer](https://emacsconf.org/2023/volunteer)
page. Volunteers get early access to talks and learn lots of things
along the way. We'd really appreciate your help in making EmacsConf
2023 the best one so far!