If you've never presented at a conference before and think you might like to try it, we want to hear from you! The program committee is *very* much interested in encouraging and supporting new speakers, and we will be able to provide detailed feedback and work with you to develop your proposal and talk content so you can give the best talk possible.
In the interest of transparency, we have documented our [selection process](/program/selection-process). Portions of this page were drawn from ideas seen on [DjangoCon EU](https://djangocon.eu), [SeaGL](https://seagl.org), [Fog City Ruby](http://www.fogcityruby.com/speak/), and others. Thanks to all for their inspiration and permission to borrow!
**All speakers will receive complimentary registration to the conference, and requests for further financial compensation to assist with travel will be considered on a case-by-case basis independent of the proposal's merits.**
**All speakers will be expected to have read and adhere to the conference [Code of Conduct](/code-of-conduct). In particular for speakers: slide contents and spoken material should be appropriate for a professional audience including people of many different backgrounds. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate, and neither are language or imagery that denigrate or demean people based on race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, physical appearance, disability, or body size.**
We will make every effort to provide accommodations for speakers and attendees of all abilities—all we ask is that you let us know so we can prepare accordingly.
North Bay Python is a conference in support of the local programmer community outside of the core San Francisco Bay Area tech scene. We aim to feature a mix of local and non-local speakers to offer a program with broad appeal.
We anticipate more than 300 attendees at our 2018 conference. In 2017, we had 230 attendees from California and beyond, including:
+ 78% from the San Francisco Bay Area, including 25% from Sonoma County
+ 5% from elsewhere in California
+ 17% from other US states, and internationally.
30% of attendees were women or non-binary.
Our attendees range in experience from students and new graduates, through to career professionals with more than 30 years in the industry. Our professional attendees work in many roles, including software engineers, CTO-level executives, DevOps engineers, data scientists, front-end engineers and mobile developers.
48% of our attendees had never attended a Python-focused conference before North Bay Python. 15% of our attendees made North Bay Python their first tech conference.
**Most of the talk slots will be short**—approximately 25 to 30 minutes, including Q&A if desired. If your ideas would benefit from a longer slot, please explain in your submission how you would use the additional time.
This doesn't mean that every talk needs to be a beginner's talk. If you're talking about advanced concepts, people who are new to Python or your library should come away excited about the possibilities, and know what concepts they need to learn to get there.
This is a list of topics we think might go well in the North Bay Python program, but it is by no means exhaustive. If you have a talk idea on a subject not listed here and you think it fits well with our community and mission, we would love to [hear about it](mailto:program@northbaypython.org)!
This [public speaking](https://github.com/vmbrasseur/Public_Speaking) repository, maintained by [VM Brasseur](https://twitter.com/vmbrasseur), has many useful resources to help you polish your proposals and talks.
First time speakers are welcomed and encouraged. In order to support speakers, we offer mentorship and feedback, are running office hours, and hosting a speaker training on the Friday before North Bay Python. Above all we want you to be successful and have a good time telling other attendees about your ideas!
You can [contact the program committee](mailto:program@northbaypython.org) via email or drop by [#nbpy on the Freenode IRC network](https://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=%23nbpy) anytime to be connected with a mentor and receive guidance structuring your proposal and talk.
Our office hours will be held twice every week **Wednesday at 7pm** and **Friday at 3pm** Pacific Time starting July 11 and finishing August 10. We'll be holding them on IRC, a chat protocol, in the #nbpy channel on the Freenode network. New to IRC? You can use [this web client](https://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=%23nbpy) to connect.
To help us evaluate proposals and build our program, we would like as much detail as you can provide on your talk. At a minimum this should include: **a brief description (~400 characters) suitable for inclusion in a schedule page; a brief prose abstract (intended as the content for a talk detail page on the program site); and, if you'd like, a rough outline of the structure including estimated timings for each section of your talk.**
If you've given your talk before, links to video or slides would be excellent, or if you've blogged about this topic links to your blog posts would be of use as well.
Your speaker profile includes a space for you to describe your prior experience giving talks—this is your chance to talk yourself up and explain how you're qualified to share your ideas, so take advantage of it!
