Now’s the time: Our call for session proposals

DrupalCon Minneapolis 2020 is now accepting session proposal submissions! For 2020, we welcome a wealth of perspectives and a vast knowledge base from presenters.

We typically receive more than 500+ session submissions, and choosing a lineup is a massive undertaking. The DrupalCon program committee enthusiastically seeks diverse representation among this pool of submissions; we aim to amplify the voices of our community members traditionally underrepresented in tech. As Drupal founder Dries Buytaert recently wrote,

“Seeing and hearing from a more diverse group of people can inspire new contributors from all races, ethnicities, gender identities, geographies, religious groups and more. One way to step up is to help more people from underrepresented groups speak at Drupal conferences.” 

In his Driesnote at DrupalCon Seattle 2019, he shared this slide, reiterating the project’s priorities.

"Calls to action: 1. Improve diversity and inclusion in our community. 2. Start removing the use of deprecated code now. 3. Refocus on the automated upgrades problem."

To that end, session submissions with multiple speakers will prioritize at least 1 speaker from a traditionally underrepresented group(s).

Sessions with 3 or more speakers must include 1 or more speakers who do not identify as a man. Almost all DrupalCon Seattle 2019 sessions with 3 or more speakers met this criteria. This requirement not only addresses gender but aids progress toward increased diversity, equity and inclusion at DrupalCon. 

Want to expand your network but need support? Are you in need of help lining up speakers for a panel? Assistance is available! The DrupalCon program committee is a resource for helping find potential co-speakers, and they have experience connecting community members who may not have ever met. They’re available via the #session-help channel in the community-run Drupal Slack.

Tracks for sessions are as follows for 2020

  • Being Human, Contributions & Community - All about participation.

  • Content & Marketing - Content management, strategy and more. 

  • Development & Coding - Front end, back end, migration, decoupling and more.

  • DevOps & Infrastructure - Hosting, deployments, networking, hardware and stack.

  • Leadership, Management & Business - Agency, business, multiple verticals, project management, leadership and sales strategy.

  • Quality Assurance & Testing - QA, user acceptance, regression, browser and device.

  • Site Building - Using the administrative interface.

  • User Experience, Accessibility & Design - Designing for universal access and inclusion.

  • Wellness - New! Informal, experimental track for topics such as sketchnoting and yoga.

  • What’s next - Initiatives, innovation, bold ideas, non-Drupal topics, etc.

If you know of great voices we need to hear as speakers, please spread the word! Here are resources to help with your outreach.

Our program committee is comprised of experienced community members who work in the field in which they’re evaluating proposals. After session submissions close on December 4, the team will review and evaluate all submissions. Each accepted session will be allocated one free conference registration for a speaker on the team. All speakers have the support of track chairs, who work to provide mentorship and encouragement.

Then comes the exciting part for so many: Announcing all the sessions! The challenge for attendees is likely to be how to choose from a vast amount of sessions offered at Minneapolis 2020. 

2019 DrupalCon scholarship recipient John Ivie Jr. had this to say after Seattle:

“I recommend checking the sessions prior to the conference. There’s so much, I know I wanted to show up as prepared as I could. There are so many opportunities — some all at once.” He added: “The Drupal Association is committed to diversity and inclusion at this event. I see it. It means a lot.” 

Submit your proposal