Speaking at a conference can look mysterious from the audience. In practice, it is a series of learnable steps: find an event, shape an idea, submit it, prepare carefully, and help an audience understand something useful.

This eight-part guide follows that journey from the first thought of speaking through the end of the presentation. It is especially written for software testers, quality engineers, and other technology practitioners, but most of the advice applies to any technical community.

This is an original adaptation inspired by Karl L. Hughes’s eight-part CFP Land guide to speaking at technology conferences, which is preserved in the Internet Archive. CFP Land is no longer online, so we rebuilt and updated its useful path for today’s conference community.

Start the guide

1. Understand Technology Conferences Learn how events differ by topic, format, audience, size, and organizer model.

2. Decide Why You Want to Speak Identify what you want to share and make the commitment realistic.

3. Understand How Conferences Choose Talks See how reviewers evaluate proposals and assemble a balanced program.

4. Find Calls for Proposals Discover suitable CFPs, evaluate event fit, and track opportunities.

5. Write and Submit a Proposal Turn an idea into a clear title, abstract, outline, and biography.

6. Handle Acceptance, Waitlists, and Rejection Respond professionally to every possible submission outcome.

7. Prepare a Conference Presentation Choose a format, design the material, rehearse, and build resilient demos.

8. Prepare for the Conference Manage travel, equipment, on-site checks, and the hours before speaking.

New to conference speaking? Begin with Part 1: Understand Technology Conferences.