It's that time of year again, Djangocon 2011 is seeking talk proposals! Giving a talk at Djangocon is a great opportunity for you to give something back to the community while increasing your visibility within the community. There has been a history of great talks at past Djangocons, so we can't wait to see what you will bring this year.

We will be accepting proposals online at starting today. As you might have noticed, we're running a bit late this year so we're only able to accept talk submissions for two weeks (until July 5). THIS MEANS SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSALS NOW! Visit the speaker page to register an account and submit one or more talk proposals.

Once the proposals have been submitted, the selection committee will vote on proposals and put together the final schedule by July 12. Understand that we have a limited number of slots for talks so only a subset of proposals can be accepted.

Djangocon's policy is that, with the exception of a few keynote speakers who have been invited from outside the community to bring in some perspective, and sponsors who receive a number of registrations as part of their sponsorship package, all speakers, volunteers, and organizers pay the same registration fees and pay for their own accommodations. We feel this policy is the most fair to everybody and helps the conference maintain its community feel. Speakers will, however, be allowed to register at early bird rates for a short time after their submissions are accepted.

This year we are breaking down talks into three levels:

Intro - Provide an overview and/or beginners introduction to a particular use of Django or a tool related to Django. Speakers should assume attendees have a basic understanding of Python/Django but no more. Possible topics at this level include "An intro to Django Forms", "Using South", "Testing your code", or "Designing better models".

Intermediate - Dive a bit deeper into a given topic. Assume that attendees have an understanding of Django, but may need an introduction to topic specific terms and concepts. Covering relatively undocumented features of Django may also fall into this level. Examples of intermediate topics include "Multi-db use cases", "Dynamically generating forms", "Advanced use of GeoDjango", or "Designing APIs for Complex Services".

Advanced - Time to go all the way. With advanced talks, speakers should assume the audience has a deep understanding of Django, Python, and the topic. Little or no time should be given to introductions. The talk should be entirely focused on going as deep as possible into the given topic. Possible advanced topics include: "Understanding the ORM internals", "Why is X slow and what can we do about it", or "How Eventlet/Gevent/etc can be used with Django".

When writing your proposal, there are a few things to keep in mind:

Make sure that the topics your proposal covers can reasonably be covered in 40 minutes. If you wish to speak about a big topic, be sure to include details on what parts of the topic you will and will not cover to stay within 40 minutes.

Make your proposal compelling, don't bury the lead. Take some time to think about what is the most exciting aspect of the topic you wish to speak about, and be sure to communicate that excitement in your proposal.

Keep your topic relevant - not every talk has to be of the nature "how to do X in Django", we're happy to learn about separate but related tools and topics. That being said, make sure that you talk is relevant to Django developers in a meaningful way.

Be ambitious with your topic - Intro level talks are great but historically we get way more proposals at this level than the advanced level. This means that there is more competition for the intro level slots. Accordingly you better have a killer intro level talk or you might want to aim for something a bit more advanced. Get working on those proposals! We can't wait to see what awesome talks will be given at Djangocon US 2011.

P.S. If you'd like to be involved in the proposal selection process, join the Djangocon Organizers mailing list for more info: