ffconf 2016 is running on two dates: 10th and 11th November (that's right: twice) and this post includes the details for the Call For Proposals (CFP). The conference itself takes place at the Duke of Yorks in Brighton, UK.

This post includes both what I want to hear about (to give you an idea whether something you're passionate about aligns with the topics), and also mine and Julie's promise to our speakers.

You can also follow the @ffconf twitter account for the latest announcements to find out how to join in on this fun:

ffconf 2015 delegates cheering

Topics I'm interested in hearing about

Here are the topics I've been thinking about since the last ffconf. Note that there's also other topics that I've left off the list where I already have a speaker 😍

Code, development

  • Testing, in particular integration tests and selenium/full end to end cross browser testing
  • Accessibility first hand, what is the impact of our work?
  • Forget ES2015: what about ES2016 and ES2017?
  • Tick box guide to security and/or performance
  • Data science tooling on the CLI

Process, Ideas

  • The army of one: the developer that does it all (what motivates you day-to-day, what inspires you, any war stories from the web)
  • The (social) importance of progressive web apps
  • Value of emoji and communication (and any impact on social coding)

Bettering ourselves and others

  • Community and how do we reduce the ratio of White Dudes in web
  • Is (or are) there other languages/disciplines that web developers should learn from?
  • What it's like to start out in web development (1st person POV). What's hard, what's easy, what helps, what doesn't?
  • Teaching the next generation of developers (in, or straight of school)
  • The sharp end of open source

If you're passionate about something and it's not listed - go ahead and get in touch anyway, I want to hear about it.

Topics that don't work, unless they're genuinely going to change the World, then CFPs like these generally fall to the bottom of the pile (sorry):

  • What's great about X library (where X is React, Ember, etcetera)
  • Your company's new shiny product
  • Talks that are similar to recent years of ffconf talks

Send us the title of your talk, an outline of the talk and any extra information you want us to know about the idea: events@leftlogic.com.

It takes me a long time to process and decide on CFPs, so whilst there's not 8 sessions up on the site, it means your talk is still up for consideration. I will respond to everyone with a yay or nay eventually. If you want to come to ffconf, regardless of whether your CFP is selected, please buy a ticket and if your talk is selected, the ticket will be refunded and returns to the public pool of tickets.

Our promise to you

All our speakers are treated the same. We will, as always:

  • Pay and organise your travel (or you're welcome to organise yourself if you prefer). If you're flying long haul, we'll upgrade you to premium class (or whatever the name is for "above economy")
  • Put you up in our "speaker hotel". It's not that cool, but it's right in town and two minutes walk from our venue. We're also open to offering the hotel stay. If you want an extra day or two here and there, then that's cool too (obviously if everyone does this, it breaks our bank, but so far it's worked)
  • Arrange your travel and help you with anything you need ahead of the event
  • We can, if you need or want it, provide you with a mifi preloaded with data
  • We'll endeavour to feed and water you as much as we can (including a speaker meal and lunch both conference days and if you're partial to a tipple, we'll pay for all these too)
  • 40 minute talk, generally we don't do Q&A and it's best to err on the side of "there is no wifi"
  • £1,000 honorarium (since our event is running twice, you're being paid two £500 honorariums)
  • A free pass to the next ffconf, and for evermore part of our growing and much loved speaker alumni
  • If you bought a ticket for ffconf, we'll refund the ticket (as we don't expect, or want, our speakers to pay)
  • Uphold our conference code of conduct, both for you, and our attendees (either will be, or based on confcodeofconduct.com)

So I hope to hear from you soon!