Agile Conference Stage Reviews: How it Works

31 March 2010

If everyone did his or her part, the stage review process would work very well.

How it Should Work

• Submitter gets submission in early
• Review team provides feedback inside the conference review system
• Submitter gets notified and updates submission
• Review team gives it a final pass just after the submission system closes
• Stage producer builds program
• Accept or reject letter goes out

Unfortunately, in the four years I've been doing this, I’ve found that things don’t always go that smoothly. It starts with a flood of late submissions, many incomplete, and ends with overwhelmed reviewers who cannot respond within the review system.

How it Really Works

• Submitter gets submission in just under the deadline
• An overwhelmed review team reviews the submission, inside or outside the review system
• Submitter gets notified and may update the submission
• Stage producer builds program
• Accept or reject letter goes out.

This year was no exception. The vicious cycle began when most of the submissions came in all at once. This in turn caused many review teams to push through a lot of submissions very quickly (this is why your first impression is so important—see blog post 2). The rapid turnaround time and volume, then caused some stage producers to bypass the review system to do the reviews.

Why is it that such a bad thing? Simple – it breaks the feedback loop. How is a person to know how his submission is doing without comments or reviews? As I write this, acceptance letters are going out. At the same time, there are submissions remaining in the system that have no comments or reviews. Transparency and a feedback loop are essential ingredients in a fair submission review, yet we have submissions with zero feedback. It’s bad for the submitters, it’s bad for the reviewers, it’s bad for the producers, and it’s bad for the conference. People do the best they can, but when the process breakdown, the system fails.

Your takeaway. You can help make things work the way they should.

• Submit your talk early
• Email your stage producer
  • Ask them directly if they are using the submission review system
  • If they are not, ask them how they will be giving you feedback and what the update mechanism will be

I’ve given you a good idea of the reality of the submission process and what you can do to give your presentation the best chance of getting accepted. My next blog post will show you the other side of things: how to be a great stage producer.