The call for speakers for Summit 2027 opens on 1 July, a few weeks after this year's event, and closes on 13 September. Last year we received just over 900 proposals for around 45 slots. Because so many people put real work into them, we want the process to be as clear as we can make it.
Who reads your proposal
Every proposal is read by at least three people: the host of the track you chose, a member of our programme team and an independent reviewer from a panel of twenty practitioners who are not speaking that year. Reviewers sign a conflict-of-interest note and skip anything from their own company or close colleagues.
How the review works
We run it in two rounds.
Anonymous round. Reviewers see the title, abstract and outline, but no name, employer or photo. Each scores the proposal on relevance to the track, how specific it is and what an attendee would take away from it.
Programme round. The top third are un-anonymised and the track hosts build a draft programme. Here we look at balance: topics that overlap, companies that appear twice, and the mix of voices, experience and places people come from.
We aim to reply to everyone by the second week of October, and we give written feedback to anyone who asks, accepted or not.
What makes a strong proposal
The proposals that score well tend to share a few things.
A real project. Something your team built, ran or got wrong, rather than a survey of the field.
A clear takeaway. One sentence on what someone in the room could do differently next week.
Honest scope. A 25-minute talk can carry one idea well. Proposals that promise five usually deliver none.
Numbers where they matter. Latency, cost, adoption, time saved. Rough figures are fine; vague ones are not.
We would rather hear about the migration that took three times as long as planned than one that went perfectly.
What we cover
Accepted speakers get a free pass, travel to Lisbon, four nights in a hotel near the river and a speaking fee, whatever their seniority. First-time speakers can ask for a mentor from our speaker alumni, and everyone gets a rehearsal slot in the room the day before.
The call for speakers page has the form, the format lengths and the track descriptions. If you are unsure which track fits, pick the closest; hosts move proposals between tracks all the time. Every speaker agrees to our code of conduct, which also applies to slides.
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