
Flight Tower (Submission) Guidance
Flight Plan
- 25th September – Commencement of Call for Papers.
- 1st November – Call for Papers concludes.
- 1st – 14th November – SQLBits Committee selects Training Days.
- 14th November – Notification for Training Day speakers.
- 21st November – Content teams finalize General Session selections.
- 21st November – Notification for General Session speakers.
- 28th November – Deadline for Speaker confirmation.
- TBC – Agenda release.
- 1st February – Agenda locked down and passed to Air Traffic Control.
Training Day Sessions
Landing Fees (Speaker Compensation)
- A lodging stipend covering two nights at select partner hotels (with optional upgrades).
- A monetary incentive based on passenger (attendee) count – pending committee decision.
- Full access to the SQLBits experience.
- A guaranteed slot for a general session (subject to content quality checks).
General Sessions
Short Haul Pilot Rewards (General Session Speaker Benefits)
- One-night accommodation stipend at select partner hotels (upgrades optional).
- Full access to the SQLBits experience.
Content Themes
Please find below the content themes for 2024.
Operations
Whilst this can include the Ingestion, transformation and processing within a large-scale data mesh architecture, it can also include the administration, installation and management aspects of an on-premises estate or Azure SQL Server Virtual Machine (Mastering Data Engineering) and Performance Tuning.
Analytics
This theme will cover topics about extracting insights, enriching datasets, and leveraging advanced analytics to add unparalleled value to your business using Machine Learning and AI as well as Real Time Analytics with IoT devices. (Unleashing the Power of Data)
Strategy
This theme will cover topics about safeguarding data including security, data classification, information protection and governance both in the cloud and traditional estates ensuring compliance and mitigating risks.
Delivery
This will cover the prompt, efficient and effective delivery of data to the end user or application. This area will include Power Bi, visualisation and modelling
Non-Technical
This is the theme for professional and career development, leadership skills, DEI, communication skills and working with people
Learning Journeys
For SQLBits in 2024, we are planning a number of Learning Journeys to enable attendees to be able to follow a set path of content. You can think of a learning journey as a collection of sessions curated to address a particular learning need, or set of skills.
More information on these will be available shortly.
Our Commitments
Please read on for a list of everything that we commit to do for you as speakers.
Accessibility
The call for speakers form has a section where you can list any requirements that you may need a conference to enable for you to be able to present (such as a wheelchair ramp or a stool as an example) and we will do everything we can to accommodate. Please feel free to contact us at speakers@sqlbits.com for any questions about this.
Inclusivity
SQLBits is committed to providing an inclusive, welcoming and harassment free environment for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, or religion. We do not tolerate harassment of participants in any form.
New Speakers
At SQLBits we seek to provide fresh content at the very highest standard for our delegates. We expect all our speakers to have some experience, we don’t feel SQLBits is the right place for someone to make their first solo presentation at a large event with the exception of lightning talks where we welcome and encourage first-time speakers.
If you are looking to get into speaking, we’d love to support you via our Connect activity. Visit the page here to find out more.
Speakers New to SQLBits
We aim to provide as much support as is possible for all speakers and for speakers new to SQLBits a little more as Ben explains here.
Speaker Commitments
We will need the slide deck and other content to be sent to us at speakers@sqlbits.com no later than 7 days before the conference start.
Our commitment to you is to provide hotel accommodation prior to any day you are speaking, in exchange you agree to be present and confirm your arrival with the Speaker Liaison team at the Information Desk on each morning you are speaking, and at least 1hour before your session (or the opening of the venue if later).
To ensure the best experience for speakers and ensure the event runs as smoothly as possible, we expect all selected speakers to attend virtual on-boarding session prior to the event. We will arrange these over multiple days and times so there will be one that suits you. Attendance at this is mandatory. If you are uncomfortable with this please let us know in order that we can look to accommodate your needs.
The call for speakers form will ask that you acknowledge reading the Code of Conduct and if you have previously violated a Code of Conduct at another event. A violation of a Code of Conduct will lead to the deactivation of your speaker submission or should this happen after session selection is announced, in the withdrawal of your session from our event.
You will confirm that you want to present the selected session within 14 days of SQLBits advising you that you have had a session selected to be part of the conference schedule.
Failure to meet any of the commitments may result in your session being cancelled and speaker benefits being removed.
Session Delivery
We are planning on running a hybrid event where speakers can present either remotely or in-person, equally we hope to have delegates attending in-person and virtually. Whilst we really hope that people will attend in-person we fully appreciate that this may not be possible for everyone. As part of the session submission process, we ask you to let us know whether you are planning to present in-person or virtually. If, for some reason, we have to swap to run as a fully virtual event, or you are no longer able to travel we very much hope you will still present your session, if selected, virtually.
If you opt to present virtually, or you need to present virtually due to a change in circumstance whilst we hope you will present your session live we will need a recording in advance. In addition, if we have to make the call to go completely virtual then we will make that decision no later than 4 weeks in advance and will ask you to provide a recording of your session. In these uncertain times we feel this is the best compromise.
We can set up a Teams meeting with you and record the session for you if you would prefer to deliver it to an audience rather than talking to yourself. We don’t need these recordings to be edited to perfection, we’d prefer them to be as if you were presenting live, “warts and all” as it were.
Pre-requisites for Training Days
Full-day training session submissions require the following additional information
- Prerequisite knowledge for attendees
- Agenda for the day
- Format of the day (hands on course, workshop)
- 90 second video to promote your session.