Do you like reading technical talk proposals and want to help make PyCon awesome? Read more here on how to volunteer as a talk reviewer for PyCon, a conference for Python developers. This is a 5-minute lightning talk that I gave at Django Bar Camp SF that took place at EventBrite HQ on Saturday, October 4th, 2014.

1. How to be a volunteer talk
reviewer for PyCon 2015
Susan Tan
Software Engineer @Piston
Twitter: @ArcTanSusan

2. Who am I?
● I am NOT a spokesperson for PyCon, I’m a new first-time
volunteer of the pycon committee, an attendee of
PyCon 2013 and 2014, a speaker at PyCon 2014.
Why am I giving this LT?
● People aren’t aware that they can volunteer for the
pycon committee.
● Active talk proposal reviewing period is from September
to December 2014. Join us!

3. What and Why
What is the pycon committee?
● To make the next PyCon awesome.
● Entirely run by volunteers.
Why should you volunteer?
● To make the next PyCon awesome:
○ You like reading talk proposals.
○ You like submitting feedback to speakers.

4. How can you volunteer on pycon commiteee?
Two really easy steps:
1. Sign up on the pycon-pc mailing list at https://mail.
python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-pc
2. Click on this link to apply to be part of the pycon
committee group (literally, just clicking the “Apple” link!)
https://us.pycon.org/2015/teams/talk-reviewers/
Note: The pycon-pc mailing list is open only to people who
are doing the talk reviewing.

5. Details after you sign up: What’s it like
to be a talk reviewer?
ENTIRE process is done entirely on the us.pycon.org/2015 Django open source
webapp (source code: https://github.com/PyCon/2015).
I. Review process
● You’ll receive an email with url links of 15-20 talks every Sunday that you
can read over and at minimum, submit internal reviews of the talk for other
reviews to read, and then optionally submit speaker feedback on.
● Speakers have ~7 days during the review process to revise their talk.
Editing is closed when voting process begins.
● You can make use of pycon-pc mailing list to ask questions or get more
feedback of talks you’re reviewing.

6. Details after you sign up: What’s it
like to be a talk reviewer?
II. Voting process
● On the second week after review, you can vote on the talks that you’
ve already submitted reviews on.
● +1, +0, -0, and -1 are the only multiple-choice options.
● Ratio of aye votes vs. nay votes is what matters; absolute vote totals
don't matter. “Best” talks go into thunder dome stage.
III. Thunder Dome
● Final stage of voting and discussion happens in which the final
schedule is decided

7. Summary
● As a talk reviewer, you are reviewing talks (week 1) and then voting
on talks (week 2), rinse and repeat, starting from September to
December 1, 2014
● By December 1, 2014: all the talks get reviewed and the speakers
for PyCon 2015 are announced.
● Join the pycon committee.

8. Questions about talk reviewing?
Ask me in-person afterwards or tweet at me
@ArcTanSusan.
Help us! Join the team: Organizers Mailing List