In an ideal world, every conference talk would stem from pure passion: passion for the subject, the conference, and the opportunity to connect with a specific audience.
However, when your developer relations team is distributed across multiple time zones and juggling overlapping travel schedules, that passion sometimes needs a bit of coordination. Additionally, as your team grows, it becomes essential to ensure you're not submitting similar talks to the same events—or competing with yourself.
How paper jams started at Couchbase
At Couchbase, our Developer Advocacy team spanned coast-to-coast in the US and included team members across Europe. Inspired by the Ubuntu community’s Global Bug Jams, I started a weekly meeting called our Paper Jam.
The idea was simple: we’d hop on a virtual call, review open calls for proposals (CFPs), and collaborate to craft abstracts tailored to the conferences we wanted to attend.
Developing a process
Initially, this informal approach worked well. But as our team and library of proposals grew, it became clear we needed a more structured and efficient workflow.
Eventually, we landed on a process that looks like this:
- Review progress: Start each meeting by reviewing the outcomes of previous submissions—celebrating acceptances and learning from rejections.
- Check the CFP list: Everyone opens the same listing of open CFPs or upcoming conferences.
- Discuss opportunities: For each event, the call leader facilitates a discussion:
- Is the topic relevant to the event’s theme?
- Which team member is the best fit for the audience or location?
- Does it clash with existing commitments?
- Do we have an existing proposal that fits, or do we need to draft something new?
- Assign and submit: Each person takes responsibility for submitting their allocated proposals after the call.
This approach streamlined our efforts, helped us avoid overlapping submissions, and ensured we made the most of every CFP opportunity.
Finding open calls for papers
Tracking open CFPs remains a challenge, even today. For our paper jams, we relied on these primary resources:
- Call to Speakers – This became our go-to tool because it lists tech conferences by CFP closing date, making prioritization easier.
- Sessionize – A more modern option that’s popular among conference organizers and often has high-quality listings.
- Community and developer Slack channels, newsletters, and Twitter (X) – Many organizers promote their CFPs in these spaces.
While tools like Call to Speakers and Sessionize cover a lot of ground, gaps remain. We often supplemented these with Google searches, personal connections, and knowledge from our own networks.
Keeping track
To manage all this, we used a shared Google Sheet. It’s simple but effective, tracking:
- Conference name
- Location
- Proposed talks (sometimes multiple)
- Who submitted the proposal
- Status (submitted, accepted, rejected, etc.)
While there are dedicated tools for managing CFPs (e.g., Trello or Airtable), the spreadsheet remains a lightweight, flexible option that served us well.
What’s next
The Paper Jam process turned a daunting task into a manageable, collaborative effort. It’s lightweight, scales with the team, and helps maintain focus. However, there’s always room for improvement.
One area we’re exploring is creating a formalized library of talks. Right now, we rely on an outdated internal wiki and our collective memory. Tools like Notion or Airtable could help us centralize and better organize this library.
If you’re trying something similar, I’d love to hear about the tools or strategies you use to refine the process. Paper jams worked wonders for us—maybe they’ll help your team too.