Building the program for any conference is not an easy task. There will always be a speaker disappointed that their talk didn’t get in—or perhaps an audience who are disappointed that a particular talk did get in. As the chair of the program committee for Current 22 one of the things that I’ve found really useful in building out the program this time round are the comments that the program committee left against submissions as they reviewed them.
There were some common patterns I saw, and I thought it would be useful to share these here. Perhaps you’re an aspiring conference speaker looking to understand what mistakes to avoid. Maybe you’re an existing speaker whose abstracts don’t get accepted as often as you’d like. Or perhaps you’re just curious as to what goes on behind the curtains :)
Here are some of the headline mistakes that I’ve seen made, along with the quoted comments from the program committee when they reviewed the abstract in question…
A Good Title is Not Enough
best thing is the title.
want to like this, but we need more in the abstract; cannot pick a session by title alone
💁 TIP: Fancy titles alone don’t suffice. Your abstract needs to back up the title and be clear about what you’re going to deliver in the talk.
Smart is Fine, but Not at the Expense of Your Abstract
Unclear what it is about. Speakers got lost in the nice allegory, completely missing the actual core content.
Cute, but no detail as to why this talk would be interesting, what the basis for the talk is, technology involved, etc.
Fun theming but they’ve missed out the detail…
💁 TIP: Making your abstract jump out by giving it a good theme or story can be a winning formula — but only if coupled with a solid background and explanation too. Think of the clever stuff as the icing on the cake. No-one wants to eat the whole bowl of icing itself.
The Program Committee Are Rooting for You to Succeed - but a Bad Abstract Is a Bad Abstract
Too sparse. It’s a pity though, the speaker writes cool blog posts usually.
Knowing the speakers I’m sure they have some interesting tech to share, but from the abstract I just can’t tell what
This talk could have been so amazing, but I have no idea what it’s going to cover
💁 TIP: The program committee don’t like rejecting talks. Almost all of them are conference speakers themselves. They want to accept your talk. But if the abstract is badly written, if it’s not clear what value your talk will bring, then it’s not going to get accepted.
Your Clever Title Might Actually Not Be so Clever 😬
I would not feel comfortable attending a talk with a suggestive title.
the title creeps me out
Is the title’s reference appropriate for a tech conference?
If accepted, I recommend we re-title the talk to avoid negative wording
💁 TIP: Be conscious of your title’s negative meanings and/or cultural resonances. A good example would be "Make <x> Great Again" which was a popular pattern for titles on the conference circuit in previous years. Basing your talk title on the campaign slogan of a controversial politician might alienate some of your audience.
Another example would be "From Zero to Hero"-esque titles (of which I’ve been guilty in the past). Some people may feel that referring to people new to a subject as "zeros" (and experts as "heros") doesn’t necessarily help propogate the kind of respectful community we’d like.
You Might Think You Don’t Need to Write Much of an Abstract, but the Program Committee Will Disagree
not enough information to accept
Abstract’s quite thin. It’s a shame because I know speaker has some strong opinions on this topic and I’m curious about what they are. :-(
Will the talk be similarly thin on detail?
Too thin. A pity though, speaker is doing good stuff.
Not enough detail in the abstract
That’s just not enough for an abstract. Which is sad, because I’m sure speaker has interesting things to tell. Really needs more detail to get me to bite.
Super vague. Vague, vague, vague.
💁 TIP: You might know what you’re going to talk about but the program committee are not telepathic! Writing a good abstract isn’t always easy, but submitting something half-finished is not likely to get you accepted to the conference.
Help the Program Committee and They Will Help You. Hinder Them, and They Might Not!
huge text wall. hard to digest also the way it’s written.
This isn’t very well written. Can we start with line breaks and then work out what each paragraph is trying to achieve?
Very unclear abstract. Hard to read (use line breaks!). Next time start from the point of the audience - what will they gain from this talk? Why would it be interesting to them?
💁 TIP: The program committee for a conference will usually have hundreds of abstracts to review. Do them a favour and put them in a good mood by making your abstract well formatted and easy to read. Paragraph breaks, punctuation, and a sensible length (3-4 paragraphs max, usually) all help.
Make Your Abstract Intelligible
I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I’ve read through this a few times and still can’t quite make out what the talk is about.
This is really jumbled. I can just about figure out what the talk’s going to be about, but an attendee shouldn’t have to.
I’ve read an abstract a few times. and I still don’t understand what this talk is about
💁 TIP: Don’t make people have to play detective and make assumptions about what your talk is about. As with the point about abstracts that are too brief, abstracts that are too…well…abstract will also struggle. The program committee needs to have a clear picture of what your talk is about, what you’ll cover, what the audience will learn from it.
Sometimes You Just Can’t Win… :lolsob:
The scope feels too narrow[…]
this looks like a nicely focused topic […]
(these comments were left by two reviewers for the very same abstract)
💁 TIP: Perhaps you’ve written the best abstract in the world, and still got your talk rejected. Don’t be disheartened. Conference speaking is a numbers game and even the seasoned professionals who do this for a living will get plenty of rejections (FWIW my success rate is around 34%).
More Abstract Writing Advice
For more advice on writing a good abstract, check out this article that I wrote, and this podcast that I recorded with my colleague and fellow program committee member Kris Jenkins.
