Speakers

This guide walks you through the speaker side of the PyLadiesCon portal, from sending your first proposal to the day of the conference. There are two ways to become a speaker, and each has its own walkthrough with a screen recording:

You send a proposal, from the public "Propose a session" link. If you volunteered with us last year, you already have an account and can use it.
We invite you, and you accept the invitation from the email we send you.

Whichever way you come in, you end up in the same place: your speaker dashboard, with a personal checklist that stays with you until the end of the conference.

Speaking, volunteering and everything else use one account

There is no separate speaker account. The account you use to volunteer, or for anything else in the portal, is the account you use to speak. If you have never used the portal, you create an account when you propose, or we create one for you when you accept an invitation.

Why we use the portal

Speakers used to send us their details through forms, emails and shared spreadsheets. The portal replaces all of that with one place where you can:

see exactly what we need from you and by when, in your own timezone;
see what the team is doing for you, so nothing is a mystery;
keep your bio, photo and session details up to date in one place, instead of sending them again every time someone asks;
get reminders before things are due, from one system, instead of several.

Your journey does not end when you submit your title and abstract. The checklist keeps going through scheduling, your tech check, promo materials and the conference itself, so you and the organizers can both see how far along things are.

Flow 1: you send a proposal

Use this flow if you found the propose link on our website, in a blog post or in a message from us. It works the same whether you are brand new or you volunteered with PyLadiesCon in a previous year.

Recording: a volunteer from last year signs in with her existing account and sends a proposal. Watch it on YouTube.

Before you start

Proposals are only open during the edition's proposal window. If the "Propose a session" button is missing from the portal home page, we have not opened proposals yet.
You can propose up to 3 sessions that are waiting for an answer at the same time.
A title and two sentences is enough to start. You can edit your proposal afterwards.

Steps

Go to the portal and choose Propose a session, or open portal.pyladies.com/speakers/propose directly.
If you are not signed in, you land on a page that asks you to sign in.
- You volunteered before, or have used the portal for anything else: choose Sign in to the one I have and sign in with your username and password. If you cannot remember your password, choose Send me a sign-in code and we will email you a one-time code instead.
- You have never used the portal: choose Create an account. You will be asked to confirm your email address.
After signing in, the proposal form opens. Fill in the About you part:
- Display name (required): how your name should appear on the schedule.
- Pronouns and Location are optional. Timezone is required: we use it to show you times in yours and to know when to reach you.
- Bio (required): a couple of sentences is plenty. Markdown is supported.
- Headshot: optional now, and you can add one later.
- Links to your website, GitHub, Mastodon, LinkedIn and Bluesky, all optional.
Fill in the Your session part:
- What kind of session (required): only the kinds we are currently accepting are listed, each with its length and whether it is live or pre-recorded.
- Title and Summary (required). The summary is what attendees would see on the schedule.
- Outline, Prerequisites and Audience are optional but help us plan.
- Level and Language. The language is a code such as en or pt-br. Leave the level as "Not sure yet" if you are unsure.
Choose Send the proposal.
You land on My proposals, where your proposal shows as Pending review. From there you can Edit it or Withdraw it while nobody has answered yet. We also email you a confirmation.

Already have a speaker profile this year?

If you already have a profile with us for this edition, because you sent a proposal earlier or we added you, the form skips the About you half, because we already have those details. Proposing another session is one form.

What happens next

The organizers review proposals and answer each one by email.

Approved: you are on the program. The Speaking menu appears in the portal and your checklist is created. You get an email titled "Your session is in", with links to your session page and your checklist. You sign in with the account you proposed with. Carry on with your speaker dashboard.
Not accepted: you get a short note. Slots sometimes open up later, so an answered proposal can still be approved afterwards, and you would hear from us again.
Withdrawn: if you withdraw, your writing is kept. You can edit it and choose Send it again to put it back in the queue.

Flow 2: we invite you

Use this flow if an organizer invited you. You will get an email whose subject contains "You're invited to PyLadiesCon", usually with a personal note from the organizer who invited you. The subject can start with a bracketed prefix, so search for the words rather than the start of the line.

Recording: an invited speaker accepts the invitation, finishes setting up her account, fills in her profile and looks at her checklist. Watch it on YouTube.

Steps

Open the invitation email and choose the Accept or decline the invitation button. If the button does not work, copy the address in the email into your browser. The link is personal to you and works for 14 days. If it expires, ask the organizer who invited you to send it again.
The invitation page shows what you are being invited to: the type of session, its title, and the organizer's note. Choose Accept the invitation, or Decline if you cannot make it. Accepting signs you in and creates your speaker account if you do not have one yet, so you do not need a password to start.
On the Welcome page:
- check your username, first name and last name, and add your pronouns if you like;
- agree to the Code of Conduct and the Terms of Service, which both have to be agreed to before you can use the portal;
- a password is optional. Leave it blank to sign in with an emailed code next time, or set one now. You can also do this later under Manage account. Then choose Continue to my dashboard.
Your speaker dashboard opens. Your first jobs are to fill in your speaker profile and read your checklist.

After you accept, you also get a "Welcome aboard" email that repeats your username and how to sign in again.

Signing in later

Go to the portal, choose Login, and either use your password or choose Send me a sign-in code. We email you a one-time code and you are in. There is no separate password to remember unless you want one.

Your speaker dashboard

Once you are on the program, the Speaking menu opens your speaker area.

Dashboard: your sessions and their status, banners for anything that needs attention (such as a missing bio or photo), and how many to-dos are open and which one is due next.
My speaker checklist: everything we need from you, and everything we are doing for you. See below.
My speaker profile: your display name, bio, headshot, location, timezone and links. You can untick Show my bio, photo and links on the public site; your name still appears on your sessions.
My sessions: your sessions, where you can check and edit the title, summary and other details. Once your session is scheduled, the title, its web address and your display name are locked, because they are on the schedule by then. Ask your liaison if one needs to change.
My proposals: proposals you sent and where they stand.
Speaker guide: the guide for your kind of session. Open it, then tick the "I have read" box at the end when you have. If you have more than one kind of session there is a guide for each.
Schedule: your slot, once we have scheduled you, shown in your timezone.

Your checklist

The checklist has two lists, and a third if you are giving a pre-recorded session such as a PyJam performance.

Your to-dos are the things we need from you, each with a due date shown in your timezone. Typical items are:

check your session title and summary;
update your bio and headshot;
read the guide for your kind of session;
join the PyLadiesCon Discord;
confirm your scheduled slot;
share a link to your slides;
register for the conference (it is free, but you still need a ticket);
do a tech check with the team.

What we're preparing for you is the team's side: onboarding email, Discord channel and role, promo materials, scheduling, the schedule confirmation, and day-of reminders. You see who is on each item and when it is due, so you can tell what is waiting on us.

What we're preparing for your video is the third list, for pre-recorded sessions. It follows the team's work on your recording once you have sent it.

A few labels you will see:

Label	What it means
ticks itself	The portal ticks it when you do the thing, for example when your bio and headshot are saved.
Waiting	This item cannot start yet. The reason is shown below it, for example "your slot is not scheduled yet". It opens by itself when the reason goes away.
Due date	Shown in your timezone. Items with no date have no deadline yet.

Use All, by due date or By session at the top to switch views if you have more than one session.

We send you one reminder email when items are due within 7, 3 and 1 days, so you do not have to keep the checklist open.

Your information

The portal stores what you give us: your name and email, bio, optional photo, timezone and links, and your session details, along with how your checklist is going.
Your profile has a setting, Show my bio, photo and links on the public site. It is on by default, and you can turn it off. The public site does not read it yet, so for now it only records your choice.
The portal does not use advertising or analytics trackers, and we do not share your details with third-party analytics services.
Video uploads for pre-recorded sessions, such as PyJam performances, are not open yet, so there is nothing to upload for now. We will email everyone who needs to upload when it opens.

Getting help

Reply to any email from the portal, or ask your liaison, the organizer looking after you, if you have one. For accessibility needs, timezone problems or anything else that does not fit a form, write to us and we will sort it out.