Call For Papers

We encourage anybody to propose a talk!

• We are looking for both experienced and new speakers.
• We are striving for a diversity of backgrounds, approaches and experiences.
• A percentage of our talk slots will be reserved for new talks.

Mentorship is provided!

• You might be new to the process.
• Mentors can help improve the submission’s quality.

CppNorth’s focus is on talks that can be practically useful to C++ programmers. We are interested in topics that can help C++ programmers more immediately have takeaways for their projects. Here are some practical topics you might have something to say about:

• C++XX features
• Paradigm centric design, higher level software design practices
• How to use different types of tools (various tools like build tools, package management, static analysis)
• Adopting features into codebases (how we moved to…)
• Best practices, “Core” guidelines
• Career practices, team practices

Practical content does not mean purely technical. There is an interest this year to also feature topics relevant to general programmer audiences as well:

• “Respectful Coding”, writing code keeping others in mind
• Approaches to coding collaboratively
• Other D&I relevant topics

Ultimately, we are looking for great talks. Content that reaches a wider audience of experience. Content that you are the right person to give, because it’s about what you have actually done and are doing.

Here are some great talks that touch on some of these topics:

• Sean Parent – GoingNative 2013 – C++ Seasoning
• Bryce Adelstein Lelbach – C++Now 2017 – C++17 Features
• Jonathan Boccara – CppCon 2018 – 105 STL Algorithms in Less Than an Hour
• Ben Deane – CppCon 2018 - Easy to Use, Hard to Misuse: Declarative Style in C++
• Cristina (Crista) Lopes – Strange Loop 2021 – The Future of Conferences
• Kate Gregory – CppNorth 2022 – Am I A Good Programmer?
• Timur Doumler – CppNorth 2022 – C++ Lambda Idioms

Our proposal review process at first is an anonymous first round review, we will avoid any identifying information when ranking submissions. However, we are encouraging first time speakers and are actively supporting historically under-represented groups so we may use subsequent rounds to assign priority to submissions.

If you feel unsure about your talk or how to present it, you can ask us for help! Contact submissionhelp@cppnorth.ca with your questions and talk ideas and we can help you. Try doing it as soon as possible to ensure there is enough time for us to answer you and for you to have enough time to write your proposal before the deadline.

A great place to get ideas for what amount of material fits in a talk is to look at talks that have been accepted at this or other C++ conferences (See our YouTube channel and schedule from last year). You can also read their titles and abstracts to get examples of titles and abstracts that generally work well. You can’t propose someone else’s talk, of course, but “like that one only for constexpr” or “like that one but for the chrono header” might be a way for you to think about your topic and to make writing your abstract a little less daunting.

If you are selected to be a speaker, we will cover the price of the ticket for you.

CppNorth is organized by a non-profit organization, so any speaker who can have their travel cost covered by their company is strongly encouraged to do that. Your employer will be listed as a travel sponsor if they do so. However, it is very important for us that anybody who could give a good talk will not be prevented for financial reasons, which is why we can help any selected speaker by covering the cost of the transportation and hotel.

Speakers will be supplied with a special hotel reservation link. For the transportation, depending on your location, we will give you a maximum expected budget that covers an economy class flight and will reimburse you. If you need something different for any reason, please contact us once selected and we will discuss it on a case-by-case basis.

As a speaker, you will play a key role in how attendees enjoy their conference. That is why you will be held to a high standard regarding your language and behavior while on stage. No oppressive humor will be tolerated and we ask you to try your best to avoid vocabulary that can make part of the public feel ignored or excluded. If you have doubts about a joke or part of your talk and want to discuss it, you can contact us at conduct@cppnorth.ca

Thank you for your submissions! 2023 submissions have been closed.