Writing a SATURN proposal

Based on my presentation at last SATURN 2014 conference, I would like to share how I prepared a proposal in brief. After finishing my presentation at the conference, I found that your proposal will be accepted only if it can interest SATURN board. In other words, "the proposal" will be the only thing that determines your presence at the SATURN podium. My session was 30 minute long and it was comprised of 25 minutes presentation and 5 minute Q&A.   

After reviewing my proposal to permit my presentation, SATURN asked me to submit the final version of my presentation file 10 days before the event. However, you can revise your presentation file if you really want. They asked speakers to submit the files early enough since they want all the files ready on the computers at the event. You can also use your own machine at your session.

Since I had no idea of how to write a proposal, I googled with keywords such as academic paper proposal. When I started with my first version with a template that I found, I wanted to ask SATURN if they can review or help my proposal. They directed me to a SATURN blog page which provides tips on writing a proposal and I just followed their guidelines.

I hope these pages will help you write a good proposal:

1. SATURN Call for Submission page

http://www.sei.cmu.edu/saturn/2014/call-for-submissions/ 

In this page, you can find what items should be shown in your propsal.

- Title for your proposed session

- Abstract (250 words or less): think "elevator pitch"

- Session theme: technology, methods and tools, or leadership and business

- Session type: experience-report presentation, participatory session, or tutorial

- Session mechanics: How will the session be conducted? Include information such as an outline, timing, and    description of activities (for participatory sessions) of no more than 700 words.

- Learning outcomes: What will attendees learn and be able to apply with their teams after the conference?

- Target audience and assumed knowledge of the audience

- Names and bios for all speakers. Bios should be 100 words or fewer.

- Has this content been presented before? Please list. For experience-report presentations, originality of content is preferred but not essential. Prior presentation of participatory sessions and tutorials, which demonstrates some maturity of the material, is preferred.

- Speaking experience: Have you presented at previous conferences? Please describe.

2. Tips for writing a great submission proposal

http://saturnnetwork.wordpress.com/2013/12/12/7-tips-for-writing-a-great-submission-proposal-for-saturn-2014/

This page even provides a proposal template.

3. Proposal guidelines

http://saturnnetwork.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/saturn-2014-proposal-guidelines/

I do not know how SATURN conference will evolve but I think that you can make yourself present in front of the SATURN audience only if you can write a good proposal with your solid content, even when your presentation is not perfectly ready. They even provided review feedback to those who submitted their proposals early enough.

After reviewing the submitted proposal, SATURN provided their feedback and gave a discount code for the conference registration.