Applications for Devcon 8 have closed. These are the guidelines that applied.

• Devcon 8 accepted fewer talks than Devcon 7. That said, there were more ways to participate, including discussion corners and Community Hubs.
• Submit your proposal only once, no need to duplicate it among all tracks/format. You can add more context in the Notes section of your proposal.
• Sessions that advance censorship resistance, capture resistance, open source, privacy, or security will be prioritized. Alignment with these properties is a decisive criterion in the review process.
• Each application will be reviewed by a committee of experts. Their decision is final. There is no appeal process.
• The review committee may suggest converting your session to a different format (for example, a Talk to a Lightning Talk or vice versa) if it better fits the program. We will always reach out before making any changes.
• All speakers and panelists listed in your proposal must be confirmed at the time of submission. Do not include tentative or unconfirmed participants.
• All accepted speakers will receive a free ticket to attend Devcon. If you already purchased a ticket by the time you receive your confirmation, contact us to arrange a refund.
• Review the Talks Wishlists for ideas of topics per track.

Please read the general code of conduct and especially the "Topics to Avoid" aka:

• Promotional or purely "commercial" talks will not be accepted. All talks must be educational. Devcon is not a place to shill your solution, it is about sharing knowledge.

Session lengths depend on the type of session:

• Lightning Talks (5 minutes + 2 minutes for Q&A)
• Talks (20 minutes + 5 minutes for Q&A)
• Mixed Formats (25 minutes)
• Workshops (60 minutes)

Note: The organizers may suggest adjustments to your session length based on content and program needs.

Devcon takes a holistic approach and aims to engage all attendees.

Those who want to learn will find the type of content best-suited to them whether it be talks, workshops or free-form discussions. Below are some values that guide Devcon's programming:

1. Collaboration and coordination — Cross pollination and alignment on ideas and (remote) people
2. Education and inspiration — Provide educational & inspirational content, including newcomers
3. Get inspired by and inspire adjacent communities — Learn from FOSS best practices, inspire others to follow our standards
4. Challenge our understanding of Ethereum as it is — Bring novel perspectives & approaches, update on state-of-the-art research

• Each track has its own reviewing committee, consisting of a track lead and a diverse set of reviewers.
• Each application will be reviewed by multiple members of the review team (2 minimum).
• Talks will be selected on aggregate scores from the review criteria.

When assessing submissions, Reviewers will keep the Devcon Programming Values in mind, and consider the following review criteria:

• Is the submission information accurate and in the right track? Is the submission in the right track, with the correct tags?
• Is the submission focused on sharing knowledge? All submissions must have the intended purpose of sharing knowledge (experience, learnings, development, research, or a specific problem they are hoping to solve.) Note: Reviewers will not accept an application that is devoted to promoting a company or project. If applicants would like to shill a project this is not the place.
• Is the submission innovative and/or novel? All talks and submissions should be geared to present new ideas to drive the ecosystem forward, not repeat presentations that have been given several times before.
• Is the submission constructive? Does the submission aim to solve a problem or contribute to the ecosystem in some way? Is it providing insight or solutions to a challenge faced by many?
• Is the speaker qualified? Does the speaker have sufficient knowledge and experience to present on this topic?
• Is the speaker relevant to the session?

The speaker application process was very competitive and unfortunately, this meant that some quality talks were not selected due to time and space constraints.

• First decisions were made by the end of August, and all decisions were final by the end of September.
• Every applicant was notified of the status of their application once all applications had been carefully reviewed by our committee of experts.
• Reviewers' decisions were final, and there was no appeal process.
• All accepted speakers received a free ticket to attend Devcon.