Call for Proposals

Quick Overview

• We are accepting presentations (25-minute and 50-minute), hands-on labs (2 hours), as well as pre-conference workshops.
• Hands-on labs will take place during the conference and explore a topic in a classroom style environment. These sessions should consist of at least 50% practical, collaborative work by the participants.
• The pre-conference workshops are 1 to 3 days and cover topics in depth: Data Mesh, Data Contracts, Data Architecture, etc.
• Before submitting, please read about what we're looking for and consider our 15 Tips for an Effective Call for Papers
• Sessions should assume the audience understands the fundamentals of Data Mesh. Talks which are Data Mesh 101 are unlikely to be picked.

Submission deadline: January 16, 2025

Conference (June 6)

Data Mesh Live is for software and data engineers, architects, and software leaders applying Data Mesh principles, or aspiring to do so. This conference aims to uncover deep learnings about Data Mesh and how modern organisations should build data applications in complex environments. Data Mesh draws on thinking from various fields, so we welcome talks and sessions that challenge a curious and smart audience.

Please submit:

• A talk (25 or 50 mins)
• A hands-on lab (2 hours)
• Pre-conference workshop (1, 2, or 3 days)

Some inspiration:

• Data Mesh
• Data as a Product
• Data Contracts
• Data Mesh vs Data Fabrics
• Case studies, experience reports, post-mortems
• Systems Thinking, Complexity theory
• Strategy, organisation, bridging technology and business
• Visualisation and collaboration techniques
• Distributed systems
• Ideas which challenge Data Mesh.

Programming languages & Technologies

The conference does not focus on any particular programming language or technology. If your session has code, participants should be able to understand the message you're conveying even if they don’t intimately know the language or tech.

Spoken language

All sessions are in English.

Submission Process

• Send us as many proposals as you’d like, for as many as the accepted formats as you like.
• Even before the deadline, we might start accepting proposals, so being early helps.
• We might ask you to have a short conference call with us. Sometimes we like to ask for clarifications, or suggest changes to the contents or the format. If we contact you for such a call, it is not a guarantee your proposal will be accepted.
• We’ll notify you at the latest 60 days after the submission deadline whether your idea is accepted or not. We'll ask for a final confirmation before announcing you.
• Even after you've been accepted, we'd like to help you make the most of your presentation or workshop. That's why we offer presentation support. We'll put you in touch with other speakers, to help you develop your material, be your soundboard, and give you feedback. We might also ask you to do the same for others. We've found that even for experienced speakers, a bit of back and forth can greatly improve the presentation or workshop.

Increase Your Chances

Evaluating a submission based on nothing but an abstract is hard. Help us get to know you and your ideas by:

• Sending us links to your content.
• Blogging about your topic.
• Talk about it at a local meetup. There are plenty of Data Mesh (and other) meetups across Europe, and most of them are happy to have new and inexperienced speakers.
• Record your own video, ... Be creative!
• We generally prefer talks that are not technology-specific, although exceptions are possible. Code examples in talks are welcome, but should be understandable by developers not familiar with your programming language.
• Building a program involves lots of trade-offs, and often we have the painful task of refusing great proposals for other reasons than the topic. If yours is not accepted, please consider this an invitation to try again next year.
• If you would like to pitch your product or service, we provide plenty of sponsorship opportunities. A 1-minute pitch at the beginning or end of your talk is acceptable.

Reimbursements

We'll pay for travel, accommodation, and professional child care, as well as access to the conference. If you have other requirements, please let us know.