Interaction 23:

Writing your standout talk | workshop submission

This post collects input from many of the Interaction 23 team, past teams and the broader IxDA community. Thanks to everyone who submitted tips for tackling what can seem like a daunting task.

Dan Hon presenting at Interaction 20 in Milan, Italy. February 2020.

Submitting an idea for a talk or a workshop might feel like a daunting exercise, even if you have written a few already. We’ve been there a few times; we’ve also watched friends and colleagues break a sweat in the days approaching a deadline, hammering out a proposal.

We feel you — we honestly do. With a little over a month to the Interaction 23 Call for Proposals deadline (4 September 2022), we thought we’d lend a helping hand and offer some encouragement from the community.

Here are some tips to reduce your stress levels and increase the quality of your proposal.

Write your proposal in advance

The submission form has multiple fields. For many of these, you’ll be asked to write a paragraph or two. Don’t rely solely on the submission form to write your application, even though you can save your submission as you go.

Drafting your text beforehand and then copy-pasting it in each of the relevant fields will help you organize your thoughts and make it easier to review and tweak the content of your proposal. (And it means you have a reference file when the inevitable happens and clicking ‘submit’ wipes out your text because the internet died at that exact moment.)

Your checklist of fields to complete:

For talks:

• You: first name, last name, email address, your current situation, online presence, a short bio and head shot for the website. Having a diverse lineup of presenters is important to us, so you’ll also find a set of optional questions where you can share how you identify — it supports IxDA’s commitment to measure representation — in person and content.
• Your experience as a speaker: Link a video showcasing your speaking style. If you don’t have a current talk online, record a 1-min video introducing yourself and pitch your idea. Interaction is a stage for talks, conversations and debates. Expect to field a few questions, and some of them might be challenging. What we’re not is a platform to read your paper — if that’s your comfort zone, we might not be the best fit for you, or let us know and we’ll suggest some 1:1 coaching if we think you’ve got a great idea to share.
• Your submission: Give your talk a title, a social media-friendly intro, a longer description, describe your target audience, your key takeaways, your experience on the topic, and how it’s relevant. We’ve seen tips that crafting a talk is a great way to learn about something new — if that’s your approach, be sure to include that this is an entry-level exploration into a new area for you.
• How will you engage with your audience? Tell us about unique features that might get the audience to react in a manner slightly out of the ordinary. We promise we won’t give it away.
• Special requirements: This is your space to tell us how we can support your success at Interaction 23. We want to offer the stage to new voices, so don’t be afraid to ask for what you need — some examples: presenting remotely, specific accessibility needs, translation from your language of choice, speaker coaching, slide deck review, … they are all fair game. We can’t guarantee we can accommodate all requests, but we won’t know unless you ask!

For workshops:

• You: same as above. First name, last name, email address, current professional situation, online presence, a short bio… you know the drill.
• Your experience as a speaker or workshop facilitator. As above, link a video showing how you’re like in front of a public — in this case especially, perhaps in the act of conducting a workshop itself. If you don’t have this option, then do a 1 min video equivalent where you introduce yourself and tell us more about what you would go through in your workshop. Feel free to be creative and provoke us a little — we won’t mind as long as it’s a clear idea!
• Your submission: name your workshop, give it a social media friendly teaser, write a detailed version of its description, outline the activities you’ll be doing (perhaps some details on how hands-on it’s going to be), your target audience, your experience on the topic and its relevance. .
• What prior knowledge is needed by participants before attending this workshop? Who will get the most benefit out of it? Are they going to be your typical designers, or are they going to include some non-designers?

Make sure your point of view is relevant

We’ve framed Interaction 23 as a call — to formulate essential design positions about how we want to (re)define life across the planet.

We’ve defined six topic areas to shape the conference days. Your point of view should take inspiration from these — but there’s also an open area for you to suggest a topic area you feel needs exploration.

What can be (re)defined? What must be redesigned?

We’re looking diverse perspectives, specific case studies, or hands-on design approaches in one of these areas:

• Design decision making processes:
  Supporting people in deciding has never been easy. How we design interactions influences how people decide and consequently act. What kinds of decision making processes can be shaped by technologies and by designers?
• Decentralization for the better:
  How can we design decentralized systems to empower people, increase trust and address social and environmental challenges for the better? What can we learn from people who are already building new, decentralized systems, designed by, run by — and above all for — the people.
• Create new work experiences:
  Covid has turned the world of work on its head. However, many of the current changes are not solely due to a change in work locations, but go much deeper. It is a chance to re-define how we organize, work and collaborate within and across organizations. How will design shape the future of work?
• Lowering the environmental impact of technology:
  Each new technology — since the dawn of time — brings both positive and negative impact on our planet, and on us humans. We must stop letting the negative be bigger than the positive. How can we ensure new technologies help us become more sustainable through more efficient use of resources and have greater accountability for negative impacts? How can we help to make the use of digital technology sustainable and climate positive?
• Establishing design ethics:
  Interaction design shapes the way we can in the world, more than ever before. Designers might enable humans to achieve their goals, they might constrain them by removing options in their interest, and they even might trick them in doing things that are against their interest. How can we establish design processes that address ethical questions from the onset? What can we learn from existing practices and case studies?
• (re)design interaction design:
  Almost 20 years ago calls for an interaction design discipline started. It is time to reflect on this history and to (re)define our discipline. What changed over the past? Why? What did we learn? What is to keep and what not to perpetuate? What is our next iteration?
• or a topic to be defined by you!

Differentiate your point of view

Our work — and the interest of our community — is in constant evolution. Make sure what you have to say will bring something novel, or at least different. We know, this can be difficult to predict: there’s no sure way to foresee whether another dozen applicants will be submitting something similar to you — BUT if your point of view comes from recent challenges you’ve experienced and had the chance to reflect on — you might have an advantage.

Diverse points of views matter

Interaction is a global stage and we actively seek out diverse points of view. Do you have something to say about the culture or the context of your topic? Do tell us about it, and make it clear in your submission.

Remember the takeaways

Your talk — or your workshop — will be an experience for your audience. Focus on what they will be walking away with. Tell us how your talk will stay in the hearts and minds of those who come to your session. Keep in mind that most of the participants are going to be designers with at least some experience under their belt, so do consider takeaways for people with varying levels of expertise. Only focusing on the basics of design might not bring value to a good proportion of the participants.

Own your expertise: why you are the right person to talk about this topic?

What makes YOU a good narrator of your point of view? Maybe you worked on a complex and relevant project? Or you spent the last year exploring the nuances of a specific subject? Tell us about that!

Don’t write the talk (or the workshop). Write ABOUT it

We’re not asking you to submit the actual talk, so there’s no need for you to get to your final conclusions and the finer details of your thought process. At the same time, use the proposal to sell us the idea of your talk or workshop: be detailed and concrete; be clear, be interesting.

For better or worse, this is your only chance to explain what you would like to talk about. We’re not going to reach out and ask for any additional material. No calls, emails, or follow-up conversations. Make it count.

Take the leap. Especially if you’re new to this.

The only way to gain experience as a speaker is to BE a speaker. If you are uncertain about jumping onstage, we offer coaching and support for first-time presenters that have something to say.

If you’ve already been on the Interaction stage a number of times, here’s your chance to support someone you think is a good candidate and hasn’t yet had the experience.

What happens after you submit?

The review process starts as soon as your submission is complete — proposals are reviewed as they are received.

We review on the basis of quality, speaker experience, and how well the proposal aligns with other presentations to create a narrative, keeping in mind our overall aim: diversity of points of view.

I know we said no followup, but the selection committee might contact you, before or after our first review, with a request to merge or combine your proposal with another proposal.

We’ll be using these criteria to evaluate:

1. Does the proposal have clear outcomes and key takeaways that participants will get out of the session?
2. Does the proposal speak to, involve, or collaborate with one or more of our conference audiences?
3. Does the proposal offer something interesting, useful, innovative, or important to the event?
4. Does the proposal support our aims to present and amplify diverse voices in our community?

Based on previous years’ experience, roughly 15% of submissions are accepted at any one cycle. That means there’s a lot of great thinking — and potentially awesome talks — that unfortunately won’t find space on stage.

However, we do want to be able to share your proposal with our Local Groups if we think it’s great. In that case, we will reach out to ask you if you’d be willing to give your talk on a different IxDA stage.

There are other voices and examples you might also want to read. Among the others, some of our favorites are:

• Russ Unger — Conference Proposals that Don’t Suck
• UX Australia — How to Write a Kick-ass Conference Proposal
• Women Talk Design — Breaking down a CFP

Ready to submit?

Submissions are open through 4 September 2022 at 11:59pm PST

We’re excited to see what the community is talking about!