Thread by @mariatta

Your talk proposal is not a movie trailer. Trailer is just a tease, and people has to come watch the show to find out more.
Can't do that to talk proposals.
You've got to give reviewers the whole plot: the intro, the conflict, the climax, the conclusion, all of it. (1/8)

I've been reviewing proposals and I found many are just teasers.
There would be several paragraphs of problem statement of something to solve, and then ends with: "In this talk, I'll show you how to solve those".
Don't leave us hanging! Tell us how! Elaborate! Convince us! (2/8)

I'll end up voting such proposals down because they're just not complete.
When you're telling us a solution to a problem, we need to know if it is in fact good practice, is this something new, is it controversial idea, or is it common knowledge already? (3/8)

Good talk proposals take time and effort to produce, and it shows. Show the reviewers that you got this, that you've fully researched the subject, and that you're ready to give that talk. Give them the confidence to vote up your proposal. (4/8)

Reviewers don't always give you feedback to your proposals. If anything they'll just ask for clarification, but it's not the same as feedback on how to improve the proposal. Sometimes they give their feedback too late (after they've rejected your proposal). (5/8)

Reviewers role is to review, not to mentor. Often the rule is they can't vote on proposals if they know the speaker, or if they mentored you on the proposal. And they also have 100s other proposals to review. (6/8)

This is where having a speaker mentor can help. They're not reviewing 100s other proposals. They'll be able to spend more time helping and giving you constructive feedback. Lucky for us, we have many speaker mentors in this community. But you have to reach out. (7/8)

So, moral of the story:
- find yourself a speaker mentor
- write a complete proposal, not a teaser
The end.
(8/8)