Master The Call For Papers with Rachel Cohen and Stephanie Wells

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Session Overview

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The foundation for an effective call for papers is driven by your event content strategy. What elements do you need to be successful?

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Rachel Cohen, Senior Manager of Event Content at GitHub, and Stephanie Wells, Senior Event Manager at Skillable, join us for an insightful conversation on how to master the Call for Papers process.

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Drawing from their wealth of experience, Rachel and Stephanie will share proven strategies for crafting, promoting, and evaluating Calls for Papers (CFS) that yield diverse, impactful, and engaging session proposals.In this session, you’ll learn:

-How to build an effective content strategy

-Required resources to launch a call for papers

-Tactics for internal and external promotion

-The KPIs worth measuring

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This session is a must-attend for event content and marketing professionals looking to elevate their approach to session curation. Gain insider tips, learn actionable techniques, and take your Call for Papers to the next level.

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Session Transcript

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Bryan Funk [00:00:00]

Thanks so much for joining this morning for this week's session. I'm super excited. We're going to deep dive into how to master the call for papers, and we are joined by two experts.

To kick off, I have a quick poll. Before introducing Rachel and Stephanie, let us know: What do you call your call? Is it a call for speakers, a call for sessions, or a call for papers? Let us know in the chat, too—who you are, who you're with, and the events you work on. If you have questions, we’ll thread them in or save them for the end. If you feel brave, use the "Raise Your Hand" feature, and I'll allow you to talk and join us live.

Alright, Rachel and Stephanie, welcome! Do you want to introduce yourselves? Let us know who you are and your background. Rachel, I’ll put you in the hot seat first.

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Rachel Cohen [00:05:00]

Hi, everyone. Nice to meet you. I’m Rachel Cohen. I live in Boston, and I lead the event content program for GitHub, which includes our annual flagship event, Universe, as well as other internal and external programs. I’ve been doing this for about 15 years, primarily in tech. Stephanie and I are members of the Event Content Council. If you’re interested in joining, let us know. Fun fact: I’m a huge crossword puzzle nerd and spend most mornings solving them.

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Stephanie Wells [00:06:00]

Thank you. Hi, I’m Stephanie Wells. I’ve been working in events for about 20 years, and 15 of those years have focused on event content. I’m from California’s Bay Area and currently live in Gold Country. These days, I focus on enterprise tech events, though I recently joined Skillable, where we manage events across industries. Excited to kick off this conversation.

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Bryan Funk [00:07:00]

Beautiful. Thanks so much for joining us. Rachel, can you kick us off by sharing your ethos around the call for sessions?

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Rachel Cohen [00:08:00]

Thanks for letting me take this question. A call for sessions really sets the trajectory for your event. For many, it’s your first marketing campaign before launching registration. It signals to the community the topics you’ll cover. It’s more than just a form or email; it’s an opportunity to engage with your community, discover new voices, and gauge what excites people. It’s a targeted approach that impacts content strategy while soft-launching your event.

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Bryan Funk [00:09:00]

I love the ethos of treating your call for sessions as your event’s launch campaign. Stephanie, can you share your perspective on challenges in optimizing a call for sessions?

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Stephanie Wells [00:10:00]

One challenge is the volume of impactful submissions versus the limited content slots. Tailoring and refining submissions to maximize relevance is key. It’s always a balancing act to ensure quality over quantity while minimizing declines for submitters.

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Bryan Funk [00:11:00]

What should teams consider before launching a call for sessions?

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Rachel Cohen [00:12:00]

Three things: a solid event content strategy, a marketing strategy, and clear goals. Your content strategy should align with your industry’s conversations, company priorities, and audience interests. It drives your form design, submission guidelines, and ensures success for both submitters and your event.

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Stephanie Wells [00:14:00]

Adding to that, event content is highly cross-functional. Balancing corporate strategy, customer needs, and logistical constraints requires deep collaboration and clear communication. It’s vital to prioritize these elements early in the process.

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Bryan Funk [00:15:00]

How do you establish guardrails to stay focused amidst competing priorities?

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Rachel Cohen [00:15:30]

We align with stakeholders on goals—for example, ensuring specific audience representation. We require detailed outlines in submissions to gauge commitment and session quality.

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Stephanie Wells [00:17:00]

Guardrails also mean building realistic timelines and enabling strong communication. Ensure your submission timeline allows adequate testing and prevents unnecessary stress on teams.

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Bryan Funk [00:18:00]

Let’s dive into key elements of an event content strategy.

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Rachel Cohen [00:19:00]

We identify personas and their content needs. For GitHub, we tailor content for developers, senior engineers, and executives. This strategy informs our submission guide, delivery formats, and session types. We also innovate with formats like sandbox sessions, where attendees get hands-on experience.

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Stephanie Wells [00:22:00]

Content strategy must align with learning preferences and goals. Balancing interactive and traditional formats ensures broader audience engagement.

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Bryan Funk [00:24:00]

What about promotion and enablement strategies?

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Stephanie Wells [00:25:00]

Enablement is crucial. At Tableau, we created submission guides tailored to formats like blogs and emails, enabling sales and marketing teams to recruit customers. This increased quality submissions and reduced volume while meeting leadership expectations.

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Rachel Cohen [00:27:00]

We use video campaigns featuring past speakers to promote our call for sessions. Internally, we enable employees to diversify speaker representation and reach target audiences through internal tools and platforms.

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Bryan Funk [00:29:00]

How do you ensure diversity and find new speakers?

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Rachel Cohen [00:30:00]

We ask speakers to recommend colleagues and run separate calls for speakers, inviting subject matter experts to raise their hands. Community outreach through networks and groups also helps broaden our pool.

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Stephanie Wells [00:32:00]

Representation requires proactive effort. Engage directly with underrepresented groups and amplify inclusive messaging. It’s about showing genuine intent and creating opportunities.

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Bryan Funk [00:34:00]

What KPIs do you track to measure call-for-sessions success?

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Rachel Cohen [00:35:00]

We track metrics like submission volume, percentage of content sourced, and quality indicators such as detailed outlines and speaker videos. In 2024, we increased our content-sourced percentage from 50% to 60% by refining submission requirements and prioritizing quality.

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Bryan Funk [00:40:00]

This has been a fantastic discussion. Rachel, Stephanie, any final advice?

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Rachel Cohen [00:41:00]

Focus on creating genuine connections with your audience. A thoughtful call for sessions can set the tone for your event and foster meaningful engagement.

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Stephanie Wells [00:42:00]

Communicate early and often. Collaboration across teams ensures success and maximizes the value of your call for sessions.

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Bryan Funk [00:43:00]

Thank you, Rachel and Stephanie, for sharing your insights. Thanks to everyone for joining. We’ll follow up with key takeaways and resources. See you next time!

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