This is the fifth post in a series on getting started as a conference speaker. This post focuses on finding open CFPs. Links to other posts in the series can be found at the end of this post.

Yay!!! At this point, you have all the pieces you need to start submitting your talk to conferences! Remember, you do not need to have the entire talk written before you apply to give it! But how do you find conferences who are accepting calls for proposal (CFPs)?

There are a lot of different sources to find open CFPs. Some conferences share their CFP on multiple sources and some don’t share on any, instead relying on their own social media and newsletters. Finding open CFPs is more of an art than a science.

Here is a list of resources I use and like, and sometimes there is overlap between them.

• Papercall - Papercall is a platform where you can add your talks and submit them to different CFPs. You can save your talk and submit it to multiple different events which is a nice feature.
• confs.tech - An open-source and crowd-sourced list of conferences around software development, including ones with open CFPs.
• SeeCFP - A website for upcoming and current open CFPs. It also has a newsletter you can sign up for to get a digest directly in your inbox.
• Tech Daily CFP - A newsletter for tech conferences and code camps. Sometimes there are false positives but still a great resource.
• Specific conference social media accounts - I follow the accounts of conferences I particularly like so I see updates about when they’re opening their CFPs directly

Finding open conference CFPs can be a challenge if you don't know where to look. As you start submitting to and attending more conferences, talk to other speakers to find out where they discover open CFPs as well.

Now that you've found a whole bunch (and I mean a whole bunch) of open CFPs, the key to not stressing out is to decide which to fill out and which to skip.

Other posts in this series

• So you want to start conference speaking? Start with an idea
• So you want to start conference speaking? Craft an abstract
• So you want to start conference speaking? Write your speaker bio
• So you want to start conference speaking? Choose your headshot
• So you want to start conference speaking? Find open CFPs
• So you want to start conference speaking? Choose confs to apply to
• So you want to start conference speaking? Submit that CFP!