Guidelines for submitting a proposal to the POSETTE CFP
POSETTE: An Event for Postgres is back for its 5th year, and the excitement is already building. Scheduled for June 16 – June 18, 2026, this free and virtual developer event brings together the global Postgres community for three days of learning, sharing, and deep technical storytelling. Whether you're a first-time speaker or a seasoned contributor, your story matters and the Call for Proposals (CFP) closes on February 1, 2026.
If you’re considering submitting a proposal (or encouraging someone else to), in this post I will walk you through everything you need to know to craft a strong, compelling submission before the deadline arrives.
1. Key Dates to Know
- CFP Deadline: February 1, 2026 @ 11:59 PM PST
- Talk Acceptance Notifications: February 11, 2026
- Event Dates: June 16 – June 18, 2026 (includes four unique livestreams, live text chat, and speaker Q&A)
- Schedule & sessions announced: Feb 25, 2026
- Pre-record all talks: Weeks of April 20 & April 27
Tip: Add a calendar reminder, this deadline arrives quickly, and no late submissions are accepted.
2. Why Submit a Talk to POSETTE?
Submitting a talk for a conference can seem like a difficult task at the start, but this guide can help you come up with potential ideas that can be used to submit a talk for the conference.
Share your story with the global Postgres community
Your experience, whether it’s a deep dive into query planning, a migration journey, or lessons learned from scaling can help thousands of developers.
Grow your professional visibility
POSETTE is a high‑reach, virtual event that enables your content to live on well after the livestream.
First‑time speakers are welcomed and encouraged
POSETTE is not an exclusive club. If you have a story to tell, this is a supportive, welcoming place to tell it.
3. What Makes a Strong Proposal?
First‑time speaker? Don’t worry. The guidelines below cover the key elements you’ll need to craft a strong, successful proposal.
- Make your proposal focused, not broad: Many proposals try to cover too much. The strongest ones zoom in on a specific challenge, insight, or transformation. A narrow, well‑defined topic reads more clearly and creates a stronger takeaway for attendees.
- Clearly identify the target audience: State who the talk is for:
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- Beginner Postgres developers
- Cloud architects
- DBAs focusing on performance
- Engineers migrating from Oracle/MySQL
- This helps the selection team understand fit and event balance.
- Demonstrate real‑world value, not generic theory: Talks rooted in hands‑on experience tend to perform best. Strong abstracts answer:
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- What problem did we face?
- What did we try?
- What worked (or didn’t)?
- What can you replicate in your environment?
POSETTE audiences love actionable content.
4. Show how attendees will grow from your talk: Selection committees love when speakers articulate transformation. Clarify what people will gain:
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- “Improve query execution time by…”
- “Avoid common replication pitfalls…”
- “Design HA setups more confidently…”
The reviewers want talks with practical outcomes.
5. Highlight what makes your talk unique
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- Is your approach unconventional?
- Did you migrate at massive scale?
- Did you build or extend an OSS tool?
- Did you learn something the hard way?
- Emphasize novelty POSETTE gets many submissions, so originality matters.
6. Use a storytelling angle: Human brains love stories. Strong abstracts often follow a mini narrative:
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- Problem
- Tension
- Turning point
- Solution
- Lessons
This makes your proposal memorable and relatable.
7. Keep the abstract concise and structured: Avoid long, meandering paragraphs. A clear structure like this works well:
-
- Topic summary (one sentence)
- Problem + context (two–three sentences)
- Solution or insights (two–three sentences)
- What attendees will learn (one–two sentences)
4. Ideas for Topics That Work Well
Not every proposal needs to be a deep internal dive real‑world stories resonate. Consider topics like:
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- Migrating to Postgres (cloud or on‑prem)
- Performance tuning adventures and lessons
- Postgres extensions and ecosystem tooling
- Operational best practices, HA architecture, or incident learnings
- Developer productivity with Postgres
- Novel patterns or creative uses of Postgres internals
- Azure Database for PostgreSQL customer stories
- Community‑focused topics, such as how to start a PGDay event, how to begin contributing to open source, or how to engage with the Postgres community effectively.
Look at POSETTE 2024 or 2025 talk titles to calibrate tone and depth.
5. What Happens If Your Talk Is Accepted?
Good news: the speaker experience is designed to be smooth and supportive.
- Talks are 25 minutes long and pre‑recorded, with professional production support from the POSETTE organizing team at an agreed-upon time during the weeks of April 20 & April 27
- Speakers join live text chat during the session to interact with attendees
- No travel required the event is fully virtual
All you need is a good microphone, a quiet space, and a story worth telling.
6. How to Submit Your Proposal
Here are the official links you’ll want handy:
- 📄 CFP Page: https://posetteconf.com/2026/cfp/
- ❓ FAQ: https://posetteconf.com/2026/faq/
- 📝 Submit on Sessionize: https://sessionize.com/posette2026/
Submission Checklist
Before hitting "submit," make sure you have:
- A strong, interesting title
- A clear and concise abstract
- Defined takeaways for attendees
- An understanding of your target audience
- Submission completed before Feb 1 @ 11:59 PM PST
POSETTE is built by and for the Postgres community and your experience, whether small or monumental, has the potential to help others. With the CFP deadline approaching fast on February 1, now is the perfect time to refine your idea, shape your abstract, and submit your talk.
This could be the year your story gets shared with thousands. Take the leap the community will be glad you did.
Microsoft