I don’t know if you’re familiar with the Chalk Talk sessions at the PASS Community Summit. These sessions are shorter, 40 minute sessions, and they happen in the vendor expo hall at the Summit. In the past, this has been a Microsoft sponsored event with Microsoft sponsored speakers. These were discussion focused sessions – a combination of presentation and Q&A session.
Guess what? It is a Microsoft exclusive event no longer!
We’re opening up the Chalk Talk sessions to community speakers. There’s a catch, though.
- You are currently attending the PASS Community Summit.
- You are not speaking at the PASS Community Summit.
- You submitted a session to the PASS Community Summit that was not accepted.
That’s pretty stringent requirements. So, what do you get in return? Unfortunately, we can’t offer comp codes for this. But we’ve got something special in store.
Lightning Talks
Yeah, that’s right: Lightning Talks. We’re doing them at the Summit this year. Just in case you don’t know, a lightning talk is a short, prepared talk. We’re going to aim for 5 minute talks. That should keep things moving quickly.
We like this idea so much that we’ve dedicated one session every day to nothing but lightning talks!
All of the details aren’t finalized yet, but we’ll keep you posted.
How Does This Help You?
If you’re not going to get a comp code (BOO!), how does giving a Chalk Talk help you?
1) You get exposure – You can put on your speaker resume that you spoke at the PASS Summit.
2) You get exposure – You’ll be presenting a lightning talk with other speakers and it will be witnessed by a boatload of people.
3) You get exposure – see points 1 & 2
Should I Submit the Same Abstract?
I would say “probably not.” Chalk Talks are a different format than a standard 75 minute session. They’re shorter (only 40 minutes) and they involve more audience participation (a lot more). Feel free to submit similar topics, but be prepared for a different audience and delivery.
We’ll be pushing out an official announcement soon. Stay tuned!
