Public speaking update

My new year resolution for 2012 is to be a public speaker. Things are going really well - no actual speaking has happened yet, but four of my proposals are already accepted!

My first acceptance was from AnDevCon:

I wanted to speak at this conference because Android is my bread-and-butter, and it is local in Burlingame, so no need to worry about travel costs. My acceptance email indicated that they will pay me a travel stipend. Travel stipend? Hey, that means even if the conference is not local, I will still be able to attend!

As a result I started writing proposals to conferences everywhere. There is a few months lag between proposal and acceptance, so it is a bit like growing tulips - you put the bulb in the ground, forget about it, and one fine spring morning you are pleasantly surprised by the little bit of green that sprouted off the soil.

This is my conference sprouting week. Around 10 days ago Corey Leigh Latislaw posted a message to Systers asking for proposals for Philly ETE, and I jumped right on. There was no formal acceptance date, but we finalized the talk description in the past few days:

As I was arranging the travel details for Philly ETE, I got an email from WindyCityGo saying that they've accepted my proposal!

WindyCityGo is in Chicago, just a few days before Philly ETE, so it would be silly to fly all the way back to San Francisco between the two conferences. I asked the folks at Philly ETE if they can route me through Chicago, and they graciously agreed.

Just as I was getting all excited about flying to Chicago and Philadelphia as a speaker, I got an email from DMC yesterday morning, acceptance again! And you know what "D" in "DMC" stands for? Dutch! I couldn't believe that they were going to fly me to Amsterdam, so I doubled check with the organizer. They assured me that they have screened all the speakers in the selection process, so they know where we live.

Burlingame, Chicago, Philadelphia, Amsterdam! This is so very very exciting. There is one minor detail - now I actually have to write all these talks. Plus get on stage and present. But I think I'll manage :-)