BalCCon is a non commercial, community organized event, with talks and workshops by the community for the community. This Call for Proposals (CfP) is an invitation to submit your ideas.
In order to minimize the work for everyone involved, and help us get the best content, please follow the submission guidelines. Thank you for submitting your talk, workshop or event!

Submission Guidelines

Submission Deadline: 1st of July 2023
Acceptance Notification: 15th of July 2023

Topics of Interest :

Any topic you think might be interesting for the BalCCon community! Usually, BalCCon has activities relating to :

Hacking
Information Security
Privacy
Technology & Society
Making
Lockpicking
Electronic Arts

but please surprise us!

Content:

We highly value both original, never seen before stuff and tried and tested, as long as it is interesting for the BalCCon community. Also, we are eager to have both introductory and expert level content. Introductory talks might not be new for BalCCon, but valuable for newbies. BalCCon is the place to broaden but also deepen you knowledge.

Submission format:
Use our Submission Platform - https://cfp.balccon.org/balccon2k23

Language:
BalCCon is an international conference with participants from all over the world and you are strongly encouraged to use English. But, if you are addressing a local topic, do not hesitate to submit anyway. If English is challenging for you, let us know and we will try to find a solution together.

Limitations:
No commercial talks will be accepted (it is ok to use the logo of you company though)
No advertisement for products during the talk (but of course you can mention which tools and products you use)
Talks without demo or proof of concept (where applicable) are less likely to be accepted
Give credit where credit is due! Cite your sources of information and acknowledge other peoples work.

For your submission you will have to provide:
an abstract for your talk/event/workshop
speaker bio
a detailed outline.

Optionally you can also provide supporting files. If you need special equipment please make sure to note it under special requirements.

The abstract must summarize your talk. We will publish the abstract on our website. Visitors will decide to come to your events based on the abstract so please make it clear and to the point. Please describe which level of technical expertise your event requires, what tools you use and anything your audience can and should do beforehand to get the most out of it. Make sure to be explicit what people can expect, but no spoilers! Experience shows that good abstracts have at least 200 characters, but do not exceed the magic number of 1337 characters.

In the speaker bios present yourself and/or the crew. It is up to you whether you use your handle/nick or your full name. Do provide some background information about yourself and your areas of interest and expertise. This will make it easier for like-minded people to find you.

The detailed outline will not be published, but it will be an important element for the reviewers to decide if you talk fits the conference schedule or not. It must contain the main points of your talk and show how you introduce the topic, what your core ideas are and how you conclude your presentation. Make sure to be precise and detailed. If the reviewers cannot reproduce your ideas or verify your content your talk is less likely to get accepted. Also make sure to reference any prior work you build upon. In particular, if your work is not original but introduces topics to beginners make sure to name your sources. Also make it clear what the audience of your talk is (tech beginners, experienced red teamers, seasoned artist ...you get what we mean ;-) )

Now to the MOST IMPORTANT POINT: JUST DO IT! Maybe you never gave a talk or held a workshop, think that you have nothing interesting to say, or all of these rules and requirements sound very scary. Do not worry, just do it! If you need help with deciding whether to submit, if you idea is welcome, or juts need help with the required parts, contact us! We will be very proud if BalCCon is the place your did your first public talk or workshop!
Special Notes

Compensation:

Balccon is a community-organized and community-supported event without external sponsors. We are therefore not able to provide compensation for travel. However, we can cover accommodation cost and will organize transport from the airport in Belgrade to Novi Sad and back for you. Also, there is the infamous BalCCon speakers, organizers and friends dinner that you do not want to miss! ;-)

Recordings:

It is up to you whether your talk will be recorded and made available online. While we prefer to have recordings shared with the world in order to reach as many interested people as possible, choosing either way will not affect the selection process.

Review process:

All submission will be judged on the quality of content and fit within the program. We will use a double-blind process to prevent bias on race, gender or any other feature of the authors. The organizers however reserve the right to make changes to the event program or disregard any proposal if found inappropriate for the conference.

Visa

Citizens of some countries require a visa to enter Serbia. We can provide you with an invitation letter which will help you with the Visa process. Please check https://www.mfa.gov.rs/en/citizens/travel-serbia/visa-regime to find out if you need a visa. In our experience getting a visa takes usually about one month.

Passport validity:
Please make sure that your passport is valid for at least 3 month after the period of travel.

Contact
If you have any questions, if you want to discuss your idea or need help submitting,reach out to us at orga@balccon.org. We are more than happy to help you! Also if you are not sure if your talk is a good fit for Balccon, don't hesitate to ask us.