conference-cfp-submission skill (samber): write a talk proposal that gets picked

Turns a talk idea into a filled-in conference proposal for one event, or plans which events to target.

Installs: 12.4K; on skills.sh
Stars: 7; on GitHub
Files: 5; besides SKILL.md
Updated: Nov 2026; last repo commit

conference-cfp-submission acts as a proposal editor who has sat on programme committees: it produces every field of one event's submission form, written so a tired reviewer picks it. It reads the event's rules first, offers ranked angles (war story, contrarian thesis, practical playbook), writes five title options, a three-part abstract, verb-first takeaways, the reviewer-only fields and a bio, then scores the pack on four axes. Step 0 covers choosing which conferences to target.

It triggers on "a CFP", "a call for papers", "a conference proposal" or "my proposals keep getting rejected". It bundles no scripts. SKILL.md says its output is a draft you must rewrite in your own voice, and it tells you what the target event's AI policy says.

Good for

Engineers and DevRel speakers submitting to KubeCon, PyCon or FOSDEM
Speakers whose proposals keep getting rejected
Anyone planning a submission calendar across several conferences

Install conference-cfp-submission

Claude Code

Copy this prompt.

Install the conference-cfp-submission skill in Claude Code. Run this command:

/plugin marketplace add samber/developer-relations-skills
/plugin install developer-relations-skills@developer-relations-skills

Then check that it loaded and tell me how to use it.

2
Paste it into Claude Code. It shows the change and asks before running it.

The README recommends installing the whole collection because its skills reference each other, and conference-cfp-submission names other skills in the collection to hand work to. The whole-collection routes add all 93 skills in the repo (counted from the git tree); the repo holds no hooks, agents, commands or MCP server files, and 14 of its skills bundle a script. Pick one route per agent.

From the project README. Source.

What's in the skill

When it loads

Turns a talk idea into a submission-ready conference proposal for one specific event, or helps choose which conferences to target and plan a submission calendar across several - track fit, title options, an attendee-facing abstract, verb-first takeaways, the reviewer-only fields, a credibility package, and a self-review against the committee's own criteria. Use whenever the user mentions a CFP, a call for papers, a conference proposal, a talk abstract, a session description, submitting to KubeCon, PyCon or FOSDEM, which conference to submit to, planning a CFP season, or says their proposals keep getting rejected - even if they only ask to shorten an abstract. Covers community-run and vendor-run events. Do NOT use for structuring the accepted talk (samber/developer-relations-skills@tech-talk-outline) or its demo (samber/developer-relations-skills@developer-live-demo-design).

Sections in SKILL.md

Interview
Step 0 - Choosing which conferences to target
Planning a submission season
Step 1 - Read the event before writing a word
Step 2 - Find the angle, and get it approved
Step 3 - Title
Step 4 - Abstract
Step 5 - Takeaways
Step 6 - Reviewer-only fields
Step 7 - Credibility package
Step 8 - Submission rules and the AI-policy check
Step 9 - Self-review against the committee's criteria
Pass threshold
Step 10 - After the verdict
Event type and audience
Measurement

Key facts

Author: Samuel Berthe (named in SKILL.md metadata, LICENSE and the plugin manifest)
License: MIT (LICENSE file, SKILL.md frontmatter, plugin.json and marketplace.json agree)
Skill version: 1.0.2 (SKILL.md metadata)
Installs on skills.sh: 12,422 (Nov 2, 2026)
GitHub stars: 8 for the whole samber/developer-relations-skills repo (Nov 2, 2026)
Last repo commit: Nov 1, 2026
Audits on skills.sh: Gen Agent Trust Hub: pass, Socket: pass, Snyk: warn
What it includes: 6 files in the git tree: SKILL.md, evals/evals.json and 4 files under references/. No scripts.
Needs: SKILL.md lists nothing to install
Part of: The developer-relations-skills plugin: 93 skill folders in the git tree
Works in: The README documents installs for Claude Code, Claude.ai, Codex, Cursor and Gemini CLI, all for the whole set

What it includes

Asks 12 questions; questions 1 to 5 gate the draft.
Interview
Ranks candidate events on six criteria and plans a submission season.
Step 0: Choose conferences
Extracts caps, formats, deadline and review model from the CFP page.
Extracts field caps, formats, deadline and whether review is anonymous from the CFP page, or from what you paste.
Step 1: Read the event
Ranks war story, contrarian thesis and practical playbook and waits for you to choose.
Step 2: Find the angle
Writes five titles, a hook-promise-payoff abstract and verb-first takeaways.
Five ranked titles, a hook-promise-payoff abstract with a character count and two to four verb-first takeaways.
Steps 3-5: Title, abstract, takeaways
Fills the outline with minutes, reviewer notes, ecosystem benefit, level and track.
Outline with minutes, notes to reviewers, benefit to the ecosystem, prerequisites, level and track.
Step 6: Reviewer-only fields
Gathers a recording, links, a three-sentence bio and co-speaker rules.
Recording, links, a three-sentence bio and co-speaker rules.
Step 7: Credibility package
Checks caps, recycled content, sales pitch, panel rules, AI policy and disclosure.
Per-person caps, recycled content, no sales pitch, panel rules, AI policy and disclosure.
Step 8: Submission rules and AI-policy check
Scores content, originality, relevance and speaker from 1 to 5; six pass-threshold checks.
Step 9: Self-review

From the official docs

Permissions

Low risk

conference-cfp-submission is interview and writing instructions with no scripts, and it may save notes to devrel-context.md.

What it can do

Read your data
Create and change things
Delete things
Read-only mode

Watch out for

Some events reject AI-generated proposals
SKILL.md says PyCon US rejects proposals written to a large extent by a language model and gives no second chance. Rewrite the draft in your own voice and read the target event's current AI policy before you submit. github.com
It may save notes to devrel-context.md
SKILL.md tells Claude to keep task and project context in devrel-context.md when memory lives in a file, or in the memory system your tool already uses. Check the file before you commit it. github.com
The whole-set install adds 93 skills, 14 with scripts
The README says to install every skill. The git tree has 93 skill folders, and 14 of them hold .py or .sh files. This skill bundles no scripts, and the tree holds no hooks, agents or MCP config files. github.com

Technical details

Turning on read-only	SKILL.md describes no read-only mode.
Sign-in and keys	SKILL.md names no account, key or token.
Scopes	Claude writes a proposal pack in the conversation Talk ideas, incident details and affiliation you share go into the conversation Writes devrel-context.md when memory lives in a file

Questions

What does conference-cfp-submission do?

It writes a full proposal pack for one conference: track, title options, abstract, takeaways, outline, reviewer-only fields, bio and links. Each capped field gets a character count, and the pack is scored against four reviewer axes.

How do I install it?

Use the install box at the top. The README says to install every skill in the repo, because the skills point to each other. The box shows the whole-set route for each app.

Will an AI-written proposal be rejected?

It can be. SKILL.md quotes PyCon US rejecting proposals "solely or to a large extent written or include AI-generated text by a large-scale language model" with no second chance, and CNCF, which allows assistance but rejects "low-quality or clearly AI-generated 'slop'". It tells you to rewrite everything in your own voice. Read the target event's current policy.

Does it check the CFP page itself?

If Claude can browse, SKILL.md has it read the CFP page, the code of conduct, the track list and last year's schedule. If not, it asks you to paste the CFP page and five accepted talk titles from the previous edition.

Is it safe to install?

The skill bundles no scripts. Your talk idea, incident details and employer information go into your conversation, and SKILL.md has you check customer and employer approval for incident stories. The whole-set install adds 93 skills, 14 of which bundle scripts.

How is it different from tech-talk-outline?

This skill ends at submission. SKILL.md routes structuring the accepted talk to samber/developer-relations-skills@tech-talk-outline and its demo to developer-live-demo-design.

Information

updated Nov 2, 2026

Repository: samber/developer-relations-skills
Folder: skills/conference-cfp-submission

samber/developer-relations-skills skills.sh

Sources

Docs, issue trackers and discussions this page is built from.

Show all 3

README · github.com
conference-cfp-submission SKILL.md · github.com
LICENSE · github.com