Final Chance to Speak at XML 2005

It’s that time of year again, few­er than 10 days until the dead­line for your last chance to speak at XML 2005. This year we kept a lot of slots open for late-break­ing talks (which don’t have to be only on really late-break­ing sub­jects, good present­a­tions on oth­er top­ics that don’t duplic­ate mater­i­al already on the pro­gram will also be con­sidered, so check what’s already on the pro­gram!) We would like to see sub­mis­sions on new­er top­ics that wer­en’t around in May, wheth­er that’s WSDL for REST, or Ajax, or the tech­nic­al under­pin­nings of Web 2.0. More details on how to sub­mit are at Call for Par­ti­cip­a­tion / Late Break­ing News.

And there are also the Town Hall meet­ings, which this year we’d like to make less form­al, and more “the oppor­tun­ity to voice their opin­ion on con­tro­ver­sial top­ics” open mike, open-to-the-pub­lic, meeting.

And, of course, the product present­a­tions, designed to give attendees a space to really look inside inter­est­ing products that imple­ment stand­ards, inter­op­er­ate with oth­er products, and/or are new on the mar­ket. One of the reas­ons I like hav­ing the product present­a­tion talks on the pro­gram is that it gives attendees a way to find out about a product without wor­ry­ing that they’ll be pestered by over-eager sales people — they can find out the info they need without hand­ing in their busi­ness cards. Of course, lots of vendors aren’t as keen on these talks as they don’t get the busi­ness cards, but you nev­er know what makes some­body buy a product or recom­mend a product — where did the ori­gin­al spark come from? It could be a booth demon­stra­tion, or a full-length product present­a­tion. You just nev­er know.

So, if you’re inter­ested in speak­ing this year and you don’t already have a speak­ing slot, you have until Septem­ber 16 to get those sub­mis­sions in!