This year we had a fantastic response to the call for proposals for talks for the Plone Conference, with over 70 submissions received. The quality of the proposed talks was very high, but that gave us the (nice) problem of trying to fit as many of them as we could into a limited amount of time. Alas, we could not fit them all in, and we had to make difficult decisions as to which to choose.

There really is something for everyone on the programme, whether you are new to Plone, a seasoned developer, or just interested in finding out what others are doing with it.

If you are new to Plone you can find out about how Plone is developed; creating complex CSS layouts in Plone; or extending Plone with python to access Twitter or Google Docs; or you might want to find out about introducing Plone into large scale business operations.

Maybe you are a seasoned developer and want to find out about building content types with Dexterity; producing complex forms with z3c.form; or how to troubleshoot Plone.

Or perhaps you are a Plone integrator and interested in integrating Plone with e-Commerce and CRM systems; find out about hosting Plone on Amazon EC2; or how to approach scalability issues. Or Plone's new theming technology, Deliverance?

Interested in Plone in action? Want to see who's using it and why they chose Plone? Find out how Oxfam use Plone for equipment procurement; how Brazillian bank Caixa Econômica Federal use Plone for a 100,000 user intranet; or how the Viennese Tourist Board use Plone for their site.

Want to find out what's coming up in Plone 4? Or why Open Source works? Or look even further ahead to some of the new concepts for Plone 5, such as Deco?

These are just a handful of the great talks happening, the full schedule is available here or there is a complete list of talks here. The full descriptions of each the talks will be published shortly.

There will also be an Open Space on the 3rd day of the conference, in which attendees will self organise talks based upon whatever topics have sparked their interest over the previous days.

And if that isn't enough, there is pre-conference training, where you can get great value training from some of the best trainers in the Plone community, and if you want to get really stuck in and work alongside other Plone developers, there is a development sprint after the conference.

So... have you booked your place yet?

-Matt

One of the greatest strengths of Plone is its community, and this is at its most evident at the annual Plone Conference, and the talks given by members of the community.

Each year the talks range from highly technical talks from the Plone developers talking about what is coming up in future versions of Plone, to very non-technical case studies on how Plone is being used in various organisations.  As well as that, there are often talks on various processes and best practises in the realms of managing teams, agile development and consulting.

So what are you waiting for? Not only will you give back to the Plone community, you will gain the love, respect and beer of your peers... oh and 50% off your conference registration fee ;)

The deadline for talk submission is fast approaching, with talk submission closing on the 6th September.

To register your proposed talk, go to the Talk Proposals page here to read about the process, and then submit your talk using the Talks Submission form.

Photo credit: MrTopf