This talk was presented at the Grafana Labs Community Champions call.

You don’t need to know everything about a topic to have something worth sharing. Your experiences, lessons learned, and side projects can be the starting point for a conference talk—but how do you turn them into a compelling proposal?

This session introduces a practical five-step framework for preparing a Call for Proposals (CFP) submission: identify the right event, understand its audience, find your story, research its relevance, and brainstorm and shortlist your ideas. We’ll also explore local meetups as a starting point and how AI can support your research.

Whether you’re considering your first submission or looking for a clearer approach, you’ll leave with a framework to help you choose a relevant topic and take the next step toward sharing it.