Our goal is to make BSides Cheltenham ‘for the community, by the community’ which applies to our paper selection process as well. We are also dedicated to making our conference as transparent as possible and in line with that want to explain how the selection process works when you submit a talk for BSides Cheltenham.  
 

Selection Process: 

1. Call for papers:  Anyone who would like to submit a paper can do so by filling out the form here. The deadline is March 31, 2023. 

2. Preselection: We then anonymise the papers, removing any identifying information such as name or company. This ensures that the papers will be selected on merit and content rather than who submitted them.  

3. Review process: The anonymised papers will then be reviewed by a panel of volunteers representing a wide selection of the cybersecurity community. The volunteers will assess the relevance of each submission, considering factors such as how innovative, sound, and interesting the paper is. 

4. Selection: Based on the results of the review process, the panel will select the papers that they think will be of most interest to the BSides Cheltenham community. 

5. Notification: All submissions will be notified if they have been successful or not. For those who are successful, we will confirm which track they are speaking on and ask for some additional information for scheduling purposes. Notification of selection will be done by April 17, 2023.  
    

Board-selected Talks: 

We do select talks on merit, but we also have a category of ‘Board-selected Talks’. We will limit this to a maximum of 3 talks, and these will be clearly identified on the schedule. This category can include keynotes or well-known speakers that BSides Cheltenham invites to speak for the benefit of the local information security community. This type of talk is limited as we are committed to primarily providing spaces for unique speakers, supported by our merit-based selection process. 
 

Other Information: 

Our selection committee, like everything else at BSides Cheltenham, is volunteer-based. If you are interested in being part of the panel, please reach out and introduce yourself to us at cfp@cheltenhambsides.org.uk. 

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We feel that it is important to note that sponsorship does not guarantee a speaking spot. Sponsors are still required to submit papers and have them reviewed by the panel. We put our community at the heart of our conference and believe everyone should have the same opportunity to speak. 

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Finally, for the successful speakers, BSides Cheltenham will host a ‘Thank You’ reception with canapes and drinks on June 2nd to thank our speakers and sponsors who make this event possible.  

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We look forward to welcoming everyone in 2023.