CFP in three steps, part 1: the hook

Monday, Oct 6, 2025 | 1 minute read

Alex Rivera

A Call for Papers is not a paper. It is a hook, an outline, and a submit button — in that order.

This is part 1 of a three-post series shipped with the theme so /series/ and the post sidebar have something to render.

One sentence

If the reviewer cannot quote the talk in one sentence, they will not champion it. Write that sentence before the abstract, the title, and the demo.

What this site does with series

Set series: in front matter. The overlay lists the other parts in the right-hand column (under the article on small screens) and links the series name to /series/<term>/.

Previous page CFP in three steps, part 2: the outline

Next page Surviving CFP season without burning out

How this About page is built

The About layout lists socials from data/socials.toml, then each Markdown file in content/about/ except index.md, sorted by filename. That is why the files are named 10-me.md, 20-details.md, 30-speaking.md.

Add a file, pick a title in front matter, write Markdown. No extra template work.

Speaking

Alex (still fictional) talks about search, observability, and community. Recurring abstracts live under /talks/templates/. The map at /talks/map/ is built from conference.latitude and conference.longitude on each talk — there is no separate geo database.

If you present in more than one language, set talk-lang on the talk and add a versions entry on the template. The theme renders tabs so you can paste the right abstract into a CFP.

Who am I?

Alex Rivera is a fictional Developer Advocate used only in this example site. The biography, conferences, and co-speaker are invented so you can copy the content shape without copying a real person.

In a real site this section is the first 10-*.md file on the About page: short, first person or third, with the links that do not belong in the nav.

Social Links