Earlier this week the emails went out to speakers who submitted to the PASS Data Community Summit 2023 conference. These were acceptances and rejections, letting people know the results of the volunteer review.
I got this one:
I had only submitted one session after being buried last year, and I assumed (we know what assume means) that this one would get picked. It wasn’t, and that’s OK.
A Speaking Failures Support Group
I know I’m not alone. I’ve had many speaking submissions rejected. From big conferences and little ones. It is disappointing, but I’ve learned not to take it personally.
I know this is a hard message to get, especially for less experienced speakers. So I decided to a) publicly disclose my rejection, and b) create a place to get support.
Since I am the editor of SQL Server Central, that’s a natural place for me to do this. I set up a forum for a Speaking Support Group, which you can use to post questions, ask for feedback on your submissions or ideas, get spell/grammar/phrasing help from others, commiserate with fellow speakers, and give them support/encouragement to try again.
Feel free to join me there, and comment on my first post, hopefully telling me to not take this too personally.