Anticode Open builder

How to run a call for speakers: collect, score, decide and announce

A call for speakers has four stages: asking clearly, collecting proposals in one place, scoring them fairly, and announcing the line-up. Most of the pain comes from the second and third, when proposals arrive by email and DM and reviewers score them in different spreadsheets. Send every proposal through one form into one table and the rest gets easier.

Updated · By the Anticode team

Write the call before the form

The page that announces the call does most of the filtering. State the event, the date and place, the audience and their level, the talk formats and lengths, the themes you want, what you offer speakers (travel, a fee, a ticket, nothing), the deadline with a time zone, and when people will hear back. If you want first-time speakers, say so and offer help with the proposal.

Design the call for proposals form

Anticode's built-in contact form has three fields (name, email, message), which is too loose for proposals. A custom form tied to a site function can have up to 30 plain-text fields, which suits a CFP form for an event. A typical set:

  • Name, email, and the name to print in the programme
  • Talk title and format (talk, lightning talk, workshop)
  • Abstract for the programme, and a longer description for reviewers
  • Audience level and what attendees will take away
  • A short bio, and links to slides or a video of a past talk
  • Anything you need (access, travel support, a time constraint)

There are no file uploads on any form, so ask for links to slides, videos and photos rather than attachments. Keep the long fields to about 150 words: each field takes up to 1,000 characters, and reviewers read faster when everyone writes to the same length.

Collecting and scoring

  1. Connect Airtable or Notion in Connectors. Airtable gets a record per proposal with Site, Form, Submitted and Details (create those four columns first). Notion gets a page per proposal in a database you've shared with the integration, with every field in its body.
  2. Send a test proposal and check it arrives.
  3. Open the call and share it. Remind people a week and a day before the deadline from your own channels.
  4. Add reviewer columns in Airtable or properties in Notion: a score from 1 to 5 per reviewer, a short note, and a decision field.
  5. Review blind where you can. Have one person copy the abstract and description into reviewer-facing fields without the name and bio, so the talk is judged before the speaker.
  6. Meet once to decide. Sort by average score, then balance the programme by topic, level and speaker mix. Scores start the conversation; they shouldn't end it.

Decisions and the line-up

Send decisions from your own email, accepted speakers first so you can fill gaps if someone declines. Rejections should be kind, prompt and specific where you can manage it: a line on why, and an invitation to apply next time. Anticode doesn't email proposers.

For the speakers page, make a CMS collection called speakers with fields for name, talk title, abstract, bio and a photo. Add each confirmed speaker as an entry and edit them in the dashboard as details firm up. The collection is served at /speakers/ with a page per speaker, and changes there show without rebuilding the site. Ask for the home page to list the speakers too, and publish again when that section should catch up.

What goes wrong

Proposals arrive by email anyway
Reply with the form link and a polite note that all proposals are reviewed the same way.
A proposal is missing from the table
Connectors send each submission once, without retries. The proposal is still saved in the project's submissions; add it by hand.
Everyone submits on the last day
Normal. Plan reviewer time for the week after the deadline, not before.
Spam proposals
The form has rate limits and other site-form guards; delete the rest in the table.

How you know it went well

Every proposal was reviewed by the same people on the same scale, every proposer heard back by the date you promised, and the published programme matches the decisions in the table. Next year, you'll reuse the form and the table with a new date.

Limits

No file uploads, reviewer accounts, blind-review tooling, scheduling or emails to proposers on Anticode's side; scoring happens in Airtable or Notion. Custom forms run no scripts, so there's no word counter as people type. See the call for speakers page builder, Airtable and CMS collections.

Questions people ask

Can speakers upload their slides with the proposal?

No. Forms on Anticode sites don't take files. Ask for a link to the slides or a video instead.

How long should a call for speakers stay open?

Long enough for people to write a proposal and get permission from an employer: four to eight weeks is common, with decisions two to four weeks after.

What's the simplest way to run a call for speakers?

One page with the call, one form, every proposal into one Airtable or Notion table, a shared score from each reviewer, and a single meeting to decide.