PagerDuty Summit is back! We’re looking forward to coming together — virtually and in-person — with the PagerDuty community to learn and grow. We know much has changed in the past year with how people are working, new changes and updates to our platform, and we can’t wait to gather together to discuss. 

We want to hear from YOU on what you’ve learned about building reliable systems, running software in production, using data and automation to improve operations, and the human side of operating at scale and delivering a better customer experience in an unpredictable world.

Today we are announcing an open call for proposals (CFP) for Summit’s breakout sessions. PagerDuty Summit will have a virtual component, with six tracks of breakout-style talks. In this blog, you’ll find all the details about the CFP process, track descriptions, tips for submitting and more.  

General Information

PagerDuty Summit is for teams who keep their companies’ digital operations up and running. You’re working hard and the nature of this work is ever-evolving – rapidly shifting, data-rich environments are driving increases in urgent and unstructured work, all in service of flawless customer experiences … No exceptions. As DevOps practitioners and site reliability engineers, you’ve set the standard for operators across the business. 

Join us at PagerDuty Summit to explore the latest in practices and platforms, connect with peers, and to hear more about how to harness data, automate-away toil, and deliver a superior experience. PagerDuty is committed to inclusion, diversity and equity. We encourage you to submit speakers from members of groups historically under-represented within tech.

We are planning PagerDuty Summit 2022 as a hybrid event, with all breakout sessions delivered virtually. 

Call for Proposals Dates

• CFP Opens: March 15, 2022. Complete the form here.
• CFP Closes: April 8, 2022
• CFP Notifications: April 18, 2022
• Deadline for accepted speakers to confirm: April 25, 2022
• Sessions to be recorded: Week of May 16, 2022
• Virtual sessions go live: June 8, 2022

Submission Requirements

• Name and contact details
• Session Title (100 character limit)
• Abstract (1000 character limit)
• Track selection (see below)
• Speaker bio (1000 character limit)
• Speaker headshot

Submit to CFP

If Your Proposal is Selected

Acceptance and wait-list notifications will be sent out on April 18, 2022. If your proposal has been selected, you need to confirm your acceptance by April 25, 2022 and sign the PagerDuty Summit speaker agreement. You will receive specifications for how your presentation should be recorded and final recordings will be due the week of May 23, 2022. You are expected to present on the topic that you outlined in your submission.

Track Descriptions

DevOps is Building the Future, Now 

The realities of “you build it, you run it” have shifted in 2022. It’s time to revisit the core DevOps principles of culture, automation, lean, measurement, and sharing (CALMS) in the face of distributed teams, ever more stressed on digital infrastructure, and complex modern architectures.

Beyond a Buzzword: AIOps in 2022

With machine learning and automation revolutionizing operations across the enterprise, AIOps is becoming a proven way to reduce noise, improve MTTR, and increase efficiency. But how do you get beyond the hype and start driving business outcomes? This track dives into how you can implement AIOps to achieve fewer interruptions and faster resolution, today.

Transforming Work Through Process Automation 

Modern operations require automation to keep up with accelerating change and facilitating continuous innovation. This track explores how to apply automation frameworks and delegation to address operational tasks and processes. Learn how to get started and how to get comfortable with upping your automation game. 

Digitized Business Operations

As more operations are digitized, practices and technologies to deliver a great customer experience are evolving. From customer service to human resources and more, the way teams work have changed. This track explores how teams around the business put the customer experience at the center and get work done when it matters most. 

Getting Started with PagerDuty

Whether you’re new to PagerDuty or looking to get started with DevOps, SRE or modern on-call practices, this track gets down to the basics for beginners. 

Self-care On-call

Burnout is real and the pandemic hasn’t helped. Whether you’re an individual on call or a team leader keeping your team healthy, this track explores strategies and practices to manage stress, get well and stay well. 

Topics We Are Interested In

This is not an exhaustive list and we encourage you to apply with your own ideas as well.

• Running software in production
• Managing security incidents
• Building reliable systems
• Interesting ways to leverage PagerDuty/adoption gotchas
• Experience with blameless postmortems
• Learning from incidents
• Leading incident response teams
• Leading customer service teams
• Proving the value of real-time operations
• Best practices in stakeholder communications during incidents
• Communicating and collaborating with your Support teams during incidents
• AIOps
• Automation
• Interesting things you’ve integrated with PagerDuty
• Fostering inclusive teams
• Improving work-life balance

Tips for Submitting

Help us understand why your presentation is right for PagerDuty Summit. Below are some tips and resources for writing a successful proposal. Our participants expect that all presentations and supporting materials will be respectful, inclusive, and adhere to our Code of Conduct.

• Be clear: What is the point of your session? Keep your title and abstract concise and to the point. Include specifics and examples that make your presentation credible and unique.
• Be useful: What will attendees learn from your session? Make your submission relevant to the audience. It can help to be specific about what type of attendee (engineer, IT operator, business leader) your session is intended for.
• Be compelling: Why is this topic important? Make your submission stand out with an interesting angle, perspective, or unique data. 
• Be inclusive: Does your submission reflect diverse voices, backgrounds, perspectives and/or abilities? We learn when exposed to new ideas and viewpoints, so make that part of your submission. 

When it comes to writing your abstract, you can find more tips in blog posts like this one or this one.

Code of Conduct

PagerDuty is dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for participants at all of our events. We encourage all submitters to review our complete Code of Conduct.

Submit to CFP