If you've considered submitting to a technology conference as a speaker but didn't really know where to start, you might check out this advice from Neal Anders based on his experiences in the PHP community.

Recently in a conversation on Twitter the topic of what a successful conference proposal – one that gets accepted – looks like, came up. I thought I would expand upon the conversation and the “3 key takeaways” advice I gave, by providing the raw submissions I entered, in this case, to PHP Tek 12, as well as some lessons learned and additional commentary.

He shares his thoughts on what kinds of things it takes to get accepted (note: one is "luck"), what some of his example proposals look like, how to deal with some of the pre-conference jitters and a few final tips on getting that "accepted" email.