If you're ending this year and thinking about making "speak at a conference" one of your New Year's resolutions, you should check out the series of Tweets from Michael Cullum with some helpful tips on submitting your talk ideas to Calls for Papers. His #12DaysofCfpTips can help guide you in the right direction and make it more likely you could be accepted.

So far (as of the time of this post) there's only two in the list:

• "Mention previous speaking experience in your speaker 'extra information' box (including UGs and Conferences)"
• Always get someone to read over your abstracts. helpmeabstract.com is a great place to get feedback

Keep an eye on the hashtag with more great tips and hints to help you optimize your submissions and profile for that next open Call for Papers!