On the Symfony blog the project has made an announcement about a new addition to the Symfony team to help handle security issues around the framework: Michael Cullum

Handling security issues responsibly and transparently is key to the success of any Open-Source project. Symfony is no exception. We documented the process of our security management policy a long time ago.

[...] Today, I'm very happy and proud to announce that we are getting to the next level. Michael Cullum accepted to join the Symfony Core Team to lead the security team. He will be responsible for managing the security process.

Michael is the secretary of the PHP-FIG group, represents the PHPBB project and is a heavy user of the Symfony framework. Having Michael on the team means that there will be a central point of contact and someone whose primary role is ensuring the safety and security of the overall project and framework.

At the end of 2015 (and beginning of 2016) Michael Cullum put together a series of tweets with suggestions to help potential conference/event speakers out there in submitting to Call for Papers. He's gathered them together and posted them to his site to make them easier to find all in one place.

On the 25th December I started a series of tweets under the hashtag #12DaysOfCfpTips. For those who are unaware, I’m one of the organisers for the PHP South Coast Conference (P.S. Blind bird tickets are up wink), and within the organising team I’m responsible for the Call for Papers and everything speaker-related in general and getting better submissions are both in the best interest of a conference organiser and the submitter.

A few people had asked me to post them up somewhere more permanent and perhaps expand on them beyond 140 characters a little so here we are with a roundup. The tweets are in chronological order.

His list includes suggestions about providing "extra" information on your submissions, looking at the suggested talk topics and mentioning any previous speaking experience. There's also links to each tweet so you can see any conversation that might have happened around them (often including some additional advice as well).

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!