ACCU Conference News

Apologies to all for failing to keep the conference news updated over the last few weeks.

The call for proposals is now closed. The programme committee did lots of reviewing and deciding and planning. We are thus at the stage of getting the draft schedule in place. This is a work in progress for the moment. More news soon.

The important news of the moment is that the registration website is now up and running, and you can register for ACCU 2019. Indeed we already have some people registered.

If you fancy joining the early bird registerers, nip over to http://www.cvent.com/d/dbqjfx and sign up.

The ACCU 2019 Call for Proposals is now open. It will close 2018-10-26T23:59+01:00.

For further details on ACCU the organisation go to https://accu.org and for further details on ACCU the conference go to https://conference.accu.org

Submission of proposals is by logging in and entering data into the submission Web application at https://cfp.conference.accu.org

ACCU has a lot of C++ content, but it has much more: Python, C#, Go, Rust, Java, Kotlin, Lisp, Groovy, JRuby get a look in as programming languages. Also the tools, techniques, and processes of programming are things people present sessions on: ACCU is about anything and everything to do with programming. Main conference sessions are 90 minutes long and are one of:

Sometimes we have 180 minute workshops, i.e. double session ones, because 90 minute is sometimes just not enough!

Lead presenters of main conference sessions are eligible for a "presenter deal" so as to be able to attend the conference even if they cannot get funding for expenses via another route.

We also have "quickies" which are 20 minute sessions, 15 minute presentation and 5 minutes questions and answers. Currently we are not able to provide any form of "presenter deal" for these sessions, but we are looking for sponsors that might enable us to do something for these presenters.

ACCU puts on full day pre-conference workshops/tutorials, i.e. 6 hours with breaks. There is a pre-conference workshop package" for lead presenters of these that includes an honorarium as well as expenses. We are looking for introductory sessions as well as deep dive sessions so as to get wide appeal: Rust for C++ programmers, C++ for people who do not already know it,as well as C++17 and beyond, or using Rust for Python extensions,are just a few of the sorts of thing that would get well received.

The ACCU Programme Committee members review all the proposals submitted and score them. They will from this year also provide "comments to proposers" as well as "comments to the committee". "Comments to the proposers" will be sent to the proposers as a matter of course. Having reviewed all the proposals the committee then meets to select and schedule the selected sessions. This is not an easy task, but it gets done despite this.

A final reminder: the call for proposals for ACCU 2019 opens next week 2018-10-05 and is open for three weeks till 2018-10-26.

ACCU is a conference about programming. Given the history of the ACCU organisation, there is a lot of C++, and some C, oriented content. However we have Python, Rust, Go, Java, Kotlin, Groovy, Lisp, Ruby indeed any programming language oriented content. Also tools and techniques of programming content: TDD, BDD, Git, Mercurial, CMake, Meson, SCons, concurrency, parallelism, continuous integration, continuous delivery, creating software-based startups, the list isn’t endless but it is big and it is flexible. Any and all content to do with programming is acceptable.

The conference content is entirely created from the submitted proposals. Except for the keynotes. This year we have:

as our keynote speakers.

As ever lead presenters of main conference sessions will get a "conference deal".

For further details on ACCU the organisation go to https://accu.org and for further details on ACCU the conference go to https://conference.accu.org

Submission of proposals will be by logging in and entering data into the submission Web application, which when the call is open will be at https://cfp.conference.accu.org

As we approach October 2018 and the Call for Proposals for ACCU 2019, a number of people have expressed some concerns about ACCU 2019 being after BrExit 2019-03-29. The issue being that post-BrExit the UK government’s apparent obsession with curtailing EU freedom of movement may lead to EU citizens having difficulties entering the UK.

When UK leaves the EU on 2018-03-29, there is a two-year transition period and as such, nothing will change immediately. Constraining EU citizen’s entry into the UK after this date is highly unlikely. If however, travel into the UK by EU citizens is constrained, a move to the same sort of visa arrangements the UK already has with non-EU nationals is the most likely scenario – either automatic entry with no visa needed as per the current arrangement with Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea and the USA; or as we do with other nationals. In the unlikely event of EU nationals travelling to the UK requiring visas, the ACCU organisers are able to send ‘Letters of Invitation’ to support visa applications through UK embassies and high commissions. We believe though this will not come to be needed.

Here is a statement agreed with Archer Yates Associates the organisation that organises the ACCU conferences:

Concerned about travel to the UK after Brexit? – ACCU firmly believes, free travel to the UK after Brexit will continue as it currently operates, as part of the agreed two-year transition period. In the event of visas being necessary, we will make available ‘Letters of Invitation’ to speakers and registered attendees to help facilitate any visa requests they may have.

OK so ACCU 2019 isn’t actually happening any time soon – it is scheduled for 2019-04-09 to 2019-04-13, but preparation and planning takes quite a long time. So this is really "Planning and Preparation for ACCU 2019 has Begun".

We have a nice logo. Well, obviously, it is essentially the same logo as ever but with a numeral changed and in a different colour – continuity of brand imagery has a lot going for it. We hope you like the colour – or if you are in the USA: color :-).

Of course, there can be no ACCU conference without good content, and good content requires lots of good submissions so the committee can select from them to create a great schedule. We are busy, OK I am busy, updating the submission Web application in the light of experience from last year. As there should be in any project, there is a deadline for these changes, and that is 2018-10-05. Why is that? Because that is the date of the opening of the Call for Proposals. This is really what this post is about, the Call for Proposals.

The Call for Proposals will open 2018-10-05T10:00+00:00.

The Call for Proposals will close 2018-10-26T19:00+00:00.

So as to be fair to everyone who submits, these date/times are not negotiable. Neither will there be any extensions^[1]

Anyone who has an idea for an ACCU conference session should think it through, plan it, and create the proposal ready to submit it during the Call for Proposals. Details on the sort of sessions at an ACCU conference are given on the front page of the website.

You have three months. Get planning to submit.