EclipseCon 2011 Submissions AKA "4 Ways to Make Zx's Life Miserable"

EclipseCon 2011 Submissions are off to a strong start. A couple dozen are already received, and we're awaiting our inevitable hockey stick towards the end. As program chair, Chris Aniszcyk's life in December is going to be miserable - trying to prune and select the best of the best from what I'm sure will be a great set of submissions.

To make Chris' job even more challenging, there are 4 key things you should know about:

1. Lynn Gayowski likes the idea of making more work for Chris. So she's found a cool Eclipse jacket, fleece or shirt - (depending on your size requirements and availability) - to the 42nd submission to EclipseCon 2011. Keeping in mind we've already received a couple dozen submissions, you should probably submit over the weekend or early next week for a chance. Luck number 42!
   
2. The Program Committee often struggles with new topics or speakers that we've not heard before. The EclipseCon Audition Sessions will help address that. It's a great way for people to present a quick 5 minute overview of an idea they have, and give the PC some insight as to if we think it will be a good fit or not. The winner will get a slot in the program, but we'll also be giving other presenters some extra weighting if they do well. The deadline to submit to the Audition Session is Monday, November 15th! Full details can be found here. Even if you're a long time EclipseCon presenter, showing up and presenting a great idea will definitely boost your chances with the PC.
   
3. Studying several hundred submissions for each Eclipse event is a lot of work, so we try to break things up with an Early Bird submission deadline. The PC will go through all the submissions made before Wednesday, November 17th, and choose 5 that we think are good representatives for EclipseCon - those 5 early bird sessions are guaranteed to be in the program.
4. Finally, the absolute submission deadline is November 30th. Given the sheer volume and quality of submissions, it is extremely rare we accept submissions after the deadline -- so don't delay, don't submit to fate, if you've got an idea please submit it today!

- Don