I have this fear of writing talk abstracts. Of applying to conferences, generally. There was a time, in my career, when I went to multiple conferences a year. I’ve always lived in places where conferences are hard to reach. Mostly in South Africa, but for a time in New Zealand.
Going to conferences, while living in these remote areas, made me feel like I was wanted. I loved the travel, too. The last conference I felt truly wanted at was Laravel EU (days before my youngest child was born). That was 5 years ago.
I have applied to many conferences, since. I have mostly been rejected.
I think some of this is because I am not as interested in the topics that sell. I want to talk about game dev and hobby electronics. I want to talk about retro tech restoration. I understand how conference organisers are going to struggle to sell those topics to sponsors. I don’t know of many conferences where these topics are the focus.
All this is to say that I am going to keep submitting these topics to conferences. I believe I can do the topics justice, and I have zero desire to use precious time to prepare and talk about subjects that I wouldn’t spend leisure time enjoying.