Speaker Guide

FinOps XE 2024 Call for Proposals is CLOSED

NOTE: CFP for FinOps XE 2024 is now closed. Feel free to review the following to better understand our guidelines and expectations for becoming a Speaker or Chalk Talk Co-Lead.

For FinOps XE 2024, we’re looking for industry experts to broaden our body of best practices work in the following parts of the FinOps Framework:

• Planning & Estimating
• Quantify Business Value
• Licensing & SaaS
• Architecting for Cloud
• Cloud Sustainability
• Invoicing & Chargeback
• Budgeting
• FinOps Tools & Services
• Unit Economics
• FinOps Practice Operations

Other topics include:

• Observability Optimization: How do you optimize the use of observability platforms and similar tools, including license costs, different meters, etc.
• Decision Making: How does your organization implement decision making to take into account all the aspects of FinOps you consider? How does your Iron Triangle work on a day to day basis?
• FOCUS™ Adoption: How have you adopted FOCUS™ meaningfully in your organization?
• Managing AI cost: How do you allocate, optimize, and report on AI costs?

Experience levels

We use a range of levels to help attendees find the most appropriate range for them. The balance of content is weighted overall to more 200 and 300-level talks as these are events due to the advanced topics. These levels include:

• 100 – Introductory: These talks introduce and define FinOps subject matter, including high-level theory and adoption stories. These introductory sessions might cover multiple topics to define how the speaker approaches adopting FinOps or building emerging competence in a FinOps Capability.
• 200 – Intermediate: These talks add more depth and data to FinOps subject matter, including real-world stories or case studies, results, and lessons learned.
• 300 – Advanced: These talks dive deeply into specific domains or capabilities, citing real-world examples, unearth mistakes or lessons learned, providing actionable steps, and demonstrating how other practitioners can use these insights.

Tell data-driven stories

We welcome speakers to share their stories and experiences using real-world examples and data. Please be sure to have the proper permissions or attributions to use data examples in your talks. Many speakers choose to anonymize data or redact sensitive things in order to still use data to support their topics.

You can also use findings from the State of FinOps annual survey to support your talk. We also encourage speakers to reference and cite past FinOps Foundation materials to help us grow our body of knowledge.

Inviting diverse speaker lineups

The FinOps Foundation welcomes stories and lessons from practitioners of all walks of life. We encourage speakers to invite co-speakers that represent other FinOps personas, especially of underrepresented groups. We encourage co-speaking to broaden the perspectives shared at the event, with the rule that there are no all-male panels (3 or more speakers). We adhere to the Linux Foundation’s guidance, which you can check out for more details.

Creating supportive, safe spaces for discussion

Chosen speakers will be supported and encouraged to take the Linux Foundation’s free inclusive speaker training, preparing them to build a safe, welcoming, and thoughtful space during their FinOps X and XE sessions.

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

What are recommended components of a great talk?

We’ve seen speakers find great success from aligning their talks to parts of the FinOps Framework, including Capabilities, Domains, addressing Personas, and more.

Can I use or cite data in my talk?

We encourage data-driven storytelling and real-world examples in FinOps X and XE sessions. You can use anonymized FinOps data (redacting any sensitive material, and with proper permissions and attribution) to support your talking points.

You can also use data from the State of FinOps Report to support your talking points. Our staff is more than happy to provide high-res charts and graphs if you choose to do so. We ask that you use proper citations and attribution when doing so.

Can I use charts and graphs to illustrate concepts?

Of course! You can work with our designers to include high-resolution images, charts, and graphs. FinOps X and XE provide large presentation screens for speakers, so we want to use the highest quality images we can to support your talk.

NOTE: We ask that you get proper permissions from your organization ahead of time to use charts, graphs, and data that they might provide.

Can I engage the audience during my session?

We encourage engaging the audience in a respectful, inclusive manner during your talk. Some speakers have polled their audiences with a “show of hands” to build context and gather information before diving into their talks, for example.

Facilitating an inclusive question and answer session after prepared content is a great way to engage everyone as well.

We also welcome speakers to invite audiences to learn more by getting involved with the FinOps Foundation, whether it’s joining a Slack channel to discuss a topic, signing up for a Working Group or Special Interest Group, seek certification in a given topic, or to check out other related content.