I'm Justin Garrison, a long time open source community member and part of the SCaLE organizing teams. I'm a maintainer for Talos Linux, I host the Fork Around and Find Out podcast, and share videos about infrastructure and software on my YouTube channel. I learned about the Southern California Linux Expo (SCaLE) in 2009 and since tickets were only $30 for students, and I lived in Southern California, I decided to brave the 10 freeway and check it out. I had no idea there were this many Linux and Open Source nerds in SoCal.
When the call for proposals (CFP) opened for the 2010 SCaLE, I wanted to submit a talk about what I was building and learning, MythTV. MythTV was how I replaced my Comcast cable box with free and open source software. I was able to watch and record live TV and download my favorite web TV stations and podcasts. It's awesome and I wanted more people to know about it.
To my surprise, my proposal was accepted! It turns out SCaLE loves having new speakers and has topics on more than just Linux distros. When it came time for me to give my presentation the room was packed. I was nervous, and I know I wasn't the smoothest presenter. By the end of the talk it didn't matter. So many people came up to ask me more questions and see the example hardware I brought. I knew I accomplished exactly what I wanted. I overcame my fear of public speaking, I told a room full of people something cool, and I made new friends, some I still know to this day.
SCaLE isn't like other conferences. It's completely run by volunteers and is focused on helping open source communities thrive. This means the conference provides affordable tickets, is partially held on the weekend, and is family friendly with a game night and tracks given by kids (The Next Generation).
If you have something open source you think is cool, we'd love to have you submit to the CFP. The world of software and open source is so big it's impossible for the conference committee or even attendees to know everything. We want to hear about the fun thing you built, the tools you're using, or the community you think is great. Multiple submissions are encouraged! Don't worry if your slides aren't perfect—trust me, mine were terrible. Even if what you want to say isn't completely solidified in your mind. If there's something that excites you, just bring that excitement and it'll probably spark something in your audience too.
Here's the thing, SCaLE is a huge conference compared to other volunteer-run conferences, but it's still small when it comes to large, vendor-run events. If you want to speak at SCaLE, and your talk is exciting (to you), open source focused, and relevant to one of our many tracks. You have a good chance of having your talk accepted! Do your best with the CFP form. The selection committee is more than happy to help you refine your proposal after you submit. If you want more info about the submission process check out our Q&A live stream, previous SCaLE talks, or all of my personal CFP submissions for the past 6 years.
My first talk at SCaLE wasn't my last, and I've attended SCaLE almost every year since. It's a lot of fun to hang out with likeminded people in a safe space and learn from each other. It's one of the things open source does great, and the ethos of open source community is thriving at SCaLE. I can't wait to hear your talk in person in 2027.
