SIGNAL NOT NOISE

Conference Submission guidelines.

The big question

We're not looking for sessions that fit a topic list.

Instead Signal Not Noise will be built around the question:

"What will the next generation of companies look like, and what will your role be?

Nobody's got that fully worked out yet. We want to help people to get closer to answering the main question by exploring the questions below.

6 tough questions

We want every session on the programme to directly address at lease on of these tough questions. This is because we want the content to help people to find answers to them. In that way, we want to make it compelling for people to come to the event.

This isn't an exhaustive list and no-one has all the answers to all the questions yet. Signal's promise is that we seek to provide people with more clarity and a path to answering the tough questions, with these ones as a starting point.

The Board Question

The board wants an AI strategy. What do you actually tell them? And how do you make it happen?

Building What Matters

How do I build what matters when I'm not the one setting the strategy?

Leading Faster Teams

Your team got faster. Why did you become the bottleneck?

AI in Practice

The pilot worked. What happens next?

Engineering Trust

What does good engineering look like when AI wrote half the code?

Discovery in Flux

How do you design for someone whose expectations change faster than your research?

Theme areas

These five themes still organise the programme on the day, and are worth keeping in mind when you choose a category on ConfEngine:

Engineering, Cyber, AI & Data Science
Product & Strategy
Design & Research
Leadership & Building Teams
Delivery & Ways of Working.

This isn't exhaustive. If your session helps answer one of the six questions above, even indirectly, we want to hear about it.

We have provided detailed information below for those who may not be familiar with our ethos. Otherwise you can click or tap this button to find the links to the submission system.

Submission links

Video: Why submit?

We asked Preeti Mishra, Adrian Fittolani and Kirsty McDonald about their experiences with submitting to LAST (the former name for Signal).

This 3 minute video beautifully illustrates the benefits of submitting and delivering sessions.

Key dates

This is a general outline of how the submission timeline works. For the current dates for a specific city, see that city's own submissions page.

	Timing
Call for submissions opens	Approximately 4 months before conference
Submissions close	Approximately 12–10 weeks before conference
Program Committee reviews submissions	1–2 weeks after submissions close
Speakers notified and confirmed	Approximately 10–8 weeks before conference
Agenda published	Approximately 8 weeks before conference
Conference day	Brisbane 30 October 2026 Melbourne 13 November 2026

What's in it for me?

You may want to share what you know. You may want others to know that you know things e.g prospective employers. You may want to find a bunch of like-minded people. You may want to become a better at facilitating/presenting in public. You may want to have fun, meet people and learn some great stuff that you can take back to your day job. See the video above for a great summary from the perspective of previous submitters.

People who are selected for the schedule will be given a complimentary registration. If you have already registered, we will refund you, or you can pass your registration on to someone else.

Interstate and Overseas submitters

Coming from out of town? Here is our policy about interstate and overseas speakers.

As each event is mainly focused on the community in each city, we don’t expect people to travel from interstate or overseas to participate, although you are welcome if you choose to come. As Signal events offer affordable registration prices, we need to keep overheads down. Therefore, we generally do not reimburse travel and accommodation or pay a fee to session leaders/speakers.

Detailed Information

The videos below predate the Signal Not Noise rebrand and the guiding questions above, but the advice in them, on what makes a strong submission, still holds. Watch them with the six questions in mind.

We have provided detailed information below about submitting.

The submission process.

We're opinionated about what makes a session work, and we put real effort into helping submitters get there. This page tells you what we're looking for and how to prepare a session that lands.

Different voices, different experience levels

We signed up to the Diversity Charter in 2016. We want to have a lineup that reflects the community that the event serves. Giving opportunities to have opportunities for people who have been previously under-represented, less experienced colleagues who have a story to tell and/or can teach the people who have been "around the block".

Here are the steps you will follow:

Review the info below.
Please, at least watch the first video.
The other videos go into more detail on our ethos and what gives a submission the best chance of being accepted. Worth watching at 1.5x speed if you're short on time.
Click through, and complete the ConfEngine submission process for the city you wish to submit for.

Code of conduct

A reminder to review our Code of Conduct.

Why we're particular about this

Since our first event in 2012, we've made a point of helping people who submit sessions put on the best, most engaging session they can, through public speaking training, peer-reviewed workshops and information sessions. The highlight reel below gives a sense of the standard that's produced. If your session gets a slot, we want it to be the best it can be, for the room and for you.

Highlight reels

A taste of what these events have been like, from previous editions of LAST Conference Melbourne and Brisbane.

Videos

The videos below are from previous info sessions. The event's name has changed since these were recorded, but the thinking behind what makes a strong session hasn't. There's still plenty of room to bring your own idea to it.

If you only watch one video

Short on time? Start here, and watch it at 1.5x or 2x speed. It covers the main points from the other videos, plus anything that's changed since. Recorded in 2022, still holds up.

Submission links

Origins of LAST Conference

Relevant info is 2:00 to end of clip.

What content do we want. Part 1

Relevant info:

Please review the whole video.

What about Lean and Systems Thinking?
What is overdone?
Technical content

Note: Craig Brown talks about a 2-day format and repeating sessions, neither of which applies now.

What content do we want. Part 2.

Please review the whole video.

Contains a breakdown of who comes

Note: there are fewer slots available now than Craig's slides suggest.

Slides, Case Studies, other formats, Games.

This one's worth watching in full. Slide presentations have their place, but they can also drag. Craig talks through other formats we actively encourage.

Submission process

Submissions often go through an iterative process. Craig outlines how that works, check each city's own submissions page for its specific dates.

Optional videos

How you can help out.

Optional. Craig covers how you can help out on the day, the Slack channel we use for comms, and who helps us select sessions.

Preparing a session

Optional. Tips on structuring a session and getting your message across, including a linked video Craig mentions.

On Diversity

Why presenter diversity matters to us.

The Entire Session

The full info session, in one sitting. About an hour.

Submission system.

Congratulations, you have what you need to submit.

Now click the button and follow the instructions on the submissions system. We use ConfEngine, so you will need an account in order to submit. ConfEngine will allow you to clone a proposal to allow it to be submitted to more than one event.

Brisbane

Melbourne (Coming)