Hey {{first name | there}}. Almost every speaker you admire filled out the same public form that's open to you right now.
In today’s career notes:
Why the stage was never invite-only (and what actually gets you picked)
The three-room climb that beats one KubeCon rejection
Where the CFPs hide, and why the earliest applicant wins
🧗THE EDGE: You were never going to be invited
You keep watching people speak at KubeCon, DevOpsDays, KCDs, etc.
Same thought every time: must be nice.
Nice for them. They probably got invited. They probably know someone. They probably have the kind of title that gets you on a stage.
No.
Here's the part nobody tells you: almost every speaker you admire filled out a form. A public form. The same one that's open to you right now.
Conference speaking isn't an invite-only club. It's a Call for Papers. And the CFP does not ask how many years you've been shipping.
A CFP for BSides Brighton is open right now for anyone to apply!!
So why aren't you speaking yet?
Not because you can't. For one of two reasons:
You don't know where the opportunities are.
You found one, applied once, got rejected, and quietly gave up.
Neither of those is a talent problem. Both are fixable this week.
But it's important to keep in mind that:
You don't debut at a 1,000-person keynote like KubeCon. You climb.
Meetups — 10 to 50 people. Your training ground. Low stakes, high reps.
Virtual conferences — 10 to 200+. No travel, global reach, and an easy first "conference speaker" line for your profile.
Regular conferences — 50 to 1,000+. The rooms that change how people see you.
Start at the bottom. A meetup talk this month is worth more than a KubeCon rejection you never applied for.
Where the opportunities actually live
The CFPs are out there. Here's where to look.
Aggregators — the firehose:
Communities — the early tip-offs:
Slack channels in your niche
Subreddits
LinkedIn / X hashtags: #CFP, #CloudNative, #SpeakerOpportunity
Open and Closed CFPs on developers.events
And if there's a series you already love — KubeCon, DevOpsDays, Google DevFest, SREday — don't wait for someone to repost it.
Subscribe to their announcements directly. Follow the official account.
Here's the trap:
CFPs open with little to no fanfare and close fast.
By the time a speaker call is trending on your feed, the deadline is days away or gone. The people who get accepted aren't the best writers. They're the earliest ones.
✅ACTION ITEMS FOR YOU
Your homework. Four steps. Do it before Friday.
Open one aggregator. Just one.
Find every event near you — or virtual — with an open CFP.
Put every deadline in your calendar, with reminders.
Apply. Then apply again. Then apply again.
The 1% of engineers who speak, publish, and put their thinking in a room didn't get picked. They applied while everyone else waited to be chosen.
That's the whole game. Make Your Move.
🔭VISIBILITY STACK
EverythingDevOps YouTube – We are cooking up a ton of cool cool videosssssss!!! Subscribe to see the latest!!
Reply me with any questions, and I will answer them. I hid this in the middle here, and thank you for reading it😂😂. I am rooting for you. Alright… Stop laughing 😅
ICYMI last week's issue: you don't need to be ex-google – The four LinkedIn profile fixes that beat an "Ex-Google" badge
Stay sharp. Stay visible.
Divine Odazie
CEO, EverythingDevOps