What is a call for papers?

A call for papers is the open submission process for a conference programme. Somebody publishes what the event is looking for, people propose sessions before a deadline, reviewers score them, and a subset is accepted.

In practice at an event

The mechanics are more work than they look. A submission form, a deadline, a review process with multiple reviewers per proposal, a scoring rubric, a way to handle conflicts of interest, acceptance and rejection notifications on the date you promised, and then a scheduling exercise against tracks and rooms.

Academic conferences add peer review with structured feedback and often multiple rounds. Industry conferences usually run a lighter version, and many combine an open CFP for part of the programme with directly invited speakers for the keynotes.

What to look for

If you run a CFP, be specific about what you want. A vague call produces vague proposals and a large reviewing burden with little signal. Say what the audience is, what a good session looks like, and what you will not accept — vendor pitches, usually.

Announce the outcome on the date you said, to everybody, including the people you turned down. It is the part most often skipped and the part speakers remember.

Where event67 stands

event67 does not handle call for papers, abstract submission, peer review or speaker portals. This is a stated exclusion rather than a gap being worked on. Speakers appear in the app with a bio, a photo and their sessions, entered by the organizer in the console; the submission and review process happens somewhere else. If a CFP workflow is a requirement, that is a separate product and should be a separate line in your budget.