Summary

  • APRICOT 2027 lists 25 January as the final date for presentation proposals, while warning that speaking slots are filled first come, first served and mostly well before that date.
  • The proposal needs reviewable draft slides in PDF. The Programme Committee can hold a few places for unusually timely or operationally important talks.

There is a deadline on the poster and a queue behind it. APRICOT 2027 will accept presentation proposals until 25 January, but its Call for Presentations says speaking slots are filled as submissions arrive, regardless of the published date. The committee expects most places to go early. A speaker who treats January as opening night may find the room already furnished.

The call opened on 27 October for the Hong Kong summit. Conference sessions run from 1 to 3 March 2027; the final programme is scheduled for 8 February. APRICOT wants technical tutorials, conference talks, panels and Birds of a Feather sessions about Internet operations. Every accepted talk takes time, review and a place on a three-day schedule.

Even the ticket to enter the queue has a specification. Tutorial and conference proposals need draft slides at submission; without them, the proposal is rejected immediately. Draft and completed slides must be PDF. A work in progress is welcome if the material is developed enough to review. The APRICOT FAQ says the volunteer Programme Committee reviews continuously, meets weekly and usually communicates a decision within two to four weeks. Sending an abstract alone and building the deck over Christmas is a losing calendar strategy.

The committee keeps a narrow escape hatch. It may reserve a limited number of places until the final deadline for talks it considers exceptionally timely, important or critical to operations. No quota is published. Nor does the call say how many slots have already gone. What is public is the decision rule: early, reviewable material enters the main flow; late material depends on both spare room and committee judgment.

There is a second cost to speaking. The 2027 call says remote presentations are not permitted. The FAQ says an accepted main-session speaker receives conference registration, while APRICOT does not fund speaker travel or accommodation. A microphone in Hong Kong requires a journey or a nearby home as well as a PDF. The published rules put preparation time and travel money into the selection path.