SME initiative: Add talk selection process to conf page and SME launch blog post (#1982)

* Add talk selection process to conf page

* Add last updated note

* initial blog post commit

* Finish editorial

* add p tags

* styles

Author: jemgillam

src/app/conf/2025/speakers.tsx

@@ -21,7 +21,10 @@ function TabHeading({
 function DatesTab() {
   return (
     <>
-      <TabHeading>Dates to Remember</TabHeading>
+      <p className="text-sm">
+        <em>Last Updated: 2025-04-02</em>
+      </p>
+      <TabHeading className="mt-6">Dates to Remember</TabHeading>
       <ul className="list-disc space-y-2 pl-6">
         <li>CFP Opens: Tuesday, 4 February</li>
         <li>CFP Close: Sunday, 4 May at 23:59 CEST (UTC+2)</li>
@@ -39,7 +42,10 @@ function DatesTab() {
 function TopicsTab() {
   return (
     <>
-      <TabHeading>Suggested Topics</TabHeading>
+      <p className="text-sm">
+        <em>Last Updated: 2025-04-02</em>
+      </p>
+      <TabHeading className="mt-6">Suggested Topics</TabHeading>
       <ul className="list-disc space-y-2 pl-6">
         <li>GraphQL Working Group</li>
         <ul className="list-disc space-y-2 pl-6">
@@ -79,7 +85,10 @@ function TopicsTab() {
 function NotesTab() {
   return (
     <>
-      <TabHeading>Important Notes</TabHeading>
+      <p className="text-sm">
+        <em>Last Updated: 2025-04-02</em>
+      </p>
+      <TabHeading className="mt-6">Important Notes</TabHeading>
       <ul className="list-disc space-y-2 pl-6">
         <li>
           All speakers are required to adhere to our{" "}
@@ -183,7 +192,10 @@ function NotesTab() {
 function TypesTab() {
   return (
     <>
-      <TabHeading>Submission Types</TabHeading>
+      <p className="text-sm">
+        <em>Last Updated: 2025-04-02</em>
+      </p>
+      <TabHeading className="mt-6">Submission Types</TabHeading>
       <ul className="list-disc space-y-2 pl-6">
         <li>
           Session Presentation: Typically 30 minutes in length, 1-2 speakers
@@ -200,6 +212,77 @@ function TypesTab() {
     </>
   )
 }
+
+function ProcessTab() {
+  return (
+    <>
+      <p className="text-sm">
+        <em>Last Updated: 2025-04-02</em>
+      </p>
+      <TabHeading className="mt-6">The Talk Selection Process</TabHeading>
+      <p className="mb-4">
+        The GraphQL Foundation strives to select conference talks based on fair
+        criteria in a transparent manner. There are three groups involved in the
+        selection process, each with their own focus to help create an engaging
+        and balanced conference schedule:
+      </p>
+      <ul className="list-disc space-y-2 pl-6">
+        <li>The Technical Steering Committee (TSC)</li>
+        <li>The new Subject Matter Experts initiative (SMEs)</li>
+        <li>The Program Committee</li>
+      </ul>
+      <TabHeading className="mt-6">The Technical Steering Committee</TabHeading>
+      <p className="mb-4">
+        The TSC are a group of 11 individuals who are elected to serve a two
+        year term to provide technical oversight of all GraphQL development
+        efforts. When evaluating conference talks they{" "}
+        <strong>focus on quality</strong> and use the following criteria:
+      </p>
+      <ul className="list-disc space-y-2 pl-6">
+        <li>Relevance</li>
+        <li>Originality</li>
+        <li>Soundness</li>
+        <li>Quality of Presentation</li>
+        <li>Importance</li>
+      </ul>
+      <TabHeading className="mt-6">Subject Matter Experts</TabHeading>
+      <p className="mb-4">
+        The SME initiative is new for 2025. This will be a panel of volunteers
+        drawn from industry experts, working group members, security and
+        observability experts, and maintainers and contributors to open source
+        GraphQL projects. When evaluating the talks, they will{" "}
+        <strong>focus on how exciting and engaging the talks are</strong> and
+        use the following criteria:
+      </p>
+      <ul className="list-disc space-y-2 pl-6">
+        <li>Subject Content</li>
+        <li>Originality</li>
+        <li>Audience Engagement</li>
+      </ul>
+      <TabHeading className="mt-6">The Program Committee</TabHeading>
+      <p>
+        The Program Committee is made up of representatives from the GraphQL
+        Foundation board and interested members of the GraphQL community who
+        have had experience organizing conferences. They shape the schedule from
+        the highest-rated talks, ensuring balance across industries and
+        affiliations, and also including a range of speaker experience and
+        demographics, to ensure a varied and well-rounded representation of the
+        GraphQL ecosystem.
+      </p>
+      <TabHeading className="mt-6">
+        Have More Questions? First Time Submitting? Don't Feel Intimidated
+      </TabHeading>
+      <p>
+        Linux Foundation events are an excellent way to get to know the
+        community and share your ideas and the work that you are doing and we
+        strongly encourage first-time speakers to submit talks for our events.
+        In the instance that you aren't sure about your abstract, reach out to
+        us and we will be more than happy to work with you on your proposal.
+      </p>
+    </>
+  )
+}
+
 export function Speakers() {
   const [buttonText, setButtonText] = useState("Submit a Proposal")
   const [isDisabled, setIsDisabled] = useState(false)
@@ -226,6 +309,7 @@ export function Speakers() {
     topics: <TopicsTab />,
     types: <TypesTab />,
     notes: <NotesTab />,
+    process: <ProcessTab />,
   }
 
   return (
@@ -281,7 +365,7 @@ export function Speakers() {
       </p>
       <div className="mb-6">
         <div className="flex border-b">
-          {["dates", "topics", "types", "notes"].map(tab => (
+          {["dates", "topics", "types", "notes", "process"].map(tab => (
             <button
               key={tab}
               className={`px-4 py-2 font-semibold ${

src/pages/blog/2025-04-02-seeking-graphql-subject-matter-experts/Comparison_Method.gif

@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+---
+title: "Seeking GraphQL Subject Matter Experts"
+tags: ["blog"]
+date: 2025-04-02
+byline: Jem Gillam
+---
+## Help shape GraphQLConf's schedule!
+
+The GraphQLConf Programme Committee is looking for GraphQL Subject Matter Experts to help shape the talk schedule for this year's GraphQLConf in Amsterdam. As a volunteer in this role, you’ll spend time during the week of 19th-25th May 2025 comparing talk submissions within your area of expertise, contributing to the creation of an engaging, informative, and impactful agenda.
+
+![An example of using the comparison method in Sessionize](./Comparison_Method.gif)
+
+<p className="text-center">An example of using the comparison method in Sessionize</p>
+
+Ideal candidates are experienced GraphQL professionals with deep technical insight, industry awareness, and a passion for high-quality impartial content. We're particularly keen on hearing from open source contributors and maintainers of leading GraphQL clients, servers, tooling and implementations as well as consumers of GraphQL APIs. Your input will directly influence the conference experience, ensuring attendees get a mix of cutting-edge topics, practical insights, and exciting discussions.
+
+If you fit one or more of these categories, apply today!
+
+* Engineers and leaders behind large GraphQL service providers
+* Industry experts with knowledge of GraphQL observability, telemetry and tracing
+* GraphQL working group members (including all subcommittees)
+* Maintainers and contributors to open source GraphQL projects
+* Lead developers for large multi-faceted GraphQL deployments
+* Polyglot practitioners with a broad knowledge base across different ways of developing and deploying GraphQL
+* GraphQL security experts
+
+<div className="mt-8 flex justify-center">
+  <a
+    href="https://forms.gle/2ELscDLhMS7kf3x8A"
+    target="_blank"
+    rel="noreferrer"
+    className="bg-primary/85 px-20 py-4 text-center text-3xl font-semibold transition-colors hover:bg-primary/100 md:px-28"
+  >
+    Apply Now
+  </a>
+</div>
+
+## Timeline
+
+**27th April: Call for Subject Matter Experts closes**  
+4th May: Call for Speakers closes  
+5th - 16th May: You’ll be contacted to onboard you to our Sessionize system  
+**19th - 25th May: This is your week! You help to review the talk submissions**  
+26th May - 8th June: Program committee build the schedule, guided heavily by your ratings  
+11th June: Schedule published  
+8th - 10th September: GraphQL Conference in Amsterdam   
+
+## The Talk Selection Process
+
+There are three groups involved in the talk selection process: 
+
+* The Technical Steering Committee (TSC)
+* The new Subject Matter Experts initiative (SMEs) ← This is YOU!
+* The Program Committee
+
+After the submission period ends, the TSC will have a short period of time to assess the viability of proposed talks and discount any which fall short of the selection criteria: talks which are vendor pitches or off-topic will be rejected at this early stage. The TSC will then have a week to use a star rating system to rate the talks based on their quality and originality, as well as their importance to the GraphQL ecosystem. 
+
+In parallel, the SMEs will be given a selection of the talk proposals based on their subject matter areas. They will rate the talks using a comparison method, where groups of three talks are compared to each other. This will help identify which talks are the strongest fit for the conference based on subject relevance, originality, and potential audience engagement.
+
+
+After these two rating methods, each talk will have two scores: a star rating from the TSC based on conference fit, and a rating from the SMEs reflecting subject content. The Program Committee will then start with the most highly rated talks and work to produce the schedule. Whilst the aim is to produce a schedule reflecting the TSC and SME ratings, the Program Committee will also act as a curator: making sure there is a good balance of talks from across different industries and affiliations, as well as looking at speaker diversity in terms of demographics and a balance between experienced and new speakers. 
+
+<div className="mt-8 flex justify-center">
+  <a
+    href="https://forms.gle/2ELscDLhMS7kf3x8A"
+    target="_blank"
+    rel="noreferrer"
+    className="primary bg-primary/85 px-20 py-4 text-center text-3xl font-semibold transition-colors hover:bg-primary/100 md:px-28"
+  >
+    Apply to be an SME
+  </a>
+</div>