Conference CFP Search

Find open call-for-papers (CFP) at developer conferences, meetups, and community events. This fundamental feeds the conference-cfp-pipeline drill with a structured list of speaking opportunities.

Authentication

• Clay account with Claygent credits
• Optional: Sessionize API access (if managing speaker profiles)

Method 1: Claygent Web Scraping (Recommended)

1. Create a Clay table with seed columns: topic keywords (e.g., "AI agents", "developer tools", "LLMs"), target regions, and date range.

2. Add a Claygent column to discover open CFPs:

   Search the web for open call-for-papers (CFP) at developer conferences
   and tech meetups related to {Topic Keyword} in the next 120 days.
   Check these sources:
   - confs.tech
   - papercall.io/cfps
   - sessionize.com/explore
   - dev.events
   - cfpland.com
   - GitHub repos that aggregate CFPs (e.g., github.com/scraly/developers-conferences-agenda)
   For each open CFP found, return:
   - Conference name
   - Conference date
   - CFP deadline
   - Location (city or "Remote")
   - Expected audience size
   - Conference URL
   - CFP submission URL
   - Topics/tracks accepted
   Format as JSON array.
   

3. Parse the output using Clay's JSON extraction column to split multi-CFP results into rows.

4. Enrich each CFP with a second Claygent column:

   Visit {CFP URL} and extract:
   - Talk format options (lightning, standard, workshop)
   - Talk length (minutes)
   - Whether they cover speaker travel/hotel
   - Past speaker list (if available)
   - Estimated audience size per talk
   - Selection criteria or review process description
   - Whether they accept first-time speakers
   

Method 2: Papercall.io Scraping

Papercall.io has no public API but its event listing is scrapable:

1. Scrape https://www.papercall.io/cfps filtered by category
2. Extract: event name, CFP deadline, event date, location, and submission link
3. Each listing links to the full CFP with format details and topic tracks

Method 3: Sessionize (for managed speaker profiles)

If using Sessionize to manage your speaker profile:

1. Browse https://sessionize.com/explore for open CFPs
2. Submit talks directly through the Sessionize speaker profile, which pre-fills bio and photo
3. Track submission status via Sessionize dashboard

Output Format

Each discovered CFP should be stored as a row with these fields:

| Field | Description | |-------|-------------| | conference_name | Full conference name | | conference_date | Event start date (ISO 8601) | | cfp_deadline | Submission deadline (ISO 8601) | | location | City or "Remote" | | expected_audience | Number or range | | conference_url | Main conference page | | cfp_url | Direct submission link | | talk_formats | Array: lightning, standard, workshop | | covers_travel | Boolean or "partial" | | topics_accepted | Array of track/topic names | | accepts_first_time | Boolean | | relevance_score | 0-100 based on topic and audience overlap with ICP |

Error Handling

• If Claygent returns stale CFPs (deadline already passed), filter by cfp_deadline > today
• If a CFP URL is dead, flag the row and skip enrichment
• Rate-limit Claygent queries: batch 15-20 CFPs at a time
• Papercall listings refresh weekly; re-run scrape every 7 days to catch new CFPs