I’ve presented at SXSW EDU 2023 and 2024, and I’m now going to be on the advisory board for SXSW EDU 2025! This means that instead of sending in my own proposals for the next year, I’d like to focus on helping others submit solid proposals based on what’s worked for me in the past AND explain a bit about the conference so you have a heads up for what to expect if your work is selected.

What is SXSW EDU?

SXSW EDU is a yearly educational conference that proceeds the famous film, media, and music festival that is held every year in Austin, Texas.

Educators and educational-focused professionals from around the world come to speak at the conference and share thier strategies, advise, and experience with other educators who can take this information back to their schools and school districts.

In addition, educators in many states are required to complete Continuing Education Credits to stay certified as an educator, and this conference is a mecha for teachers to earn these credits while also being able to connect with others in their profession.

Why should I send a proposal to SXSW EDU?

In 2023, over 75k people attended SXSW EDU to listen to speakers talk about what they’re passionate about and what they felt could help in the classroom.

SXSW EDU is a concentrated conference full of educators who are specifically looking for new ways to teach and connect with their students.

If you have an educational TTRPG that you think could benefit teachers or students with classroom use OR if you have specific experience that you can share with other educators to help them with classes or in using TTRPGs with students, this affords you the opportunity to get your voice out there and help the EDU community with your work.

How do I submit a proposal?

You’ll need to submit your proposal through the SXSW EDU panel picker page here (make sure you select SXSW EDU and not SXSW).

The form will require you to submit information about your proposal, details for you and any co-presenters, and a short video so the judges can see your presentation style.

This MUST be submitted by July 21.

Recommendations from TTRPGkids on your proposal

There are a TON of submissions to SXSW EDU, and only a fraction are selected. It can be hard to submit a proposal that gets accepted, but it helps A LOT if you follow the recommendations by SXSW EDU and make your proposal evaluator-friendly. I’ve been part of four successful submissions in two years, one in each of the following: panel, solo-presenter, workshop, and mentor sessions. Between these four submissions and in prep for being on the advisory board, there are some key features of a presentation that will help it be selected by the advisory board and during community voting.

* as a note, I am on the advisory board, and to be fair in judging, if there is a conflict of interest with me judging any proposal because of my work in TTRPGkids with that person, I will excuse myself from judging that proposal and the rest of the advisory board will evaluate it. The tips here are for general use.

Include all presenters in your video

If you’re submitting for a workshop or panel that will have multiple presenters, make sure that ALL of the presenters that you are listing are in the video. This helps the board to see that all the speakers are able to be in a presenter role and talk comfortably about their topic.

Keep your video concise

Keep your video under 5 minutes (shorter, if possible) while still explaining your material. This shows that you know what the key points are about your topic and it helps reviewers to stay focused during your pitch (they have many to watch).

Choose an interesting topic

If you choose “TTRPGs and Education” as your topic, this is probably too broad, and it may be hard to delivery on what everyone wants to know about every point in “TTRPGs and Education”. If you choose a topic like “Classroom TTRPGs: Blending STEM and Social Skills Development”, that sounds a lot more interesting and is just focused enough that you could give a 1 hr talk on it while still hitting what most of the audience would expect.

Focus on how you can help versus a product

If you’re coming in with a game that you’ve made and want to show how it can help in the classroom, be careful to not turn it into a sales pitch. The core focus should be on the strategies and knowledge that you offer for educators to take away from your session, not on how awesome your particular product is.

Choose a format that needs more submissions

SXSW EDU has a certain number of spots available for each type of session format, and they get a lot of submissions for panels, which means that if you submit for a panel, you face a bit more competition than if you submitted for a workshop. If you can run a quality workshop for the event, submit for a workshop if you can! If you want to do a panel with your colleagues but think that you could also run a solo-presenter session, submit both proposals in case the panel spots are full but they pick your solo proposal.

Make your proposal understandable by someone who doesn’t know what a TTRPG is

Not all of the advisory board is deep into TTRPGs or knows what a TTRPG is. A large part of the selection process also comes from community voting, and this will include people who are there to see educational content and may not know what a TTRPG is.

Because of this, don’t assume that the evaluators are going to know general TTRPG terms. The earlier title examples can demonstrate this. If someone doesn’t know about TTRPGs and they see “TTRPGs and Education”, they may pass it up since they don’t know what half the title is. However, if they see “Classroom TTRPGs: Blending STEM and Social Skills Development”, it’s clear that this new acronym is doing something interesting with STEM and social skills. Then, in the explination, give a very brief explination of TTRPGs (i.e. collaborative storytelling games) and focus on the benefits – the longer TTRPG demonstration or chat can come when you present or run your workshop at the conference, if necessary.

What if my SXSW EDU proposal is selected?

If your proposal is selected, CONGRATS! You’ll need to attend SXSW EDU in Austin, TX in 2025 to present and you’ll get a free presenter pass to the conference to be able to attend other events yourself as well.

You will have several months to prepare for your talk, workshop, or other event between being confirmed and the actual conference, so there’s lots of time to plan (though it can feel like it goes by fast).

When I’ve presented, the SXSW EDU team has been very responsive in providing helpful materials and answering questions about any kind of set up for my specific events. The conference itself is also AWESOME. I was able to connect with so many wonderful educators and TTRPG players through the events, and I’ve kept in touch with several of them since meeting. In addition, I had the opportunity to attend many talks on my own and learn about the latest in educational spaces, which I’ve been able to feed back into content on TTRPGkids and in my games. It’s a welcoming environment, and a great opportunity to learn from others while sharing your own knowledge.

With that, I wish you luck with your proposals, and if you have any questions about it, please feel free to reach out to meet at hello@TTRPGkids.com! I’d be happy to chat, and I look forward to hopefully seeing some TTRPG folks at the conference next year!