I've spent the last three weeks working on a research paper with a local professor, and it's been kicking my tail.  Conference paper submissions can be a real pain in the rear sometimes.  (It's not related to soccer, in case you were wondering, and if my paper gets accepted I'd love to discuss it in the future.)

All this brings me to the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.  Next year the conference will have another research paper session, but this time the selection process will take place over two rounds.  The first round is a 400-word (max) abstract that outlines the paper, and those who are selected from the first round will be asked to submit a six-page paper. It isn't common to see a two-round procedure for conference submissions but I understand the point of the process; it gives the readers a chance to figure out which works have a chance to be complete by the end of the year, and it also lightens the load of the reviewers.  It's easier to read 30-40 short abstracts and then 10 papers than it is to read 30-40 papers. 

As far as my appearance at the conference, I am pretty sure that I will be there regardless, but I still haven't decided whether to write a paper.  I have one idea that I would like to pursue, but I need to do some preliminary analysis and determine if my idea is viable and worth presenting.  If it is I'll write a submission; otherwise, I'll give the research track a pass.  That aforementioned conference paper hasn't given me much time to get a lot of work done.

So is anyone else thinking of presenting something?