Speaking Like an Idiot

A Dummy's Guide to
Talking at Conferences

Who?

Why?

What?

Where?

How?

Who?

Why?

What?

Where?

How?

Everyone!

Who?

Who?

Why?

What?

Where?

How?

Why?

  • Personal development
  • Opportunities
  • Fun!

Who?

Why?

What?

Where?

How?

What?

Whatever you

find interesting

What?

  • Case studies
  • Comparisons
  • Critiques
  • Introductions
  • Hints and Tips
  • Deep Dives
  • Demos

Who?

Why?

What?

Where?

How?

Where?

  • Big old-fashioned conferences
  • Modern trendier conferences
  • Meetups
  • Internally at Softwire

Where?

Group - External Speakers

Who?

Why?

What?

Where?

How?

How?

Submitting a talk

  • Find a good fit
  • Invent a hook
  • Sell yourself

How?

Preparing a presentation

  • Brainstorm/research
  • Create a narrative
  • Minimise slides

How?

Preparing a live demo

  • Write yourself a script

How?

Preparing a live demo

  • Write yourself a script
  • Always have a backup plan
  • Don't waste people's time

How?

Preparing to talk

  • Have the right equipment
  • Arrive in plenty of time
  • Focus on your delivery

How?

Delivering your talk

  • Appreciate your audience
  • Set the tone
  • Engage the room
  • Pace yourself

How?

Becoming a speaker

  • Performance
  • Feedback
  • Revision

How?

Group - External Speakers

Who?

Why?

What?

Where?

How?

When?

  • "It was really hard last week to X, but next time I think I'd A/B/C. Maybe other people would like to know that in advance"
  • "Both microservices and web components have sort-of similar ideas about encapsulation"
  • "People like to hear about security things breaking; what happens if I talk about those, and pull out some useful messages?"
  • "It's hard to know how to pick a database"
  • "X is exciting and new, and most people probably haven't tried it yet"
  • "This project was pretty different to others in that it ABC, and I hadn't seen that before. I bet other people haven't either"
  • "It's sad to see other people doing QQ badly, when we do it fairly well. Why do we do QQ so well?"
  • "Everybody things X is a good idea, but I've seen it fail a few times in some interesting ways"
Made with Slides.com