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"