Getting the Most out of Professional Conferences and Meetings: An Unofficial Guide
Getting into public speaking at conferences
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Transcript of Getting into public speaking at conferences
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Getting into Public SpeakingIts really fun,especially when you don’t think about it
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Why speak?
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Speaking Benefits
● Career development○ Good way to demonstrate your experience and soft skills○ Helps you evaluate the level of your own understanding (builds confidence)
● Learn more ○ Preparing for a talk help you learn new things○ Giving a talk and receiving feedback also helps you learn new things
● Conferences & Events are even more fun○ Usually get free conference tickets (sometimes for a friend too)○ Travel paid (usually if you are a key speaker or could otherwise not attend)○ People will ask your advice
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Barriers to speaking
● Imposter syndrome○ You simply feel that you do not have anything interesting to say
■ This happens a lot, even to seasoned speakers■ Everyone has lots of experiences to share though
● Lack of experience○ You have never done any public speaking, so you feel you could not do it.
■ Catch 22. Start of with the simplest possible thing, an informal talk at work, a short talk at a meetup, etc
● Lack of time○ You are simply too busy○ It takes time to prepare & give a presentation
■ All this time spent benefits your career & usually your company too
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My speaking history
● Started at University○ Hated the idea of giving a final year project presentation, it felt awful
■ Had spend days going over what I wanted to say■ Had spent hours practising & was incredibly nervous■ Surprised to find it was voted the best presentation
● Started work at a consultancy, including 5 day training workshops○ Very nervous for a long time until I became more familiar with the content
■ Essentially re-wrote all the training material, made it more practical and full of examples■ Started to enjoy writing content, as it made it easy to present
● Worked in Finance, giving lots of presentations to different groups of people○ Helped me empathise and consider what they wanted to know
● Increasingly active in the community, leading to giving lots of talks● Became a developer advocate / evangelist...
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Applying to SpeakTips for CfP’s, getting noticed, etc.
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Replying to a Call for Papers (CfP)
Call for Papers is a common way to find speakers for a conference
- The conference website should provide details of the process, timings & code of conduct
- You may only get notified if you are accepted to speak
Typically you will submit
● Title - gets the initial attention of the conference organisers● Abstract - sells the talk to the organisers● Bio - should give organisers confidence that you have some experience with the
subject, usually included a picture
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How often should I apply ?
● Is it bad to submit more than one talk to a conference ?○ No, submit as many different talks as you like
■ (more than 10 may be over-doing it though)
● Is it bad to submit the same talk to more than one conference ?○ No, submit your talk to as many conferences as you like
■ Ensure the conference topics & themes are relevant to your talk though
● Is it bad to spend a big chunk of your time speaking at conferences○ No, some people actually get paid to do this○ Unless you read speaker notes word for word, your talks will be different each time anyway○ If you are on the speaker circuit then you usually have several talks you can just give at short notice.
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Writing a good title
Writing good titles is hard & takes practice
A good title should be clear and to the point
Write down as many versions of a title as you can then pick the best. Ask other people which titles they like.
If you are unsure about the title, write the abstract first
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Examples: Bad Titles
Clojure.spec | Clojure.spec is awesome | What I did with Clojure.spec
- Too vague. What about it? What do you want to say about this subject
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Examples: Good Titles (subjective)
Effective testing with Clojure.spec & generative tests
Persisting data as EDN types in Datomic
How FundingCircle are guiding developers into Clojure
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Tips on writing good titles
● Write down as many variations of the titles first, then delete the ones that are not so good until you only have one left
● Would the title make a good article / blog / newspaper title ?● Show the titles to others and ask them● Review the title once you have finished the abstract (if not during writing it)
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Exercise:Write a few talk titles
Please use the shared Google doc, linked to from the Meetup event
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Writing a good abstract
Needs to convey what the talk is all about
● What specifically will you learn ?● Why is it valuable to learn about this ?● How are you going to help us understand what you are talking about ?● What level of skill / experience do you require ?●
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Exercise:Write an abstract (or two)
Please use the shared Google doc, linked to from the Meetup event
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Writing a good bio
Make it short and to the point and full of any useful information relevant to the event
- Blog posts, books or previous speaking appearances (dont promote other conferences in your bio though)
Example: short & to the point
Speaker, author, conference organiser & community obsessed developer. Loves Clojure, Emacs, Cats, Cycling & Agile development http://jr0cket.co.uk
Tip: Look at the bio’s from other speakers from a previous years conference, or similar event.
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Creating an effective digital presence
● Body of work● Social media● Detailed history● Consistent branding
Related articles:
http://jr0cket.co.uk/categories/community/
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Exercise:Write a bio for yourself
Please use the shared Google doc, linked to from the Meetup event
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Speaking at London Clojurians
● meetup.com/london-clojurians - send a message to the organisers● London-clojurians.org - post a message to the mailing list● clojurians.slack.com - post a message to #clojure-uk● Tweet me at @jr0cket
Related articles:
http://jr0cket.co.uk/2016/07/Call-for-Speakers-London-Clojurian-conference-2016.html
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Clojurian Community in Person
Probably the most active language-specific developer communities in London
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Creating your content
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Traditonal Slides approach
● Powerpoint, Keynote or Google Slides○ Simple to use and if you pick a nice theme they they look okay
■ Avoid making them over complicated■ Download copies if using an online service (don't rely on conference wifi)■ Minimise bullet points (ie. don't use this presentation as an example, it's not great)
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Traditional slides approach
● Powerpoint, Keynote or Google Slides○ Simple to use and if you pick a nice theme they they look okay
■ Avoid making them over complicated, as this wastes time■ Minimise bullet points (ie. don't use this presentation as an example, it's not great)
○ Google slides & online services are handy if you laptop dies…■ Download copies if using an online service (don't rely on conference wifi)
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Modern slides approach
● Prezzi & Reveal.js (also org-reveal for Emacs)○ Offer different presentation options, but require more work or initial setup
Reveal.js examples at: http://jr0cket.co.uk/slides/
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Workshop approach
● Gitbook.io, readthedocs, Jekyll○ Really useful services for creating good
looking workshop content
■ Create content in markdown, asciidoc or reframed text
Gitbook example: https://practicalli.gitbook.io/clojure
ReadTheDocs example: https://cider.readthedocs.io
See my article on Gitbook publishing for Developers
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Demo / Live coding
● Demos○ Seeing something in action is very engaging for the audience
■ Avoid making it a boring product pitch though■ Create something real, even if you have to pre-create some aspects■ Create a video backup when you are practicing, just in case the demo gods are angry
● Live coding○ A great way to explore a language or programming concepts
■ Make sure people understand the syntax you are using
■ Create the code at a good pace, not so slow to make it boring, not to fast that it cannot be followed.
○ Don't do this, its just asking for trouble, unless■ You practice so often you can type while you are talking (very hard, try it)■ You have most of the code pre-written■ You use Git to step through branches, commits or tags
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Presenting your content
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Make sure people can see your content
● Display your slides / code and go stand at the back of the room○ Tweak the size of your fonts and colours of your themes
■ Ensure you know how to quickly increase the font size■ If your editor has profiles, create a demo / presentation one with ~24px font
● Ask the audience if they can see okay○ It helps you engage with them and see how awake they are
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Talk to the Audience
● Obvious statement, but easy to forget● Make eye contact, but don’t stare
○ Make eye contact for several seconds with several members of the audience during your talk■ Helps you understand how well the talk is going■ Helps you connect to the audience■ People more likely to focus on what you are saying■ Makes you look like a professional speaker
● Practices to avoid○ Turning your back on the audience / talking to the screen
○ Staring at one person in the audience because you are nervous or think that they are the only one listening
■ This is hard to avoid if there is only one person in the audience, so have a chat with them instead.
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Avoiding Nerves
● Everyone gets nervous about presenting, its natural and can be beneficial○ Nerves produce more adrenaline, keeping you going through the talk.
● Focus on your talk○ Ensure you are comfortable with the overall structure of your talk○ Review slides several times whilst waiting to speak
■ Avoid the temptation to make any major changes
● Avoid other distractions ○ Take time away from the event / people
● Dont dwell on what you are doing, it will make you nervous● Avoid last minute changes to your slides / demo’s
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Exercise:Present a lightning talk ?
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Exercise:… or go to the pub / home
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Thank you@jr0cket
https://jr0cket.co.uk
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Take your own journey into Clojure
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Thank you
@jr0cketjr0cket.co.uk
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Learning by teaching others
I really started thinking in Clojure when I started talking to & teaching others
- Coding dojos- talks on Clojure (starting with the basics, showing the art of the possible)- moving on to running conferences- workshops at hack days