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So you want to speak at software conferences?

dylanbeattie.net

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Re: So you want to speak at software conferences?

#91

Post by exmadscientist »

2rsf wrote: post #82
WalterBright wrote: post #39

Some things I've learned over the years: 1. do not show a slide full of code. The font will be too small to read. Nobody will read it 2. don't read your slides to the audience. The audience can read 3. don't talk with your back to the audience 4. make your font as big as practical 5. 3 bullet points is ideal 6. add a picture now and then 7. don't bother with a copyright notice on every slide. It gets really old. Besi…

> 9. render the presentation as a pdf file, so any device can display it That's good as a backup, or for simpler presentations (in a good way!) but Powerpoint allows you all kinds of benefits like animations or transitions. Presnting PDFs is not guaranteed to be pain free as well, as I expereince on my corporate controlled laptop with stange versions of Adobe software. > 11. the anxiety goes away It does! also rememb…

> Powerpoint allows you all kinds of [things] like animations or transitions

Those are not benefits. Do not do those things. Anything more complicated than embedding a video is a distraction and will not help your presentation. (And the video can be done by alt-tab to VLC or linking YouTube or ... .)

Seriously, trust me on this one.

I have seen a lot of presentations in my day, from sales engineers trying to sell me on things to literally hundreds of guest speakers from all over the world back when I was in grad school. That last one was especially valuable, because I got exposed to a huge variety of speakers and styles, not just a monoculture from one place or company.

And the best of them either never used that crap, or it passed through my brain leaving so little evidence of its existence that it may well never have been there to begin with. I only remember the bad associated with that stuff: a speaker once had to answer a question, went back a couple of slides (fine so far), then had to wait fifteen seconds or so for his dumb, contentless transitions to play out, each slide he advanced, trying to get back to the slide he wanted to be on. Stuff like that is all that's in my head when I think of transitions and animations. The best speakers really do just never bother with it in the first place.

Re: So you want to speak at software conferences?

#92

Post by lloeki »

lopis wrote: post #89
WalterBright wrote: post #39

Some things I've learned over the years: 1. do not show a slide full of code. The font will be too small to read. Nobody will read it 2. don't read your slides to the audience. The audience can read 3. don't talk with your back to the audience 4. make your font as big as practical 5. 3 bullet points is ideal 6. add a picture now and then 7. don't bother with a copyright notice on every slide. It gets really old. Besi…

> 8. avoid typing in code as part of the presentation, most of the time it won't work and it's boring watching somebody type As usual, thumb rules exist to protect you until you can confidently break them. One of the coolest presentations I've seen was several years ago at a React conference where the speaker live coded an electronic music and light show using React. They were demonstrating how "components" could rea…

Another one I've seen was someone live coding (well, doing some small code changes to an existing codebase, compiling, uploading) a program that controls a drone and made it perform a couple of tricks on stage.

Live demos do work, it's all about pace, preparation, and fallback plans.

Re: So you want to speak at software conferences?

#93

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

2rsf wrote: post #83
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #13

I’ve been doing public speaking for my entire adult life, but not for a living. That said, it’s not my strong suit. Others are far better at it than I am. This is one of those areas where folks can make money/satisfy ego, so there’s a ton of competition. I’m not competitive, and am not interested in making money doing this kind of thing, so I don’t really try. I do appreciate folks that are good at it, though; especi…

> That said, it’s not my strong suit. Others are far better at it than I am. I don't know you, and I feel the same about my public speaking but I suspenct that there's a lot of imposter syndrom in that

I’m comfortable doing it, and generally receive positive responses, but I’m not “a natural.”

If I have something that I need to “get just right,” like a class or main speaker gig, I have to practice a lot, and can come across as a bit “stiff.” If I don’t practice, I do well, but not predictably so, which makes me a bit of a “wildcard.”

I know quite a few folks that can walk up to a podium, in front of hundreds of people, at little notice, and knock it out of the park. They often practice.

Steve Jobs was one of the best public speakers I ever heard, and I’m told that he used to practice for hours. I knew a woman (I’m friends with her ex) that used to regularly appear on TV, and keynote finance conferences. She has an “aw shucks,” casual style. Her (ex) husband told me that she’d practice before each gig for many hours.

The folks that make it seem to be “natural,” at anything, generally practice a lot. I speak frequently, but it’s not structured practice.

Re: So you want to speak at software conferences?

#94

Post by isbvhodnvemrwvn »

aleph_minus_one wrote: post #90
ValentineC wrote: post #5

> Finally, watch out for events that put video of their sessions online. Having a couple of YouTube links of you doing your thing in front of a live, appreciate audience can make all the difference when a programme committee is looking at a handful of talks and can only accept one of them. This, very much this. I run a paid, one-day, mid-sized conference every year, and with only so many slots, we find it very, very…

> I run a paid, one-day, mid-sized conference every year, and with only so many slots, we find it very, very difficult to risk choosing people who don't have videos of themselves speaking. Some people are much more privacy-conscious than others and thus at least don't want more videos of themselves online than what is absolutely necessary.

It's the circle of those people even close to intersecting with the one for aspiring conference speakers?

Re: So you want to speak at software conferences?

#95

Post by viraptor »

WalterBright wrote: post #87
nrhrjrjrjtntbt wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the best way to show code? I really want to show some code. Like 4-5 lines to give a gist.

I ruthlessly make the code examples as simple as possible. Eliminate everything but the point you're trying to make. I'll adjust the font to fill the slide.

And it doesn't have to even be code that compiles, unless it's about the language design and it really really matters for that presentation. You can yadda yadda whatever you want. Syntax doesn't exist anymore, just use greyed out "..." for the uninteresting parts.

Re: So you want to speak at software conferences?

#96

Post by 2rsf »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #93
2rsf wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That said, it’s not my strong suit. Others are far better at it than I am. I don't know you, and I feel the same about my public speaking but I suspenct that there's a lot of imposter syndrom in that

I’m comfortable doing it, and generally receive positive responses, but I’m not “a natural.” If I have something that I need to “get just right,” like a class or main speaker gig, I have to practice a lot, and can come across as a bit “stiff.” If I don’t practice, I do well, but not predictably so, which makes me a bit of a “wildcard.” I know quite a few folks that can walk up to a podium, in front of hundreds of peo…

I suppose it's a combination, some people are more comfortable speaking and improvising on the spot but everyone needs to practice. I can add to your list a CEO of a big bank, he speaks freely and it's a pleasent to listen to him, but I heard that he practice using a private instructor as well

Re: So you want to speak at software conferences?

#98

Post by skylurk »

WalterBright wrote: post #39

Some things I've learned over the years: 1. do not show a slide full of code. The font will be too small to read. Nobody will read it 2. don't read your slides to the audience. The audience can read 3. don't talk with your back to the audience 4. make your font as big as practical 5. 3 bullet points is ideal 6. add a picture now and then 7. don't bother with a copyright notice on every slide. It gets really old. Besi…

I agree with these, but David Beazley breaks most of them and his talks are way better than mine ;)

e.g. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r-A78RgMhZU

Re: So you want to speak at software conferences?

#99

Post by cons0le »

isbvhodnvemrwvn wrote: post #94
aleph_minus_one wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I run a paid, one-day, mid-sized conference every year, and with only so many slots, we find it very, very difficult to risk choosing people who don't have videos of themselves speaking. Some people are much more privacy-conscious than others and thus at least don't want more videos of themselves online than what is absolutely necessary.

It's the circle of those people even close to intersecting with the one for aspiring conference speakers?

New goal: to speak at DEFCON while wearing my dr doom mask to hide my identity

Re: So you want to speak at software conferences?

#100

Post by dylanbeattie »

thetrumanshow wrote: post #4

>> Write a talk nobody else could do; tell a story nobody else can tell. Figure out what your audience is going to learn, and why you’re the best person to teach them that. That's an extremely high bar, no?

No, it's about perspective - I know that 'cos I wrote the article, but perhaps it didn't come across very clearly!

Here's the specific problem that advice is intended to remedy, which I have seen happen many, many times:

Somebody writes a talk about, say, what's new in C# 13. It's a solid talk: they've done the research, they've prepared some good demos. At local user groups, it does very well. At regional and community conferences, it does very well.

But it doesn't have any personality. It's not a case study. It's not based on using those features in production, or applying them to a specific domain. The presenter has read all the docs, run all the examples, maybe found an edge case or two, and put together a decent slide deck and some engaging demos - but even if they've done a fantastic job, there are a thousand other tech presenters out there who could do exactly the same thing.

They then start submitting that talk to big conferences which have a .NET track, and it never gets accepted.

Why? Because those conferences have people like Mads Torgersen, the actual lead designer of C# at Microsoft, on speed dial. If NDC Oslo or CraftConf or Yow! wants to fly somebody in to talk about what's new in C#, they can get the person who wrote those docs to do it.

Now, consider that talk was "how I used C# 13 to rebuild my smart home dashboard", or "how my team used C# 13 to save $5000 a month in AWS bills", or "I built an online game server using C# 13". Those kinds of talks do well because they have personality; there's more there than just the technology itself.

That's what I mean by "a story nobody else can tell" - it's a presentation that's anchored in the speaker's own real world experience; detail and context that hitherto only existed in their head.

I run presentation workshops for software professionals, and one of the things I ask my students to do is to come up with something - doesn't have to be tech-related - that they know better than anybody else in the group. We've had folks talk about how to cook ragu, how to surf on a longboard, how to get their kid to fall asleep ("literally nobody else in the world can do this, not even my wife"), and it is always remarkable to me how much more engaging and animated people become when they are telling their own story rather than paraphrasing research.

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