Tips on Speaking

Earlier this evening, I was a guest on NoCapes, a new web series about sharing advice and encouraging folks to engage in the PHP community. It’s a great initiative, you should check it out. There’s also a video of my interview up as well.

But as we begin The Autumn of a Thousand Conferences, I thought I’d follow up by taking a moment and write up some tips on speaking. Bear in mind, I only began a couple years ago so this is just what works for me. I try to focus on the more practical and less glamorous bits of the speaking experience so you know what to expect.

Ultimately, the #1 rule is this: speakers are the same as any other type of performer. It isn’t about talent, it isn’t about luck, it’s about work and practice. So, don’t beat yourself up if you’re not amazing at first and don’t expect to be well respected until you pay your dues.

I would also ask yourself what is more important. Personally, I’d rather be known for being a good engineer than a great speaker. That said, speaking has helped me make some amazing friends and grown my career considerably. You can (and probably should) try it as well.

Getting Accepted

• It’s cliché but starting off small: user groups, local meetups, etc. When submitting to a bigger conference, mention your experience. Include links to joind.in, reviews, etc.


• Just like any type of writing, you’re going to get rejected. A lot. Even when you’ve got some talks under your belt, you’re still going to get rejected on a regular basis.


• If you have no recorded experience, a 2 minute demo of you covering a small topic can make a huge difference. Many conferences are trying to add new speakers but they’re also risk adverse, so show that you know your stuff.


• If you’re submitting to a conference that requires traveling, always submit multiple talks (at least 3, maybe more). If they’re going to pay for a flight and hotel, they’re probably going to want 2 or more talks from you.


• If you’re attending a conference you’d like to speak at, rock it hard at the uncon and then tell the organizers you’re going to submit next year. They’ll remember you. Some conferences even give away guaranteed speaker slots to the best uncon speakers of the year.


• It’s perfectly okay to submit talks you haven’t written yet, provided you have time to write them. Shoot in a few ideas and let the organizers sort out which ones are good. Likewise, don’t be afraid to reuse talks at other conferences.


• It’s okay to pick subjects you need to do further research into. In fact, it’s often a great motivator to do so. Just don’t pick subjects you know absolutely zero about, people expect some experience or credentials from their speakers (unless your talk is “How I Stumbled Through Putting X into Production” which is also valid as an intro tutorial).


• Sad to say but it’s still often about who you know. Find out who the influential speakers or groups in your area are and go out of your way to meet them. 90% of them will already want to help.


• It’s all about getting that first talk. Once you have that done, you can use it to get the second and the third and…

Writing

• Start writing with lots of time. Literally, at least a month out.


• The #1 tip: If you have bullet lists, break each bullet point up into an individual slide.


• If you do have lots of text on the same slide, use the appear animation to stagger the lines. Otherwise, people will read ahead and not listen to you (or worse, become bored).


• There is no right number of slides. I’ve seen great speakers use anywhere from 20 slides to 280 slides for 45 minute slots.


• Don’t start writing slides at the beginning of the talk, skip to the cool technical part you want to talk about. Get that section right and then build the rest of the talk around that.


• When writing, I often sketch out 30-60 seconds of talking, then backtrack and create the slides for that. Then I do that part again with the slides, adjust or scrap, then write the next 30-60 seconds of talking. Repeat until done.


• It’s good to have an About Me intro but keep it under 45 seconds.


• Anticipate the questions your audience will have at any given moment in a talk and then address them immediately. If you don’t, they’ll stop listening to what you’re saying until its question time while they mule this over or wait for you to address it.


• Don’t ever be afraid to rewrite but don’t make major rewrites in the days leading up to the conference, you will forget and goof them.


• Your talk doesn’t need to have a story, but build it like one. It should have a lead-in, build up, a climax and a resolution. Emotion has a pla

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