69 | Speaking at Conferences

In this episode, James explains how to apply to speak at conferences, how to properly prepare for a speaking engagement, and how to get started.

Sponsors

Vercel

Vercel combines the best developer experience with an obsessive focus on end-user performance. Their platform enables frontend teams to do their best work. It is the best place to deploy any frontend app. Start by deploying with zero configuration to their global edge network. Scale dynamically to millions of pages without breaking a sweat.

For more information, visit Vercel.com

ZEAL is hiring!

ZEAL is a computer software agency that delivers “the world’s most zealous” and custom solutions. The company plans and develops web and mobile applications that consistently help clients draw in customers, foster engagement, scale technologies, and ensure delivery.

ZEAL believes that a business is “only as strong as” its team and cares about culture, values, a transparent process, leveling up, giving back, and providing excellent equipment. The company has staffers distributed throughout the United States, and as it continues to grow, ZEAL looks for collaborative, object-oriented, and organized individuals to apply for open roles.

For more information visit softwareresidency.com/careers

DatoCMS

DatoCMS is a complete and performant headless CMS built to offer the best developer experience and user-friendliness in the market. It features a rich, CDN-powered GraphQL API (with realtime updates!), a super-flexible way to handle dynamic layouts and structured content, and best-in-class image/video support, with progressive/LQIP image loading out-of-the-box."

For more information, visit datocms.com

Show Notes

• 0:00 Introduction
• 5:06 Why speak at conferences?
• 9:12 Sponsor: Vercel
• 10:19 How would you recommend getting started?
• 15:41 How do you Apply to Speak at a Conference?
• 25:56 Sponsor: DatoCMS
• 27:03 Prepping
  • Nancy Duarte Slideology
  • Nancy Duarte - Resonate
  • Nancy Duarte
• 34:47 Tip: Ask for Feedback
• 35:28 Tip: Make It Interactive
• 38:39 Tip: Don't sell a Product
• 40:00 Tip: Present your Niche at an "Unrelated Conference"
• 41:07 Tip: Confidently say "I'm a Content Creator."
• 42:12 Tip: Create Other Content out of your Conference Talk
• 42:44 Tip: Network as much as Possible
• 47:32 Sponsor: ZEAL
• 48:18 What Other Benefits are there from Speaking?
• 51:04 Grab Bag Questions
• 51:13 Question #1: What was your path to speaking at your first conference? How did you know you were ready? How do you go about picking a topic? What lessons have you learned?
• 54:24 Question #2: What about your defining your audience makes speaking at Tech Conferences challenging?
• 55:59 Question #3: What do you consider when preparing for a CFP and how do you make your proposal stand out from all the other ones? How do you overcome anxiety before speaking? Would it be OK to have a script or a cheat sheet ready?
• 58:17 Question #4: What would you do as a conference attendee and speaker like to see more or less of?
• 1:00:00 Picks and Plugs
• 1:00:32 Amy's Pick: HyperVolt Massage Gun
• 1:02:52 Amy's Plug: Learn Build Teach Discord
• 1:03:12 James's Pick: Dog Training Clicker
• 1:05:19 James's Plug: James on YouTube