Panel
Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Evan Light (twitter github blog) Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Intro to CoffeeScript)Discussion
02:02 - Picking topics
07:08 - Speaking at User Groups vs Conferences
Practice runs Keydown09:46 - Twitter inquiries
10:16 - Topic proposals
Marketing
Abstracts
13:28 - Marketing to conference owners/marketing to the audience
Making memorable talks16:32 - How speakers are chosen
Individual merit/”Hero Worship” Keynotes by invitation Past experience20:56 - Preparing for a talk
Practice Keynote / Keydown25:04 - Writing a book/writing a presentation
Flexibility Stream of consciousness writing Markdown Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery by Garr Reynolds31:37 - Code in slides
Syntax highlighting Wrapping lines Screen resolution Geekfest35:18 - Practice, practice, practice
Time your presentation Possibly leave time for Q&A Skipping slides Real-time edits39:29 - Talking about something/convincing people to try something
Avoid library talks Try to get people to shift perspectives41:56 - Don’t change topics at the last minute
45:58 - Communication between conference organizers
49:32 - Giving talks, getting leads and referrals, and being recognized as “an expert”
Picks
Transcript
EVAN: Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue. [sniffs]
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CHUCK: Hey everybody and welcome to episode 36 of the Ruby Freelancer Show! This week on our panel, we have Eric Davis.
ERIC: Hello!
CHUCK: We also have Evan Light.
EVAN: I'm back!
CHUCK: And I'm Charles Max Wood from devchat.tv. And this week we are going to be talking about “Preparing for and Speaking at Conferences”.
EVAN: Conferences.
CHUCK: And I'm kind of inclined to also talk about speaking at users groups.
EVAN: Yeah you should. We should. Actually we should let you do all the talking about users groups.
CHUCK: Why is that?
EVAN: Because I just said ‘you’ first instead of ‘we’.
CHUCK: [laughs] What did I do to you?
EVAN: [chuckles] Right.
CHUCK: So let’s start talking. So Evan, I think you spoken at more conferences than either Eric or I have.
EVAN: Or just spoken more, as in ‘talk a lot’. Yeah, especially I’ve done quite a bit this year too. So I remember in the user voice, the person who suggested this topic started with “How do you pick your topics”, and I think it’s pretty much how do you pick your topics and how do you present and how you get accepted. Picking my topics for me is one of two things -- or actually no, it was really one thing – at the end of it, it’s always, it’s something important to me that I wanna share. That I feel strongly about and I wanna share.