You Wanna Say Somethin'?

By Dave Aronson

Elevator Pitch

Many of the audience would love to come up on stage and give a talk of their own - but they don’t know how to find openings and submit a talk, or how to give a speech, or they’re scared, or they don’t know what they might talk about. This talk goes into all that, except speaking (see Toastmasters).

Description

Would you like to go up on a stage in front of a few hundred people at a conference? (And probably get your ticket and expenses paid for, maybe even with some extra?) You’ll need some idea of what to say, how to organize and deliver a speech, how to find conferences accepting submissions, and how to submit your talk. This talk will help you with most of that – there’s much more about public speaking than I could tell you in this time, so go see Toastmasters International. Meanwhile, come to this talk to find out how to figure out a good topic, organize your thoughts into a speech outline, create slides, find images for them, find conferences accepting submissions, and craft and submit your submission. Before you know it, you’ll be gallavanting all over the world as a compensated speaker… or doing it remotely if that’s your preference.

Notes

This is applicable to non-technical conferences, but the vast majority of my conference-speaking experience (but not all!) is at tech ones.

Agenda: - Why you might want to present at a conference - Why you might NOT want to - Very basics of Public Speaking, and some resources - What’s different about conference speaking - Finding a Topic - Finding Conferences - Choosing Conferences - Tracking Your Submissions - At the Conference - After the Conference - FAQs - Wrapup