What to talk about when you have nothing to talk about

Speaking at (technical) conferences and meetups is excellent for you and your career, but what happens when you want to but you don't know what to talk about?

I found myself in this exact scenario when I was asked by Eunice Allela to speak at the Women Techmakers Women Developer Academy SSA, so I decided to talk about that instead.

Today, I gave a 30-minute presentation and spent the remaining 30 minutes answering questions. I even helped a participant come up with ideas for her talk during the session.

Transcript

1. What to talk about when you have nothing to talk about Women Developer Academy Powered by Women Techmakers Moyinoluwa Adeyemi
2. “Sometimes you’re overflowing with ideas and sometimes you’re not, and that’s ok. But there is almost always something to talk about.” —me 😅
3. Why should I speak?
4. Learn Why should I speak?
5. Learn Network Why should I speak?
6. Free Conference Tickets (+1s too!) Learn Network Why should I speak?
7. Travel Free Conference Tickets (+1s too!) Learn Network Why should I speak?
8. Let's talk about the types of talks
9. Let's talk about the types of talks Usually 40 minutes, can be 1 hour General session
10. Let's talk about the types of talks Usually 20 minutes Lightning talks Usually 40 minutes, can be 1 hour General session
11. Let's talk about the types of talks Usually 20 minutes From 30 minutes to multiple days Lightning talks Workshops Usually 40 minutes, can be 1 hour General session
12. Let's talk about the types of talks From 20 minutes to an hour Usually 20 minutes From 30 minutes to multiple days Lightning talks Panels Workshops Usually 40 minutes, can be 1 hour General session
13. General session (40 mins - 1 hr) Keynotes, new features, difficult bugs, migrations e.t.c. Technical stuff from work 0 1
14. Chris Banes and Nacho L ópez speaking about Jetpack Compose adoption at Twitter at Droidcon London 2022
15. Technical stuff from work Non technical stuff from work 0 1 0 2 General session (40 mins - 1 hr) Keynotes, new features, difficult bugs, migrations e.t.c. Keynotes, onboarding, team processes e.t.c.
17. Technical stuff from work Non technical stuff from work Technical stuff not from work 0 1 0 3 0 2 General session (40 mins - 1 hr) Keynotes, new features, difficult bugs, migrations e.t.c. Usually based on exploration (e.g. new APIs) in personal projects or open source contributions Keynotes, onboarding, team processes e.t.c.
18. Make time count with Wear OS at DevFest Lagos 2022
19. Case Studies/Research results 0 1 Lightning talks (Usually 20 minutes)
20. Case Studies/Research results Core Skills 0 1 0 2 Communication, Code reviews e.t.c Lightning talks (Usually 20 minutes)
21. Salary negotiation, IC vs Management e.t.c Case Studies/Research results Core Skills Career/Leveling up 0 1 0 3 0 2 Communication, Code reviews e.t.c Lightning talks (Usually 20 minutes)
22. No need for slides 0 1 Panels (From 20 minutes to an hour)
23. No need for slides Might receive questions beforehand 0 1 0 2 Panels (From 20 minutes to an hour)
24. No need for slides Might receive questions beforehand Can be technical or non-technical 0 1 0 3 0 2 Panels (From 20 minutes to an hour)
25. Usually a technical deep dive 0 1 Workshops (From 30 minutes to multiple days)
26. Usually a technical deep dive Usually hands on 0 1 0 2 Workshops (From 30 minutes to multiple days)
27. Usually a technical deep dive Usually hands on Focused on one topic, language or technology 0 1 0 3 0 2 Workshops (From 30 minutes to multiple days) Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, #IAMRemarkable e.t.c.
28. Choosing a topic
30. CREDITS: This presentation template was created by Slidesgo , and includes icons by Flaticon , and infographics & images by Freepik Thanks! Do you have any questions? @moyheen