Talks and Proposals 101

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Topics and Proposals 101: Let’s Talk About Talks Jenny Bramble jenny.bramble@gmail.com @jennydoesthings

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Hi, I’m Jenny! ● Software Test Engineer ● WillowTree Apps is home ● Likes cupcakes and cats ● Really loves gummy bears ● 10 years in QA, 8 in support, and more! ● Dozens of talks and presentations given @jennydoesthings

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Let’s Talk About Talks ● Deciding on a Topic ● Writing a Proposal ● Conferences to Target ● Once You’ve Been Accepted ● Putting Together a Presentation ● Actually Talking ● Follow-up on Your Talk @jennydoesthings

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● Deciding on a Topic ● Writing a Proposal ● Conferences to Target ● Once You’ve Been Accepted ● Putting Together a Presentation ● Actually Talking ● Follow-up on Your Talk @jennydoesthings Topics and Proposals 101

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Vocabulary! @jennydoesthings

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Vocabulary! ● Call for papers, call for proposals, call for speakers: ○ Conference is actively looking for people to present ○ Papers are not usually required ● Proposal: ○ A speaker indicates her interest in speak at the event ● Topic: ○ The general theme of what you’ll talk about @jennydoesthings

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Vocabulary! ● Pay-to-speak: ○ A for-profit conference that does not cover speaker expenses @jennydoesthings

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Vocabulary! ● Takeaways: ○ What should someone know after walking away from your talk? ● Action items: ○ What could someone do after walking away from your talk? ● Audience: ○ Who should attend your talk? ● Personal goal: ○ What do you want to do with your talk? @jennydoesthings

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Vocabulary! ●Speaker: @jennydoesthings

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Vocabulary! YOU! @jennydoesthings ●Speaker:

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Let’s Workshop Your Ideas! @jennydoesthings

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Deciding on a Topic @jennydoesthings @jennydoesthings

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Deciding on a Topic ● Find something you can speak about with confidence ● Make sure your topic is broad enough to have appeal to a decently large group of humans ● Think about what someone can learn from your talk ● Be sure the talk is relevant to the situation @jennydoesthings

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Deciding on a Topic ● What can you talk about for 10 minutes, unprompted? ● Have you done something cool at work recently? ● Is there something you want to learn? ● Are you passionate about something? ● Do you have a story to tell? @jennydoesthings

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Deciding on a Topic ● Grab your worksheet and a buddy or two! ● Think about what you can talk about for 10 minutes, unprompted. Time: 10 minutes @jennydoesthings @jennydoesthings

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Writing a Proposal ● Introduction to the method ● One Goal ● Five Takeaways ● Three Action Items ● Two Audiences ● Three Reasons to Attend ● Title, Speaker Bio, and Headshots ● Get feedback @jennydoesthings

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Writing a Proposal ● Call for papers/proposal are usually the same thing ● Research the conference’s previous speakers and attendees ● Use professional language, but simple words ● Find your voice @jennydoesthings

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Writing a Proposal Introduction to the method ● Decide on your personal goal ● Determine the top five takeaways from your talk ● List three actions humans could take based on your content ● Write down your primary and secondary audiences ● Come up with three reasons the audience should attend your talk @jennydoesthings

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Writing a Proposal One Goal ● Talks can have one, or several goals, but be clear what you personally want to do ● Get people excited ● Present one big idea/tech/etc ● Present a lot of small ideas ● Reframe an existing idea ● Tell a story @jennydoesthings

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Writing a Proposal: One Goal ● Grab your pens and think about your goal for this topic. ● What would you want to do if you were giving this talk? Time: 5 minutes @jennydoesthings

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Writing a Proposal Five Takeaways ● Not a hard number ○ No fewer than three (30 min) ○ No more than five (45-60 min) ● The things you want to give the audience or make them aware of ● An outline of your thoughts ● Can help you expand or shrink content to fit time ● Should excite you! @jennydoesthings

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Writing a Proposal: Five Takeaways ● Grab your pens and think about your takeaways for this topic. ● What would you want to see tweeted if you were giving this talk? Time: 5 minutes @jennydoesthings

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Writing a Proposal Three Action Items ● Real, actual action people could take based on your talk’s content ● How can this talk impact someone’s work or life? ● These are a big sell for organizers and participants ● If you can’t find actions items for your topic, reevaluate @jennydoesthings

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Writing a Proposal: Three Action Items ● Grab your pens and think about your action items for this topic. ● What would you want someone to thank you for helping them do? Time: 10 minutes @jennydoesthings

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Writing a Proposal Two Audiences ● Primary: ○ Humans your talk is most geared towards ● Secondary: ○ Humans who can gain something from your talk ● Not your audience: ○ You find these humans in feedback forms @jennydoesthings

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Writing a Proposal: Two Audiences ● Grab your pens and think about your audiences for this topic. ● Who do you want to talk to? Time: 5 minutes @jennydoesthings

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Writing a Proposal Three Reasons to Attend ● You know your audience--why should they know you? ● Will be tied to your takeaways and action items ● Try to think big--be grandiose ● This starts to crystalize your vision ● This is another big sell for conference organizers @jennydoesthings

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Writing a Proposal: Three Reasons to Attend ● Grab your pens and think about your audiences again. ● What are you going to do for them in this talk? Time: 5 minutes @jennydoesthings

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Writing a Proposal Title ● Try to keep your title under 8 words ● Try and describe your talk while making it exciting and interesting ● If you ask a question in your title, answer it in the talk ● This is your hook and needs to be able to grab people walking past @jennydoesthings

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Writing a Proposal Speaker Bio ● Describe who you are, with a short job history if it’s relevant to the talk ● Give a few talking points outside of your technical history ● Try to quickly establish yourself as an authority on your topic ● Sell yourself--this is often the first introduction to you @jennydoesthings

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Writing a Proposal Headshots ● If you’re planning on doing this often, invest in a good headshot ● Send several options ● Well lit selfies are okay ● Try to have simple, solid colored backgrounds ● Look professional, but not stuffy @jennydoesthings

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Writing a Proposal Get Feedback ● Ask someone in your target audience ● Ask someone outside, but tangential to your audience ● Ask someone totally outside your audience ● Accept their feedback from their point of view and evaluate it as such @jennydoesthings

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Conferences to Target @jennydoesthings

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Conferences to Target ● Avoid pay-to-speak conferences! ● Look for conferences that cater to your audience ● Conferences you’ve attended before are good places to start ● Check the Code of Conduct for every conference you submit to, and ask about enforcement policies if they are not posted @jennydoesthings

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Conferences to Target ● Shotgun approach versus targeted approach ● Acceptances come in waves ● Bookmark conferences that are interesting, even if they aren’t currently accepting CFPs ● Tell other people about your topic so they can look out for conferences for you @jennydoesthings

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Questions? Jenny Bramble jenny.bramble@gmail.com @jennydoesthings

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Once You’ve Been Accepted ● You will often be given a discount code for ‘friends and family’ ● Book travel and hotel ASAP, especially if the conference is covering costs ● Promote yourself ● If you don’t have a Twitter account, get one @jennydoesthings

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Once You’ve Been Accepted Twitter/ Social ● Connect with conferences and attendees ● Easy way to fulfill the ‘promote our conference’ clause/request ● You will be able to see more info on how people respond to your talk ● You don’t have to use it all the time--just conferences is fine @jennydoesthings

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Putting Together a Presentation Timing Your Talk ● Know your time limit ● Chunk your presentation so you can know what to skip if a section runs long ● Taking questions during a presentation is fine, but limit the time spent here ● The ‘real’ one will feel different @jennydoesthings

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Putting Together a Presentatio n Must Have Slides ● Title ● About you ● Content summary ● Content! ● Content recap ● Questions ● Sources, more reading, etc @jennydoesthings

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Let’s Talk Talks: A Meta-Presentation About Presentations and Proposals Jenny Bramble jenny.bramble@gmail.com @jennydoesthings

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Hi, I’m Jenny! ● Sr. QA Engineer ● Likes cupcakes and cats ● Eats gummy bears every deploy ● 10 years in QA, 8 in support, and more! ● Dozens of talks and presentations given @jennydoesthings

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Let’s Talk Talks: ● Deciding on a Topic ● Writing a Proposal ● Conferences to Target ● Putting Together a Presentation ● Actually Talking ● Follow-up on Your Talk @jennydoesthings

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Putting Together a Presentatio n Make an Interesting Deck ● Pick a theme and stick with it ● Tell a story ● One slide of content per two minutes ● Find a slide style that works ● Include your Twitter handle on each slide ● Interesting visuals are great if they help the presentation ● PROOFREED YUOR SLIDES @jennydoesthings

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Putting Together a Presentation Make Interesting Slides ● Theme ● Story ● One slide per two minutes ● Consistency ● Twitter handle ● Visuals ● Don’t curse ● PROOFREED @jennydoesthings

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Putting Together a Presentation Make Interesting Slides ● Theme ● Story ● One slide per two minutes ● Consistency ● Twitter handle ● Visuals ● Don’t curse ● PROOFREED

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Putting Together a Presentation Make Interesting Slides @jennydoesthings

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Actually Talking Making Words Come Out of Your Face ● Know your time limit ● Speak clearly and use clear words ● Reference your slides as you go ● Don’t be afraid to have a personality ● Don’t curse ● PRACTICE UNDER STRESS @jennydoesthings

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Actually Talking Appearance and Dress ● Dress for your audience, but stay professional ● Don’t wear distracting clothing ● Practice in your outfit ● Don’t be afraid to have a personality, but consider the impact your choices have on how you are perceived @jennydoesthings

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Actually Talking General Tips ● Have a water with a straw, lid, and make sure the container is heavy ● Use your hands as much as you’re comfortable ● Slide clickers are life savers--but practice with and without ● Don’t be afraid to acknowledge when something doesn’t go ‘right’ @jennydoesthings

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Follow Up on Your Talk ● Make yourself available for questions ● Post links to your presentation on Twitter, if you have it ● Promote yourself internally at your company ● Source feedback from anyone ● Network! @jennydoesthings

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Follow Up on Your Talk Self-evaluation ● Each time you present, your talk will change ● Make notes about what resonated with your audience ● Incorporate good questions into the content ● Don’t be afraid to drop confusing sections @jennydoesthings

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Follow Up on Your Talk Now...Do It Again ● It’s fine to redo a talk as-is but... ● Every talk can be improved ● Think about the questions raised ● Consider ways you can tweak the content to fit other venues ● Sometimes a talk doesn’t ‘hit’. It’s okay to chuck it and redo it or let it die @jennydoesthings

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We Talked About Talks: @jennydoesthings ● Deciding on a Topic ● Writing a Proposal ● Conferences to Target ● Once You’ve Been Accepted ● Putting Together a Presentation ● Actually Talking ● Follow-up on Your Talk

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Questions? Jenny Bramble jenny.bramble@gmail.com @jennydoesthings

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Let’s Workshop Your Ideas! @jennydoesthings

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Resources @jennydoesthings ● 5 Essential Ingredients for an Awesome Tech Talk ● Tips on giving your first technical talk ● How to Prepare a Talk ● 10 Things I Wish I’d Known About Giving Good Tech Talks ● Finding Your Killed Talk Idea ● How to prepare and write a tech conference talk

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Resources for My Talk ● Top 5 Takeaways ● Top 3 Actions ● Audiences ● Audience Reasons ● Goals ● Title ● Bio ● Description @jennydoesthings @jennydoesthings

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Top 5 Takeaways ● Speak with confidence ● 5 takeaways/3 actions ● Source as much feedback as you can ● Practice under stress ● Promote yourself @jennydoesthings @jennydoesthings

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Top 3 Actions ● Think about topics you can speak on ● Put together a proposal ● CLICK SUBMIT @jennydoesthings @jennydoesthings

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Audience ● Primary: ○ Humans interested in speaking at conferences ● Secondary: ○ Humans who have been told presentations are part of their quarterly goals @jennydoesthings @jennydoesthings

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Audience Reason ● Get a springboard/template to use to start putting together topics ● Find out some tips and tricks for slide decks and presentation ● Start thinking about presenting @jennydoesthings @jennydoesthings

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Goal ● Primary: ○ Present a lot of little ideas ● Secondary: ○ Get people excited to speak @jennydoesthings @jennydoesthings

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Title Let’s Talk Talks:  A Meta-Presentation  About Presentations and Proposals @jennydoesthings

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Speaker Bio Jenny came up through support and devops, cutting her teeth on that interesting role that acts as the 'translator' between customer requests from support and the development team. Her love of support and the human side of problems lets her find a sweet spot between empathy for the user and empathy for my team. She's done testing, support, or human interfacing for most of her career. She finds herself happiest when she's making an impact on other people--whether it's helping find issues in applications, leading scrum, speaking at events, or just grabbing coffee and chatting. @jennydoesthings

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Description Speaking at conferences can be terrifying but before you even get there, you have the hurdle of actually picking a topic, crafting a proposal, submitting it, and writing your presentation. This can feel incredibly intimidating for a speaker--novice or seasoned! If you've ever thought about presenting at a conference, meetup, or other event, then join Jenny Bramble and her animal companions to dive into the mechanics of talks. She'll cover the basics of putting together a proposal and preparing to give a presentation along with the tips and tricks that have helped her move from novice talker to sought after speaker. @jennydoesthings