finding your voice Samantha Quiñones Day Camp 4 Developers, Winter 2015 

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When asked what people are most afraid of… What they fear more than death… One of the most common answers is public speaking. 

Scary! 

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rejection 

Story time! 

High School Speech Class F College Speech & Communication Class F 

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What Could Go Wrong? Threw remote control across the room. It exploded. Fell off a raised stage. Microphone pack fell off, yanked my head back. Pantyhose started rolling down my tush. Projector failed. Repairs ate half my session. Had to load slides on another machine. Controlled them by hand gesture. Threw another remote across the room. It also exploded. Left my phone on. Audience realized, tweeted at me incessantly. Audience member interrupted me to express offense at the term “dickbag”. Nearly vomited on stage. 

I asked a bunch of speakers to tell me about their experiences. Over 200 responded. 

Two out of three speakers have experienced Impostor Syndrome 

What Could Go Right? 

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Tell your story. 

What is mundane to you can be fascinating to others. 

Have you ever had to do something with the wrong tools? Have you ever used a skill from a hobby in your work? Have you ever had too build something for a difficult customer? Have you ever failed? Did you learn something from it? 

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Experience… Age… Gender… Title… Fame… These things don’t matter. 

What matters is passion. 

What excites you about your work? What are you passionate about learning? What arguments do you love to engage in? What are things your team relies on you for? 

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Write to… learn how construct and deliver arguments develop an audience establish yourself as a thinker & sharer 

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Help. Offer to speak. Build a network. 

For any given conference… far more talks will be submitted than there are space for at least some slots will be given to established speakers who “draw” ties will be broken based on economic factors 

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Inspiring Anecdote Punchline Perfect Image WOW! Demo 

I. Introduction I. About me II. My experiences doing crimes II. Dealing with the Alliance I. Avoiding patrols I. Perfect Image II. Obtaining fake ident cards I. Inspiring anecdote III. Finding new opportunities I. Dealing with gangsters - pros & cons I. Punchline II. Doing business with people who’ve shot you I. WOW! Demo 

What is an Abstract? Response to a CFP (Call for Papers) An advertisement directed at conference organizers An advertisement directed at conference attendees 

Define your audience. Present a problem. Define the value proposition. 

You’re a big damn hero who’s just trying to keep flying, but sometimes it’s hard to stay ahead of the Alliance. In this session, you’ll learn everything you need to know about avoiding patrols, dealing with unsavory characters, and finding the most profitable ventures. Whether you’re just looking to protect your own or aim to misbehave, you’ll learn everything you know to take you and your crew to the next level. 

You’re a big damn hero who’s just trying to keep flying, but sometimes it’s hard to stay ahead of the Alliance. In this session, you’ll learn everything you need to know about avoiding patrols, dealing with unsavory characters, and finding the most profitable ventures. Whether you’re just looking to protect your own or aim to misbehave, you’ll learn everything you know to take you and your crew to the next level. 

You’re a big damn hero who’s just trying to keep flying, but sometimes it’s hard to stay ahead of the Alliance. In this session, you’ll learn everything you need to know about avoiding patrols, dealing with unsavory characters, and finding the most profitable ventures. Whether you’re just looking to protect your own or aim to misbehave, you’ll learn everything you know to take you and your crew to the next level. 

You’re a big damn hero who’s just trying to keep flying, but sometimes it’s hard to stay ahead of the Alliance. In this session, you’ll learn everything you need to know about avoiding patrols, dealing with unsavory characters, and finding the most profitable ventures. Whether you’re just looking to protect your own or aim to misbehave, you’ll learn everything you know to take you and your crew to the next level. 

The abstract is a commitment to deliver value. 

Shorter is better. Aim for ~600 characters. Make an unambiguous statement of value and commit to delivering. 

Finding open CFPs… Call to Speakers (www) - https://calltospeakers.com/ The CFP Report (email) - https://thecfpreport.com/ Callback Women (twitter) - https://twitter.com/callbackwomen 

What topics is the conference interested in (do your topics fit?) When does the CFP close? When will decisions be announced? 

Compensation is usually structured as… Conference pays speakers a flat fee Conference covers all expenses for the speaker Conference covers some expenses (partial travel/lodging/meals) Conference covers no expenses 

41% 26% 33% 1-3 4-6 >6 Average number of conferences submitted to per year. 19% 22% 45% 15% 0 1-3 4-6 >6 Average number of conference rejections per year. 

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Tips! If a CFP form has a place for “notes to the organizer” use it! Highlight whatever speaking experience you have. Always be responsive to organizers. 

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Great talks are not written the day before they are given. 

I set the stage with my introduction 

SAMANTHA QUIÑONES ABOUT ME ▸ Software Engineer & Data Nerd since 1997 ▸ Doing “media stuff” since 2012 ▸ Principal @ AOL since 2014 ▸ @ieatkillerbees ▸ http://samanthaquinones.com 

Samantha Quiñones (human) @ieatkillerbees 

Establish a visual brand. Bri ngi ng order to chaos ❱ R E S T w a s b o r n a s a w a y o f b r i n g i n g o r d e r t o t h e y o u n g w e b ❱ F i e l d i n g e n v i s i o n e d t h e e x i s t i n g w e b a s a s y s t e m t h a t c o u l d b e m o u l d e d b y c a r e f u l l y a p p l y i n g c o n s t r a i n t s ❱ N u l l S t y l e Empathy Is… (Wiseman’s 4 Attributes) • The ability to take the perspective of another person. • The ability to understand another person’s feelings. • The ability to communicate that understanding. • The ability to avoid judgment. 

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“BEACON” SERVER “BEACON” SERVER “BEACON” SERVER “BEACON” SERVER “BEACON” SERVER RABBITMQ FARM DATA LAYER SERVICES couchbase hadoop RABBITMQ STREAMER FARM DATA LAYER STREAMER DATA LAYER STREAMER DATA LAYER STREAMER vertica cassandra 

Never lose site of the story. Your deck is not your talk. You and your story are what’s important. 

Text slides are there for people reviewing the talk offline. 

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Practice to… Build confidence Master your material Be ready for anything! 

Think about the speakers you love to watch. Learn from them. 

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Question Time! Lots of questions is a great sign that the audience was engaged! Always repeat the question. Remember that it’s OK to not have an answer. Just don’t fake it. Not all questions are questions. Some people are butts. 

I felt it was based around too much exercising of her liberal arts degree as she used sentences like "We can obviate that with caching" or "that is a pedantically true statement". 

Constructive feedback is given honestly is the greatest gift. Embrace it. Crave it. (joind.in pls!) 

Get help! Help Me Abstract - http://helpmeabstract.com Make Yourself Presentable - http://bit.ly/1QQdkla Technically Speaking - https://tinyletter.com/techspeak Twitter! Facebook! IRC! Walk up to a speaker at a conference! We rarely bite! 

Make a great terrible mistake. Help your community. Help yourself. 

Please offer any feedback here: https://joind.in/16527 Thank you. @ieatkillerbees - http://samanthaquinones.com 

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