$30 off During Our Annual Pro Sale. View Details »

A case against showmanship

A case against showmanship

A talk I gave at eurucamp 2015. Its purpose is twofold: to encourage people interested in speaking at tech events to give it a go and to encourage seasoned speakers to look at their talks and evaluate whether they aren't engaging in showmanship.

Marta Paciorkowska

August 01, 2015
Tweet

More Decks by Marta Paciorkowska

Other Decks in Programming

Transcript

  1. A
    A
    case
    case
    against
    against
    showmanship
    showmanship

    View Slide

  2. Marta Paciorkowska
    Twitter: a_meba
    Github: xamebax
    (currently unemployed)
    software engineer

    View Slide

  3. Marta,
    why do you
    hate fun?

    View Slide

  4. Think about
    how we portray
    ourselves

    View Slide

  5. Edgy
    is just another word for
    mainstream

    View Slide

  6. Strong language
    Strong opinions
    Homogeneous audience

    View Slide

  7. 56% of women in technology leave their employers
    mid-career.
    Of the women who leave:
    – 24% take a non-technical job in a different company,
    – 22% become self-employed in a tech field,
    – 20% take time out of the workforce.
    This is double the turnover rate of men.
    - National Center for Women in Technology,
    http://www.ncwit.org/sites/default/files/legacy/pdf/NCWIT_TheFacts_rev2010.pdf

    View Slide

  8. Speakers get the
    benefits

    View Slide

  9. Highly-specialized technical industries tend to hire from
    their networks more often than average.
    - Peter Rigano, “Industries where your network matters more...”
    http://blog.linkedin.com/2015/03/09/industries-where-your-network-matters-more-than-you-think/

    View Slide

  10. http://blog.linkedin.com/2015/03/09/industries-where-your-network-matters-more-than-you-think/

    View Slide

  11. Beyond the ego cult:
    An ode to the conference speaker

    View Slide

  12. Relax, you don't have to show off.
    Strong language and strong opinions are strongly
    disadvised.
    This is not a conference on applied memology.

    View Slide

  13. [t]he problem is thinking that what matters in your
    presentation is you. Because unless you're a paid
    performer – musician, comedian, motivational speaker –
    you are not the reason [the people] came to the
    conference.
    - Kathy Sierra, “Presentation Skills Considered Harmful”
    http://seriouspony.com/blog/2013/10/4/presentation-skills-considered-harmful

    View Slide

  14. Thank you.
    Questions?

    View Slide