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.

Transcript

1. A
   A
   case
   case
   against
   against
   showmanship
   showmanship
   

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

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3. Marta,
   why do you
   hate fun?
   

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4. Think about
   how we portray
   ourselves
   

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5. Edgy
   is just another word for
   mainstream
   

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6. Strong language
   Strong opinions
   Homogeneous audience
   

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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
   

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8. Speakers get the
   benefits
   

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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/
   

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

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

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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.
    

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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
    

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14. Thank you.
    Questions?
    

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