Getting into Public SpeakingIts really fun,especially when you don’t think about it

Why speak?

Speaking Benefits

● Career development○ Good way to demonstrate your experience and soft skills○ Helps you evaluate the level of your own understanding (builds confidence)

● Learn more ○ Preparing for a talk help you learn new things○ Giving a talk and receiving feedback also helps you learn new things

● Conferences & Events are even more fun○ Usually get free conference tickets (sometimes for a friend too)○ Travel paid (usually if you are a key speaker or could otherwise not attend)○ People will ask your advice

Barriers to speaking

● Imposter syndrome○ You simply feel that you do not have anything interesting to say

■ This happens a lot, even to seasoned speakers■ Everyone has lots of experiences to share though

● Lack of experience○ You have never done any public speaking, so you feel you could not do it.

■ Catch 22. Start of with the simplest possible thing, an informal talk at work, a short talk at a meetup, etc

● Lack of time○ You are simply too busy○ It takes time to prepare & give a presentation

■ All this time spent benefits your career & usually your company too

My speaking history

● Started at University○ Hated the idea of giving a final year project presentation, it felt awful

■ Had spend days going over what I wanted to say■ Had spent hours practising & was incredibly nervous■ Surprised to find it was voted the best presentation

● Started work at a consultancy, including 5 day training workshops○ Very nervous for a long time until I became more familiar with the content

■ Essentially re-wrote all the training material, made it more practical and full of examples■ Started to enjoy writing content, as it made it easy to present

● Worked in Finance, giving lots of presentations to different groups of people○ Helped me empathise and consider what they wanted to know

● Increasingly active in the community, leading to giving lots of talks● Became a developer advocate / evangelist...

Applying to SpeakTips for CfP’s, getting noticed, etc.

Replying to a Call for Papers (CfP)

Call for Papers is a common way to find speakers for a conference

- The conference website should provide details of the process, timings & code of conduct

- You may only get notified if you are accepted to speak

Typically you will submit

● Title - gets the initial attention of the conference organisers● Abstract - sells the talk to the organisers● Bio - should give organisers confidence that you have some experience with the

subject, usually included a picture

How often should I apply ?

● Is it bad to submit more than one talk to a conference ?○ No, submit as many different talks as you like

■ (more than 10 may be over-doing it though)

● Is it bad to submit the same talk to more than one conference ?○ No, submit your talk to as many conferences as you like

■ Ensure the conference topics & themes are relevant to your talk though

● Is it bad to spend a big chunk of your time speaking at conferences○ No, some people actually get paid to do this○ Unless you read speaker notes word for word, your talks will be different each time anyway○ If you are on the speaker circuit then you usually have several talks you can just give at short notice.

Writing a good title

Writing good titles is hard & takes practice

A good title should be clear and to the point

Write down as many versions of a title as you can then pick the best. Ask other people which titles they like.

If you are unsure about the title, write the abstract first

Examples: Bad Titles

Clojure.spec | Clojure.spec is awesome | What I did with Clojure.spec

- Too vague. What about it? What do you want to say about this subject

Examples: Good Titles (subjective)

Effective testing with Clojure.spec & generative tests

Persisting data as EDN types in Datomic

How FundingCircle are guiding developers into Clojure

Tips on writing good titles

● Write down as many variations of the titles first, then delete the ones that are not so good until you only have one left

● Would the title make a good article / blog / newspaper title ?● Show the titles to others and ask them● Review the title once you have finished the abstract (if not during writing it)

Exercise:Write a few talk titles

Please use the shared Google doc, linked to from the Meetup event

Writing a good abstract

Needs to convey what the talk is all about

● What specifically will you learn ?● Why is it valuable to learn about this ?● How are you going to help us understand what you are talking about ?● What level of skill / experience do you require ?●

Exercise:Write an abstract (or two)

Please use the shared Google doc, linked to from the Meetup event

Writing a good bio

Make it short and to the point and full of any useful information relevant to the event

- Blog posts, books or previous speaking appearances (dont promote other conferences in your bio though)

Example: short & to the point

Speaker, author, conference organiser & community obsessed developer. Loves Clojure, Emacs, Cats, Cycling & Agile development http://jr0cket.co.uk

Tip: Look at the bio’s from other speakers from a previous years conference, or similar event.

Creating an effective digital presence

● Body of work● Social media● Detailed history● Consistent branding

Related articles:

http://jr0cket.co.uk/categories/community/

Exercise:Write a bio for yourself

Please use the shared Google doc, linked to from the Meetup event

Speaking at London Clojurians

● meetup.com/london-clojurians - send a message to the organisers● London-clojurians.org - post a message to the mailing list● clojurians.slack.com - post a message to #clojure-uk● Tweet me at @jr0cket

Related articles:

http://jr0cket.co.uk/2016/07/Call-for-Speakers-London-Clojurian-conference-2016.html

Clojurian Community in Person

Probably the most active language-specific developer communities in London

Creating your content

Traditonal Slides approach

● Powerpoint, Keynote or Google Slides○ Simple to use and if you pick a nice theme they they look okay

■ Avoid making them over complicated■ Download copies if using an online service (don't rely on conference wifi)■ Minimise bullet points (ie. don't use this presentation as an example, it's not great)

Traditional slides approach

● Powerpoint, Keynote or Google Slides○ Simple to use and if you pick a nice theme they they look okay

■ Avoid making them over complicated, as this wastes time■ Minimise bullet points (ie. don't use this presentation as an example, it's not great)

○ Google slides & online services are handy if you laptop dies…■ Download copies if using an online service (don't rely on conference wifi)

Modern slides approach

● Prezzi & Reveal.js (also org-reveal for Emacs)○ Offer different presentation options, but require more work or initial setup

Reveal.js examples at: http://jr0cket.co.uk/slides/

Workshop approach

● Gitbook.io, readthedocs, Jekyll○ Really useful services for creating good

looking workshop content

■ Create content in markdown, asciidoc or reframed text

Gitbook example: https://practicalli.gitbook.io/clojure

ReadTheDocs example: https://cider.readthedocs.io

See my article on Gitbook publishing for Developers

Demo / Live coding

● Demos○ Seeing something in action is very engaging for the audience

■ Avoid making it a boring product pitch though■ Create something real, even if you have to pre-create some aspects■ Create a video backup when you are practicing, just in case the demo gods are angry

● Live coding○ A great way to explore a language or programming concepts

■ Make sure people understand the syntax you are using

■ Create the code at a good pace, not so slow to make it boring, not to fast that it cannot be followed.

○ Don't do this, its just asking for trouble, unless■ You practice so often you can type while you are talking (very hard, try it)■ You have most of the code pre-written■ You use Git to step through branches, commits or tags

Presenting your content

Make sure people can see your content

● Display your slides / code and go stand at the back of the room○ Tweak the size of your fonts and colours of your themes

■ Ensure you know how to quickly increase the font size■ If your editor has profiles, create a demo / presentation one with ~24px font

● Ask the audience if they can see okay○ It helps you engage with them and see how awake they are

Talk to the Audience

● Obvious statement, but easy to forget● Make eye contact, but don’t stare

○ Make eye contact for several seconds with several members of the audience during your talk■ Helps you understand how well the talk is going■ Helps you connect to the audience■ People more likely to focus on what you are saying■ Makes you look like a professional speaker

● Practices to avoid○ Turning your back on the audience / talking to the screen

○ Staring at one person in the audience because you are nervous or think that they are the only one listening

■ This is hard to avoid if there is only one person in the audience, so have a chat with them instead.

Avoiding Nerves

● Everyone gets nervous about presenting, its natural and can be beneficial○ Nerves produce more adrenaline, keeping you going through the talk.

● Focus on your talk○ Ensure you are comfortable with the overall structure of your talk○ Review slides several times whilst waiting to speak

■ Avoid the temptation to make any major changes

● Avoid other distractions ○ Take time away from the event / people

● Dont dwell on what you are doing, it will make you nervous● Avoid last minute changes to your slides / demo’s

Exercise:Present a lightning talk ?

Exercise:… or go to the pub / home

Thank you@jr0cket

https://jr0cket.co.uk

Take your own journey into Clojure

Thank you

@jr0cketjr0cket.co.uk

Learning by teaching others

I really started thinking in Clojure when I started talking to & teaching others

- Coding dojos- talks on Clojure (starting with the basics, showing the art of the possible)- moving on to running conferences- workshops at hack days