Speaking at Tech Events for Beginners (Workshop)

Speaking at Tech Events for Beginners

Want to start speaking at tech events, but not sure where to start? Then this is the workshop for you! Code & Supply needs new speakers, and we want to help you become one of them.

This hands-on, collaborative workshop will take you through the entire process of speaking at a tech event including:

• Brainstorming ideas

• Writing a proposal

• Outlining a talk

• Developing good slides

• Presenting your talk

We will practice this process with very short presentations called “lightning talks” that are five minutes or less.

This workshop is being facilitated by Julie Pagano (http://juliepagano.com/). She runs a tech speaker support group that is friendly to beginner speakers and recently gave a talk about supporting new tech speakers (http://juliepagano.com/blog/2014/06/30/speaker-support-of-awesomeness/).

Who should attend:

This event is targeted at beginners to speaking at tech events. If you have never spoken at an event before or only have a little experience, you should attend!

If you have experience speaking at tech events or conferences, this workshop is not a good fit for you. If you want to help out, contact the organizers to see if you would be a good fit as a teaching assistant.

What you will need:

You will need a laptop with a form of presentation software you are comfortable using.

We will not spend a lot of class time teaching people how to use presentation software because the tools vary so much. If you have never used presentation software before, please take a little time before class to familiarize yourself. If you aren’t sure where to start, below is a list of some common presentation tools in alphabetical order.

Google Slides (http://www.google.com/slides/about/) (web; free)

Keynote (https://www.apple.com/mac/keynote/) (mac; $19.99)

LibreOffice Impress (http://www.libreoffice.org/discover/impress/) (linux, mac, windows; free)

PowerPoint (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/) (mac, windows; price varies)

Reveal.js (browser; free)

The environment:

This workshop will be a beginner-friendly place where you can feel safe working on and practicing a talk, even if you have never done it before. The workshop will include collaborating and working with others in groups.

In addition to Code & Supply’s code of conduct (http://www.codeandsupply.co/code-of-conduct/), we ask that attendees of this workshop keep in mind the social rules from Hacker School (https://www.hackerschool.com/manual#sec-environment) to help build a pleasant and productive environment.