10 Ways to Get Started Speaking at Tech Events
This post originally appeared on lemonwater.io.
Speaking at tech events is rewarding for folks for various reasons: sharing, seeking feedback on early ideas, networking, working on public speaking skills or training to be a professional speaker, building credibility, hiring, getting hired, etc. If one or more of these applies to you, here are ten meaningful actions you can take to break into the tech speaker circuit and build your personal tech credibility.
1. Do research and hone your niche
This is hands down the most time consuming step and the most important. Many successful speakers don’t start out seeking to speak. They attend events and topics that interest them, and once they’ve recognized underdeveloped niches in the information sharing market, they start to speak on them. Hot topics can be identified a few ways. I look at Google Trends to see how often something is searched for. I also look through upcoming conference agendas to see what topics they are centering their event around as those teams do copious amounts of research to find topics that appeal to their target attendee audience. This resource also exposes gaps in the ecosystem. For example, if a conference has talks for artificial intelligence, but does not have any talks on chatbots under this category, this could be a gap you could fill. If you start to notice a similar gap across event agendas, then that is a niche you could claim.
I encourage you to attend a few meetups and conferences on topics that interest you, watch a few talks online, explore related content on Twitter and blogs, and take notes on why certain topics and talks are more interesting to you. This will help you to find an opportunity you are passionate about sharing, that others are interested in learning about.
2. Invest in a good headshot
Some events ask for them along with your speaker application. Generally, these are for their website and other advertising materials and are often required to fit specific specs. Therefore, it’s best to have a few different shots and layouts available for various events. These will also be good for your LinkedIn, Eventbrite, blog, Meetup, and other profiles. Some events will edit your pics, and some events will post your original headshot as-is. I put this higher in the list simply because some photographers take a bit to return your photos to you, so if you do this early, it won’t hold up your progress.
3. Demonstrate your expertise
Create a cool project or product, write some code, then write a few blog posts and draft a talk on the topic(s) you’d want to talk about and share them on GitHub and LinkedIn.
Don’t be scared away from a topic if you see a similar topic appear a couple of times. Especially starting out, it is ok to overlap topics with other speakers for a few reasons.
· The speaker circuit is a global market. You can represent the local perspective on a particular topic.
· Events seek all different flavors of a topic: workshops, talks, demos to name a few
· It’s easier to sell a totally original topic when people trust you(your speaking ability and style) and your technical expertise.
4. Practice your talk for anyone who will listen
Practice is very important here, just as it is for honing a new sport or skill. And just as athletes have games in pre-season that mimic real game environments, it is important for you to mock real speaking environments and audiences when you practice. Ask people to listen to you practice and try to mix your audience with both people who know you well and people who know you less well.
Here’s a checklist for your practice audiences to make sure you are putting on a good show:
_______’s talk titled ______________ had:
Strong eye contact(No flashcards or reading slides)
Strong stage presence (Good body movement and changes in tone that complement the story)
Engaging content (Slides, demo, video — concise and attractive to the eye)
Unique content(I’ve never heard this angle before.)
Within time limit (Meetup talks ~10 minutes, conference talks ~20–30 minutes)
Engaging story(The way the topic was presented held my interest.)
One thing I recommend to make this talk stronger:
In addition to getting verbal feedback, this worksheet will help identify where to focus your attention for your next practice round.
Here are a couple of references for getting ready to talk:
· Easy Ways to Become a Better Public Speaker — Fast
· How to write a presentation title that gets people flocking to your session
Remember, when you speak at a tech event, you should expect that you are on video at all times. Why? Because in today’s social tech ecosystem, events and members of the audience are snapping pics, video clips, and tweeting quotes from your presentation in real time. One misstep can break your reputation and one strong quote or action can make you viral.
5. Create a profile on tech speaker sites
Are you on Eventbrite, Speaker Hub, Meetup and other tech speaker sites? Link your content to these profiles. Make sure to include those headshots you took and any blog posts on the subject you’ve written. Create consistency between your bios and content across the various speaker sites and include some information about the topic you want to speak about.
6. Apply to speak
How do you let a tech event organizer know you’re interested? For some events (usually smaller ones), message the organizers with your topic and volunteer to speak. Or, if there is a formal process (like for big tech conferences), apply through their official channels to speak. I’ve found that most often there is a form on the conference site for speaker submissions. You can also find the organizer listed on each meetup page or conference website.
Note that some events pay speakers and cover costs for travel, accommodation, and entry to the event; while some events don’t offer any assistance. Know what you need in order to commit, even if this means consider sticking to smaller local events as you build your speaking portfolio.
7. Don’t be too picky
At least not at first. Use your first couple events for continued practice and to build your credibility. No audience is too small, and you can leverage these environments to try new tactics out as well. Also, you never know who is in the audience… maybe the organizer of a meetup you’ve had your eye on!
8. Crave feedback — Ask for and take feedback openly
Receiving critical feedback early allows you the opportunity to adapt. This can help you find success as a speaker. Every time you speak, ask those who watched to share their thoughts. If it’s a small crowd, you can ask in person. If you are giving a talk, you can ask folks in the audience to interactively provide feedback as a part of your presentation. One effective way to capture feedback that I’ve witnessed was who paused and asked the audience to respond to multiple choice questions throughout his talk via a SMS response of A, B, C, or D to a prompt on the presentation screen. At the end of his talk, he leveraged this same channel to request feedback on his talk as the audience was already engaged and warmed to this interaction model. If you are comfortable with it, you can even invite folks to respond on public channels to serve as third party reviews (LinkedIn, Meetup, Eventbrite, Twitter, etc.).
9. Share your successes
Each time you speak at an event, update your profiles and share that info with the next event organizer. Previous speaking engagements are a very persuasive argument for organizers to “hire” you on for their event.
10. Manage your brand off stage
Managing your brand isn’t just controlling the x minutes spent on stage during your talk. You need to be a good communicator on and off the stage. A few easy ways to grow and manage your reputation:
· Respond within 48 hours to inquiries
· Make time for Q&A after your talk
· Share content frequently online or in person
Investing in your tech brand will take time and focus, but will net you an invaluable ecosystem. If you successfully execute #1–10, you’ll be well positioned to develop your individual tech speaking brand and soon have tech event organizers pursuing you to request you to speak at their next event. Happy speaking!
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT: These opinions are those of the author. Unless noted otherwise in this post, Capital One is not affiliated with, nor is it endorsed by, any of the companies mentioned. All trademarks and other intellectual property used or displayed are the ownership of their respective owners. This article is © 2018.
