I’m not a professional speaker by any stretch of the imagination, but I do tend to make it to a non-negligible number of conferences each year, where I get up on stage for 45 minutes to an hour at a time and try to help people.
Lately, I’ve been trying to pay more attention to newer conference speakers, and trying to offer what little advice I feel qualified enough to give. This post aims to sum up some of the more common points.
As I mentioned in my Exporting Reveal.js Slides to PDF Using Decktape post last week, I tend to use Reveal.js – a HTML- and JavaScript-powered presentation framework – for most of my conference talks. Having given a fair number of presentations using the framework over the last few years, I thought it might be useful for speakers who haven’t yet tried (or found their footing with) Reveal.js if I laid out my preparation workflow.
After giving two talks last weekend and WordCamp NEO, one of the conference organizer emailed me and asked if I could provide PDF versions of my slide decks to send to WordPress.tv.
If you’ve seen one of my talks before, you may know that I’m a huge fan of Reveal.js, a JavaScript presentation framework that allows me to author my slides using Markdown, present in a browser, and share everything via GitHub Pages. Then, as I give talks at multiple conferences, people can see what’s changed, report any inaccuracies, and see my presentation history. Pretty snazzy!
Tonight, I was the guest on WPRoundTable #41, where we talked 10up, WordPress, Son of Clippy, version control, and more. Rich Robinkoff and I also teased (well, basically announced) the impostor syndrome panel we’re working on with Angela Bergmann and WP Tavern’s Jeff Chandler.
I just got back last night from the inaugural php[world] conference in Washington, D.C., put on by the team at php[architect], and thought I’d share some of my thoughts and experiences:
Sadly, I’m not participating in Movember this year. It’s for rather selfish reasons, admittedly (I’m speaking at php[world] in Washington, D.C. this week, which is the largest speaking engagement of my career, and don’t want to be mid-‘stache during the conference), buthat doesn’t mean I don’t want to be involved with Movember. As I won’t be shaving off the beard for some mustache fun this month, I’d like to propose this alternative:
Nathan Driver and Brian Retterer were nice enough to invite Phil Hoyt and I on the inaugural WP Decoded podcast, where we talked WordPress 4.0, WordCamp Columbus, and why “WordPress 101” sessions at WordCamps are a lot like Freshman Orientation.
A bit late considering I gave two talks in the last week but I’ve added a “Speaking Engagements” section to the site. I’m relatively new to professional speaking but am looking for more opportunities to share what I’ve learned. If you’re interested in having me speak at your event, please get in touch!
For those of you in or around Central Ohio August 2-3 I’ll be presenting a talk based on “Keeping WordPress Under [Version] Control” at WordCamp Columbus 2013 in the Ohio Union at The Ohio State University. There’s a great line-up of speakers including Pippin Williamson (Pippin’s Plugins) and Samuel “Otto” Wood (if you’ve been developing with WordPress for any amount of time you’ve almost certainly read his blog).
The conference is trying something new this year and dedicating the entire first day (Friday, August 2) to a day-long WordPress beginners’ course with the second day (Saturday, August 3) focused more on WordPress awesomeness. If you work for a company that uses WordPress (as a client or as a vendor) now’s the time to beg your boss to send a group of WordPress newbies to WordCamp – learn how to use the world’s most popular content management system and get out of the office on a Friday in August? That’s one helluva deal for just $40!
Be excellent to each other.
