DDD North 2020

Talking about Talking

Speaker: Dylan Hayes

Slides: link

• Speaking can improve your knowledge and make you think outside of your experience.
• You should talk because it is
  • Fun.
  • Helps build your network of people.
  • Lets you have your skills recognised by others.
• A talk should be
  • Memorable.
  • Relevant to the audience and not just a small insider group.
  • Relatable and accessible to the audience.
  • Well timed, accounting for questions.
  • Fun and entertaining to attend.
• You should be the best version of yourself. Find a stage persona and be someone others want to watch.
• Try to be persuasive of what you are speaking about - sell it! Use societal conformance to your advantage.
• Having deep product knowledge is not 100% relevant. Don’t let this stop you doing a talk.
• Clickbait titles grab the attention of attendees.
• Make sure to check your talk is relevant before hand.
• Reduce the text on screen - say it yourself rather than getting the audience to read it as you will be more engaging.
• Check the audio visual equipment.
  • Laptop is charged (maybe bring a backup device).
  • You have WiFi, and have a backup hotspot.
  • You have passwords and logins that work.
• Email a backup of your slides to an organiser in case your equipment fails, then at least you can borrow from someone else.
• If you are doing a live demo
  • Keep it short, simple and interesting.
  • Remember that using a prerecording of your demo but it might look like cheating. Be careful to use and stay authentic.
  • Talk to the audience, not into your laptop.
  • Check your demo works a month before, the week before, and the night before. Don’t find out in the talk!
  • Consider doing it inside a VM that can be controlled easier than your own machine
• When talking
  • Vary your pitch and be expressive.
  • Speak at he right pace - not too fast or slow. Go slow enough so your brain can buffer the next sentence.
  • Be aware of your body language and find something to do with your hands - i.e. don’t but them in your pockets as you will look bored.
  • Be aware of any annoying mannerism / ticks you have and minimise them.
• Separate facts for your own opinion and make it clear which is which.
• Ben funny, but not controversial. If you don’t know how the audience will react about something stay clear. If in doubt use dad jokes!
• Work up to larger talks by doing smaller talks at meet-ups. Use them as stepping stones.
• Be aware of of Imposter Syndrome - you doubt your accomplishments and have an internalised fear of being exposed as a “fraud”.
• Be aware of Dunning–Kruger - you assess your cognitive ability as greater than it is. Sort of the opposite of Imposter Syndrome.
• Slides will take around 2 minutes to talk through. Use this for pacing.
• A talk should have a beginning, middle and end. Tie these together with a coherent theme.
• Your delivery is often more memorable than the message.