Thanks Laurie for sharing! I loved the twitter handle trick :) I am going back to giving talks in a couple of months after two years hiatus and your post is what I am exactly looking for.
One thing I learned in the early years when I started is the importance of storytelling and humor to make long technical talks digestible. I am curious though, how do you balance scripting and spontaneous interactions to make sure you don't exceed the time limit? Also how do you organize your talk practice sessions?
Software dev at Netflix | DC techie | Conference speaker | egghead Instructor | TC39 Educators Committee | Girls Who Code Facilitator | Board game geek | @laurieontech on twitter
The more flexible I can be with what I include the easier it is to be spontaneous. Live coding helps a lot. But understanding how long each section is goes a long way.
My practice sessions start with full run through s. Once I feel confident in flow and timing I’ll use other means to practice. If I’m live coding I often make those snippets egghead videos. If I have a long story or analogy I write those into a blog post. That way I don’t need to run it for a full hour but I still gain confidence in the material.
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Thanks Laurie for sharing! I loved the twitter handle trick :) I am going back to giving talks in a couple of months after two years hiatus and your post is what I am exactly looking for.
One thing I learned in the early years when I started is the importance of storytelling and humor to make long technical talks digestible. I am curious though, how do you balance scripting and spontaneous interactions to make sure you don't exceed the time limit? Also how do you organize your talk practice sessions?
The more flexible I can be with what I include the easier it is to be spontaneous. Live coding helps a lot. But understanding how long each section is goes a long way.
My practice sessions start with full run through s. Once I feel confident in flow and timing I’ll use other means to practice. If I’m live coding I often make those snippets egghead videos. If I have a long story or analogy I write those into a blog post. That way I don’t need to run it for a full hour but I still gain confidence in the material.