Ask HN: What are the best practices for submitting tech talks?

10 pointslittlesheephtpt7y ago3 comments

I want to get started doing talks at tech conferences. I have several (hopefully) decent topics which are a cross between security and AI/machine learning. My plan is to build up experience with smaller, local opportunities like meetups and small regional conferences. (I am not a complete speaking noob -- I do internal corporate talks frequently and have done a bunch of college seminars).

I have a few questions, though:

1) Will doing the talk at a small conference/meetups disqualify me or hurt my chances to get accepted at a bigger talk?

My goal is to do talks at the 'big' conferences but, if I have a particularly good topic to talk about, I wouldn't want to "waste" it at a smaller venue.

2) Is it okay to submit multiple talks per conference?

3) Is earlier always better for submission, or does the submission time (early in the CFP period vs late) matter at all?

4) How 'complete' is your talk when you submit? Is it a vague outline that you don't start working on until accepted, or is it mostly ready-to-go when you submit?

Any other thoughts and advice for a beginning speaker greatly appreciated.

3 comments

hackermailman7y ago

Some great general advice for talks is given here if you're interested http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~kayvonf/misc/cleartalktips.pdf but doesn't answer any of your submissions questions. Each conference I would imagine has guidelines how to apply to be a speaker or if more than one talk is allowed, or if it must be previously unpresented/new, just email them and ask.

An example of a really good talk is https://youtu.be/5c0BvOlR5gs where Shriram Krishnamurthi explains creating computer science curriculum for highschool students. Notice he moves around the room (if this is possible and not a huge arena), is able to prevent people from hijacking the talk like the one audience guy who rants off topic about early arithmetic curriculum, yet still manages to give an acceptable answer to his question, and promises to hang around afterwards to discuss questions with audience members who have multiple questions as a way to keep the talk moving on topic. The slides are perfectly presented as well moving effortlessly instead of those talks where they pause for each slide.

matt_the_bass7y ago

There are a number of trade groups that have conferences with short paper requirements and upon acceptance come with a 20 minute presentation. Try some of those first since acceptance bar is relatively low and does not require academic associations.

This will get you good practice, build a resume, get some good networking, and give you a chance to see both great and poor presentations.

For example, most of the subgroups from IEEE fall into this category.

itronitron7y ago

Practice makes perfect, smaller talks won't hurt your chances for larger venues but it may eat up your time. And a lot of time is needed in order to generate the material for a tech talk such that you have something interesting to convey and are able to back it up within the appropriate context.

In terms of presentation, some good advice I have heard is to present as if the audience are not native english speakers.

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