Recently I had the opportunity to speak at DATA:Scotland. It was my first time speaking at a conference where I presented my session on Guillotines, Sat-Nav and the Query Optimiser. During my time there I met quite a few people who were interested in speaking too but hadn't quite yet made the jump, so I thought I'd try and use a blog post to give people a helpful nudge.
Firstly, although this was my first conference I did get the opportunity to speak at a couple of local(ish) user groups beforehand. This was ideal because I could try out the session in front of a very friendly crowd and get a lot of instant feedback too. I could also get a feel for some of the bits that worked and some of the bits that didn't.
I'd also read a lot about public speaking but in truth when it comes to actual delivery style I guess that's just develops (or is constantly developing) quite naturally. For me I throw in quite lot of humour into my session which helps me break the ice with the audience and build a rapport with them, but that is something that fits my personality and works for me. I guess if I try to be or present as someone else then it's probably not going to work.
I also try to speak about topics that I am really interested in, it sounds obvious but it's also true. I'm quite happy to talk about the query optimiser because I really enjoy the inner workings of SQL Server, particularly around optimisation. Ask me to talk about merge replication and a session will be totally different, or more than likely non-existent!
Practice is key. Another rather obvious bit of wisdom but another that is also completely true. I would go over parts in the car, in the shower, in my sleep and to my rehearsal audience of the dogs. For me it's about constantly tuning the delivery; what works, what doesn't sound right, would this slide be better over there, does this even make sense etc etc?!
I'd also add that the practice doesn't end after delivery, I'm still very much making tweaks!
Having the support of DATA:Scotland was crucial. They provided me with a speaker mentor, Alex Yates, who provided some absolutely priceless insights into speaking and gave me some awesome advice on my session. After our first talk I genuinely was full of ideas because I was able to look at the session from an attendees perspective, something I hadn't really done. Now I had questions such as, "why is this useful to me?" or "how does this make me do my job better?" in mind when putting it all together.
Having the newcomer session option was a big nudge for me. I'm not even sure I would have submitted a session without it and genuinely I think it's brilliant. Not only did I have a superb mentor but there was also a couple of web sessions on presenting. Also, being introduced as a new speaker at the conference helped too, it didn't feel like I was plunging into the deep end as much!
There's loads more and I'll definitely write more about the experience but what I will say/write is that just before I went into the room I told myself that never again would I be experiencing speaking at a conference for the first time again. This was it and I needed to immerse myself in the experience, nerves and all, as much as I could. I like to think I did just that and as such it was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.
It's also rather addictive.
If you are wondering about it then reach out to the community, local user group or even me, I'm more than happy to share my experience of speaking and give any advice that I can (though wisdom may be rather limited).
