[alanfranz]

1) Start small. Start in your company. Then go to local user groups (LUG, universities, etc). Then submit applications to small/local tech conferences, then go on to large ones.

2) Read something about the topic, e.g: https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Public-Speaker-Scott-Berk...

(there're tons of other books and resources, I won't provide everything here)

3) Speak about something you know very well.

4) Reharse. One of the biggest problem with presentation newbies is that they're unable to keep the proper timing.

5) Don't waste your audience time. Keep your talk as short as possible; don't try saying everything, try to say the most important and useful things.

6) Focus on your speech, not on the slides. The slides should support you, you should not be reading slides aloud.

[cripblip]

Preparation for me:

- note all the key points you want to make, collate into groups, these become slides

- generate slides, focus on diagram not text, you are going to speak the text. Ensure a key is present if necessary

- if the diagrams are complex, do a flick book : generate the final picture and duplicate the slide subtracting content working backwards, you will end up with lots of slides but they print cleanly stand alone and are clear

- print the slides . Write notes along side them, repeat repeat repeat, distill into the following per slide:

3 intro points

3 content points

3 summary points

And most importantly .. a lead into the next slide; these become your notes

-give the talk, the notes slides are your anchors, you can easily glance down to remember where you are if you are lost, giving the 3 summary points builds your confidence along the way, and the link to the next slide keeps everything flowing nicely

- if you are nervous. Get a plant in the audience to ask you an easy question on the 2nd or 3rd content slide, I calm down immediately if I get a question I can answer early on

Good luck !

[caseysoftware]

+1 to all of that.

The only other thing I'll add is that many meetups have lightning talks which are normally 5-15 minutes. It's an even smaller way to get started with minimal risk.

* Some meetupgs do lightning talk-only sessions every so often with 5-6 of them in a given meeting. Others do a long+short session where you would present immediately before the "full" session. Conferences often do these too.

[snarf21]

The most important thing about your talk is refinement and practice. Keep cutting and cutting until you've distilled it. Just like making a product, the hardest part is knowing what to take out.

[mrisoli]

I'm trying to do that, already done some in my company(including my previous one), but I am having difficulties transitioning to local groups/meetups, this is mainly because I have an extra issue: I am an expat who doesn't speak the local language and not many of them are in English(and I am not even a native English speaker as well).

[csydas]

I think it is somewhat understood and well accepted that much of the tech world is done in English, even by non-native speakers. My company does all of it's trainings in English even though the presenters are not native speakers. Strong technical background will overcome language barriers and people are usually willing to look past any difficulty in understanding as long as the content is strong. Keep in mind that this has the corollary that the audience has to understand the technical aspects well enough to absorb the new information in order to overlook any language difficulties. They need not be experts, but at least know enough to be educated on the subject.

[gnur]

In my experience, this should not have to be a big issue. In the Netherlands, half of the meetups and conferences feature non Dutch speakers.

If you have knowledge about the topic you want to convey, submit a proposal (make it clear it will be English) and hope for the best.

[a_c_s]

The solutions seem simple but not easy: learn the local language and/or start giving talks in places that speak English and/or your first language.

[alok-g]

>> 3) Speak about something you know very well.

+1 (or something you are passionate about)

>> 4) Reharse. One of the biggest problem with presentation newbies is that they're unable to keep the proper timing.

You may not need full rehearsal. However:

(A) Measure your velocity (slides per minute). Add ~30% for audience interactions including Q&A, and another ten minutes for setup issues.

(B) Watch out for excessive Uh's, Um's, "you know", etc.

Remind yourself, giving tech talks is nothing special. You need to be natural and just walk in.

>> 5) Don't waste your audience time. Keep your talk as short as possible; don't try saying everything, try to say the most important and useful things.

+1. Distilling and simplifying the messages is super-critical. Your audience would still probably not understand most of the talk. So you need to overdo on this to compensate.

>> 6) Focus on your speech, not on the slides. The slides should support you, you should not be reading slides aloud.

Focus on the slides too. In my experience, making the slides self-sufficient does no harm. Rather it helps in two ways:

(A) It prepares you more. Even if your slides are self-sufficient and "filled", you'll still have more to say than the slides anyways since during preparations, your research efforts and mental churn will fill you with a lot more thoughts than what the slides say.

(B) Slides become ready for offline sharing after the talk, giving you more bang for the buck.

[Clubber]

> Rehearse

I can't emphasize this enough. I was tasked to give a speech/presentation on new features to the company's annual user's group/conference many years ago. Features I wrote. I figured it would be easy because I feel comfortable in front of large groups and hell, I wrote the damn features. When the COO forced us to do a run-through the day before, it was terrible. My mind just had too many things going through it. I knew too much about the topic and needed to narrow it down beforehand. I tend to ramble. I spent all night rehearsing and it went really well.

Another time, earlier in my career, I gave a presentation of a website I wrote based on Oracle stuff to an Oracle user's group. Absolutely no rehearsal. I slugged down a couple of beers beforehand and it went really well. This is probably what lead me to believe the previous example didn't require rehearsing. This was more of a hype presentation than a rundown of features though.

FWIW, Steve Jobs, a great presenter of our time, was a rabid rehearser.

[pmarreck]

What about confronting crowd fear? I think I was scarred by my first presentation ever at the age of 12 (on DNA) in front of not 1 but 2 classes full of people, because I basically stuttered through the entire thing (speaking to 1 person- Fine. Speaking to 5 people- Fine. Speaking to 10 people- Mostly fine. Speaking to 30+ people- NOT FINE. lol). I took a public speaking class in college and they videotaped us while practicing and it was apparent that we improved but that was now years ago. I taught a couple small classes in things (or tried to) like SQL but they didn't fly very well. :/

[Rudism]

The only way to really get over the fear is through regular exposure. Finding a local public speaking meetup or Toastmasters group is a great way to practice and build up your confidence.

[tomjen3]

Find your nearest toastmaster club. They have done wonders for my speaking skills, and nobody is going to laugh if you blow the speech.

[tjr]

For some additional practical tips, see also Patrick Winston's "How to Speak" talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjbmPuhuFv0&list=PL9F536001A...

[litzer]

Any suggestions on finding small/local tech conferences other than Meetup.com?

[alanfranzoni]

That really depends on where you live!

I'm from Italy, and there tend to be small, single-day conferences around the country; you can find info on lanyrd, linkedin, facebook.. I can't tell.

[dalbasal]

ermmm… lots of places. :) It will vary a lot by local and subject areas but for starters. As a starting point, look up:

Universities. They often have all sorts of public lecture programs, for their students/academics and for the general public.

Some embassies arrange or host lectures on topics they care about.

Some of the smaller, top-level government bodies like the small business authority, technology agency, "entrepreneurship and innovation”… A local example of the last one locally: https://www.enterprise-ireland.com/en/Events/

Industry or professional associations (chambers of commerce, unions..) do some things.

You might find churches, religious community centres (google JCC in the US) that have relevant events

In smaller communities (where the above doesn’t exist), local schools might host these kinds of events for the general public.

(some of these might also be listed on meetup)

[caseysoftware]

If you're in the US, these are useful:

https://twitter.com/techeventsNet/following

[pryelluw]

Search social networks (facebook and Twitter mostly).

[j45]

Great advice.

Depending on the type of tech community in your area, the right kind of tech meetups are generally inviting.

[thearn4]

4, 5, and 6 are good advice for students learning to give academic presentations as well.