[mparr4]

My strategy: just sign up.

I find the social pressure to avoid failing miserably in front of an audience is sufficiently motivating.

Local meetup groups are great, as is giving a talk at your company. If I'm giving a talk, I like to give the same talk to both audiences.

[koolba]

Huge +1 to this plan. Nothing compels one to to learn to swim like being thrown into a shark tank.

For shrinking the overall size of the endeavor, a lot of conferences / meetups have a lightning talk section so rather than filling in 45-60 min of time, you've only got to do about 5 minutes, usually with a hard cut off. It's a great way to get your feet wet.

[pimterry]

+1, lightning talks are amazing as a speaking opportunity. They're drastically less scary than a 40 minute talk, so it's easy to give it a go with a simple talk without much prep, and as you gain experience they're an amazing place to practice honing more complex topics down to their essential essence.

They're also a great place for comedy, if you're into that sort of thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3xuvPPBPM4

[alok-g]

+1

Sign up!

If you see a last date to pull out, be lazy on that. It will all work out fine at the end.