Have you ever wanted to speak at a conference, but not known whether you’re good enough or how to start? I was in the same situation 2 years ago, but since then I’ve given over a dozen talks at a variety of different tech conferences. As well as testing and refining my own solutions to the challenges that face new speakers, I’ve learned what works and doesn’t work for others.

This talk will share solutions, often in the form of open-source tools, to many of the problems which aspiring speakers encounter, including:

Overcoming fear of public speaking Choosing a topic to talk about Finding the right conference for your topic Marketing a talk proposal with a convincing abstract Finding open-source presentation software that fits your needs Designing powerful slides

These tricks will be helpful for experienced presenters looking to learn new skills, as well as novice speakers who need some help getting started.

Slides at http://talks.edunham.net/seagl2015/