11 tips for giving solid tech talks at meetups

In the past three months I’ve conducted 7 tech talks that were all delivered in the state of California. This is not an impressive number by any means, but to me it was because public speaking gigs was something I habitually shunned away from. However, recent events have inspired me and I decided that public speaking is a skill-set that’s applicable in a wide spectrum of endeavors. Therefore, I felt that the best way to learn was to dive headfirst and acquire tips, feedback, and experience incrementally. It was a bold move, but one that I have absolutely NO regrets. Below are the top-11 lessons I learned while delivering tech talks in 2018. The only experience that I had delivering technical presentations prior to this was for my senior design project in college.

I created this article in the hopes that it will be helpful for software engineers that’s interested in delivering technical presentations whether in-house at the software shop they work at, or at another venue such as a meetup or conference. I do imagine that insights from these tips can be extracted and internalized across a multifold of disparate professions.

Start small, think big

My first tech talk was booked by reaching out to the organizer of a local meetup. Yes, meetups are an incredible opportunity for getting your foot in the door with tech talks. What’s even cooler is that many of them offer lightning talks which are short presentations that are typically 5-10 minutes in length. Lightning talks allow multiple speakers to present during an allocated time period and is a low-risk situation for newbie presenters.

Once you have gained experience presenting at multiple lightning talks you can then upgrade to doing longer 30-minute or 60-minute presentations. This is the route that I took when I first started as I felt an incremental approach to delivering tech talks would be more sustainable. It’s a big leap from doing a lightning talk to a 60-minute presentation so the more experience you gain from being in front of an audience… the better.

Make the slide deck downloadable after the presentation

This one is a personal vendetta of mines. I have attended many tech talks that I enjoyed but unfortunately many of them are long forgotten because I could not access the slide decks after the presentation. Making a power point accessible online is straightforward and there’s a myriad of resources to do this. Below is a list of online platforms that allows you to upload and share various media including slide decks:

? Google Slides

? Google Drive

? GitHub

? Dropbox

? Slide Share

? Speaker Deck

If you do upload your slide deck to Google Slides or Google Drive, then what happens is a dynamic url is generated which is not search engine friendly nor visually appealing. If you go this route then consider shortening the url with a url tracking service like bitly. There’s two more benefits of making your slide deck accessible online. One, it allows those who cannot attend the event to view your presentation and two, you can share it across your social media channels which equals more publicity. This is a great way to brand yourself in your industry which could lead to new opportunities. I also created a page on my site called /presentations that allows event hosts to see a plenary view of my slide decks.

Know how to sync your laptop to the projector

Believe it or not connecting your computer to a projector can be a hindrance to your presentation. Therefore, it never hurts to understand the external connectors on your machine so that when it’s showtime you’re not caught off guard. Modern computers are equipped with a number of external connectors that helps it interface with other peripherals such as S Video, RCA, MIDI, SATA, and USB. The ones that you’ll need to be concerned with for your presentation is the VGA connector and HDMI. It’s always a good idea to double check with the event host to ensure that they have the appropriate cables. As backup you can bring your own cables which you can get at economical prices online at stores like Newegg or locally at an electronic shop like Best Buy. Also, if you’re using a computer that doesn’t have a HDMI port you can still connect to the projector via HDMI by using a USB to HDMI adapter.

Once you have the correct cables the next step is to switch displays from the monitor to the projector. If you’re using Windows 10 then use the Windows key + P and then choose the PC screen only option. If you’re using Windows 10 you may not even need a cable if your PC and projector supports Miracast. You could instead press the Windows logo key + P, select Connect to a wireless display, choose projector, and then viola you’re set. To learn how to use external monitors with Mac read "Use external monitors with your Mac."

Prepare a solid abstract

An abstract is a brief summary of the key elements of a scientific paper. In other words it’s a condensed version of the paper itself. Abstracts are important because with the prevalence of online databases they’re the first thing that researchers see. This makes sense because researchers can’t realistically read all of the papers so having a shortened version of it makes their life easier. Abstracts help sell your presentation! Having an event is one thing, but having presentations that will captivate the audience is also critical. Below are some tips on how to craft an excellent abstract:

? 200 to 250 word paragraph

? Should explain thesis (main idea)

? Should explain key points

? Should make your work seem important

? Should include the problem you’re trying to solve

? Should include your approach to solving the problem

? Should include the results and conclusions

For more tips on how to create solid abstracts you can read How to Write an Abstract, What is An Abstract, Writing an Abstract, and How to write a good abstract for a scientific paper or conference presentation.

Keep code snippets short

You shouldn’t include long code snippets in your slides because even though the code is not difficult for you it’s most likely new to those in attendance. Attendees won’t be able to fully comprehend the topic during the duration of your presentation. That’s where skillful pedagogy comes in handy. You won’t be able to provide a complete brain dump to your audience about your subject, especially if it’s something complex. That’s ok as you can instead provide a high-level overview of the subject and perhaps inspire attendees to learn more about it afterwards. Another reason to not include long code snippets on slides is that it will most likely be difficult for your audience to actually see the code due to the small lettering. While we’re on the subject, computer code is not the only thing you shouldn’t bombard your slides with.

Don’t add too much text

Humans have a single core processor for understanding information, so if you include a slide with a ton of text then your audience will tune into the slides instead of you. A single point on each slide is a goal to strive for. A method that I use when I want to convey more information about a topic is to create a comprehensive blog post and embed the slide in it. You can then share the blog post after the presentation so that attendees can get something more in depth. Remember, learning is just one of the things that people come to tech events for. They may come for entertainment, food, networking, etc.

Practice your presentation and evolve your slide deck

If you practice your presentation several times then there will naturally be parts you’ll discover that needs to be removed. This sucks especially if you spent a lot of time thinking of the content but if you have a blog then the removed content could be flushed out into a post. It’s kind of similar to the editing process that films go through. Sometimes the production company impose modifications that they think will make the film more profitable in the box office. Well, instead of a box office you have an audience. Practice your presentation so that you can help get the flow, timing, and other mechanics in check for your presentation.

Consider Toastmasters to sharpen your public speaking skills

Toastmasters international is a nonprofit organization that operates clubs worldwide. The purpose of this group is to promote communication and public speaking skills. With roots to the YMCA in the early 1900s, toastmasters is a great opportunity to practice spur of the moment speaking along with gaining presentation and leadership skills. You can see the toastmaster chapters in your area by using their online tool. I’m a firm believer that you can complete tons of online courses or read a plethora of books but the only way to get better at public speaking is to practice it.

If a toastmaster chapter is not in your vicinity then no need to fret as I imagine that there’s a plethora of opportunities for you to exercise your public speaking skills! Consider looking for public speaking groups near you. Here’s a list of meetups that you can checkout. If you’re feeling bold and courageous then you can consider participating in open mic or if that’s not your cup of tea then you can look for public speaking courses at local universities. Other opportunities are participating in trade associations, chamber of commerce, and nonprofits.

Be passionate about your topic

You’ll come across few individuals who don’t appreciate a talk that can inspire and move them. Well, it will be quite difficult to inspire and move people if you’re speaking about something that you’re just not into. Therefore, it’s recommended to find something that you’re deeply passionate about and to build a presentation around it. Just think about it, we all find it extremely difficult to talk about things that we don’t care two hoots about. However, if you switch topics and focus on something that’s truly dear to your heart then you can probably talk so much about it that you would lose track of time. Once you find a topic that you can talk passionately about then that’s something I would encourage you to present on.

Don’t promote yourself

Self promotion at meetups is kind of shun upon. The focal point of meetups is to deliver as much value as possible to your audience, not to promote yourself. Instead come prepared to network and be immediately accessible after the presentation and beyond. View the meetup page if there is one and promptly respond to any questions that appear so that you can deliver as much value as possible. If your presentation is valuable then people will definitely want to connect with you afterwards. Also, some meetups may have a segment in which people can make announcements such as if they’re looking to hire folks or are looking for work opportunities. This is the appropriate time to engage in self promotion.

Study good speakers

The finest people to get tips from when it comes to public speaking is first-rate speakers! You can look for some of the best speakers in your industry for clues on how to deliver better presentations. If you want to take a more generalist approach then you can study TEDx Talks, Toastmasters World Champions, motivational speakers, politicians, and various other famous speakers.

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