Why I give public speeches

If you follow me on either social media or in real life, you know that I give public speeches quite often. I travel around the country and globe to talk at conferences, user groups, events and workshops about a topic I am very passionate about: The Microsoft Cloud. Very often people ask me why I do take on this burden to prepare sessions, travel the world and spend my day at conferences. This article tries to explain why.

Looking back

At the end of the day, everyone needs to earn money to survive in this world, an I am no exception to this. In the year 2000, when I was 25 years old, I decided to found my own company to deliver IT services to customers. That was a long time ago and many things have changed since then: The technologies we used to build solutions changed. The customer needs changed. And most importantly: I changed.

Windows Server Pre-Launch Event 2002 in Bern, Switzerland

Back in the days I was totally focused on my business. Every single minute I invested into the company. Every single minute I was always thinking about the company, what to optimize and what to attack next. I was never able to let go, not during the weekends, nor during our family holidays. Never. This was perfectly fine for me at that time. Our company became very successful over the years and soon we were one of the top shops in Switzerland for professional datacenter management services based on Microsoft technologies.

One thing that definitely helped me to become successful was the fact, that I had built a large network with many awesome, skilled people. People I could discuss business and tech related things with. People I could trust and I learned a lot from. And I never had to pay anything for these services. They shared with me what they knew because they wanted to assist me, to make me become a better entrepreneur, a better technician, a better person. I was and still am very thankful for all this support until this very day.

Knowledge Day 2009 in Bern, Switzerland

But no matter how smart you are, how good your business model might be or how good your external support is: There is also another very important ingredient to become successful. Luck. Without any doubt I can say that myself as a person as well as our company, we were blessed with luck many times. And I have seen others bringing up their companies that were not that lucky and were struggling big time.

Giving back

There are millions of people out there that are way smarter than I am. But if I can help someone, or make any difference, I try to give back what I received years ago myself. Of course this only works for my closer network. For all others I decided to share some of my business and technical experience through other channels, e.g. through public speeches.

Geekmania 2011 in Zurich, Switzerland

I remember that when I was a kid, I hated to give presentations in school in front of my class mates. I just didn't like to stand in front of people with specific expectations that were staring at me. But in 2001/2002 I started with my first public tech speeches. I started with small groups of people. Talking about new products and solutions that Microsoft had in the pipeline. What started as a not-so-comfortable thing to do, became more and more fun over time. I never gave up until I really started enjoying giving presentations. Because people joined to learn something from me. And the best part was, that it started to become very satisfying for myself and made me feel good to see people benefiting from my knowledge. This is what motivated me to continue.

Until then I had attended several local tech events in Switzerland already. But in 2003 I attended my first international conference. I remember this moment crystal clear: I entered the Bella Center in Copenhagen to attend the pre-conference day of the "Microsoft IT Forum 2003" in Copenhagen. John Craddock was delivering a full-day Active Directory workshop on the big stage and I immediately thought: "I want to be on that stage one day". Since then, I continuously worked on my speaking career and still do it until today.

System Center Universe Europe 2013 in Bern, Switzerland

I started to go to international conferences on a regular basis because I saw the value. It allowed me to extend my network to an international level and learn from the best experts on the planet. This is also something I still do today. Even if I am a speaker and expert myself, I still attend conferences to extend my knowledge and learn about new things. Learning is a never ending process, especially in the IT industry.

Now, how to become a public speaker yourself?

This is a question I get asked pretty often: "How shall I start my public speaking career?". The very first thing I always answer: Don't do it because your empoyer or anyone forces you to give speeches, or you want to do it because others are doing it too. Only do it when you(!) want to do it.

Next, only speak about topics you are comfortable with. Don't let anyone select a topic for you (this is OK if you are more experienced). You have to speak about something you know, something you are passionate about. If this is not the case, why would you want to jump on a stage? All you can do in this situation is to lose.

Microsoft Tech Connect 2016 in Darmstadt, Germany

Start with an audience you know, maybe start with company-internal sessions where you can share your technical expertise. It's much more relaxing if you know the audience and you can ask for direct and honest feedback what you have done good and where you can improve.

If possible try to find a more experienced speaker to team up. Even if you want to be the main presenter it helps to have someone at your side. It's good for your confidence and in case you are struggling, that person might jump in to help you out.

Microsoft Tech Days 2017 in Baden, Switzerland

The more speeches you give, the more comfortable you will get, and you might be ready to take the next step. That could be a user group or an event. User groups are great to enhance your speaking experience. The scenery is (normally) relaxing and as no one has to pay anything to get in, it's also OK if someone does not deliver the world's best speech. Speaking at larger events is a bit harder because they come with an additional challenge: Very often, you have to send in a session proposal to get a speaking slot. And a organization team then selects what sessions and speakers make the cut to the agenda. This is not easy if you are not yet well-known. It's also totally understandable from a conference organizer perspective: Attendees might need to buy a ticket for the event, and so they expect good quality sessions that are well presented. The conference organizers need to make sure the speakers they select will deliver top notch sessions. And if you have no record, it's hard to get in. But give it a try, try over and over again until you will make it. Then it gets easier.

IT Camp 2018 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania

To close this article I'd like to share some tips that might help you being more successful in the process of getting sessions at a (larget) event or conference:

• Document and share your speaking experience. The more details organizers can find from you the better. Write blog posts, record and publish videos etc., work on your visibility, also when you speak in from of small audiences.
• When writing session proposals make sure they sound interesting and are different than the normal proposals. "How to transform yourself" is maybe not the title that catches the eyes of the decision makers, if you select "The Death of the IT Pros" for your session (actually this is one of my sessions), that might sound more interesting to have a closer look at.
• Always send multiple proposals for a conference you want to speak at - but also not too many (because this is very annoying). I suggest to submit five proposals per event. And of course try over and over again for every conference that might be of interest for you.
• The last tip that might make your life a bit easier: Team up with a well-known speaker that is willing to accept you as a co-speaker (e.g. to present a part in his presentations or tdo the demos). This person might get accepted because of his visibility, and as his co-speaker you will get in too. Don't forget: Document and share.

Microsoft Ignite 2019 in Orlando, United States

And with that I will close this (too long article). I hope this gave you some insights why public speaking is a great thing and how you can initiate your own speaking career. If this article is helpful, please let me know. Also if you want to share your own experience or view on things, I am super happy to learn from you as well. All the best on your journey!

Marcel