An interactive workshop for developers and technology professionals who are interested in public speaking. Learn how to create and deliver great technical talks and presentations.
Workshop Overview
Speaking in front of an audience, whether in person or online, can be daunting – but it doesn’t have to be.
Dylan Beattie has delivered keynote presentations at conferences all over the world: NDC, JFokus, BuildStuff, DotNext, YOW!, and many more. In this 2-day workshop, Dylan will teach you everything he knows about how to create and deliver great presentations for technical audiences, whether you’re speaking at industry conferences, doing a talk at your local meetup group, or just sharing ideas with your own team.
On day 1, we’ll focus on structure and presentation. You’ll learn how to design a talk - yes, great presentation don’t just magically appear out of nowhere. Like any other product, success starts with design. Gather ideas, create a structure, figure out what works. You need to understand your constraints: format, time limits, what kind of audience you’ll be speaking to. You need to understand the tools you can use: language, storytelling, humour, rhetoric. We’ll learn about how to rehearse effectively: how do you actually make sure you’re getting better each time, instead of just repeating the same mistakes over and over? Even seasoned presenters get nervous before a talk - so how do you deal with nerves?
We’ll look at some examples of great - and not-so-great - presenters, figure out what makes them work, and talk about what we can do to incorporate those ideas and techniques into our own presentations. Then we’ll put what we’ve learned into action: everybody in the group will prepare and present a short talk - just words, no slides - on a topic of their choice.
On day 2, we’ll concentrate on visual material – slides, multimedia, and live demos. We’ll look at techniques you can use to make your presentations clear, accessible and engaging, and how to use images, animation and photography to support and reinforce the points you’re making in your presentation. We’ll look at tips for presenting code, the challenges of doing live demos, and how to use screen recording and video editing to take your live code presentations to the next level.
Then on the afternoon of day 2, everybody will prepare and deliver another short presentation – this time using slides, multimedia and/or live demos, depending on their choice of topic.
The workshop wraps up with tips for disaster recovery and dealing with unforeseen problems, and there’s plenty of time throughout the workshop for discussion and questions.
Workshop Structure
Intro
- Introductions. Who is everybody? What are you all hoping to get out of this workshop?
- What makes a great talk?
How to Design a Talk
- Collecting ideas, brainstorming, structures
- Classic talk structures – the narrative, the ‘top ten’ list, the three-act play
- Pacing and timing – how do you know how much content to prepare?
Secrets of Effective Rehearsal
- Measuring your own progress
- Identifying areas to improve
Understanding your audience
- How to pitching your talk
- Etiquette and codes of conduct
- Using humour
- Dealing with feedback
- How to do a good Q&A
Slides and Visuals
- Why use slides, anyway?
- Tips and tricks
- Working with technical content
- Advanced PowerPoint
- Copyright and fair use
Presenting Technical Content
- Pros and cons of live coding demos
- How to present diagrams and technical detail
- Working with videos and screen recordings
Practical Tips and Disaster Recovery
- How to prepare for the things you can’t prepare for
- Preparation timelines and coping mechanisms
- Speaker horror stories (and why they weren’t that bad after all!)
Discussion, Q&A and wrap up
Target Audience and Prerequisites
This workshop is suitable for anybody who is looking to begin public speaking, or to improve their presentation technique.
Around 25% of the workshop is specifically focused on presenting software code and technology; the rest of the workshop is applicable to presentations on any topic and to any kind of audience.
Attendees will need a laptop and a presentation tool. I recommend Microsoft PowerPoint – most examples are presented in PowerPoint, and the course includes some specific discussion around using PowerPoint for creating animation effects and slide transitions – but for the attendee presentations element of the workshop, Keynote or a web-based solution will work just fine.
About the Trainer
Dylan Beattie created his first web page in 1992. With over 25 years’ experience as a professional developer, he’s worked on everything from static websites to distributed microservice architectures. Dylan is a Microsoft MVP and the creator of the Rockstar esoteric programming language, and he’s presented talks about technology and software development at conferences and events all over the world.
Dylan has been speaking at technology events and meetups for over 10 years, and recordings of his presentations have been watched online by over two million people. Since 2020, Dylan has worked as an independent consultant, teacher and speaker. He’s online at https://dylanbeattie.net/ and on Twitter as @dylanbeattie.
Testimonials
Here's what previous attendees had to say about this workshop:
- “ I loved Dylan's energy and passion. I also took away loads of practical ways to improve my speaking skills. ”
- “ I've done speaker training type things in the past so the material was not really new, but Dylan's way of presenting it is just SO MUCH better than previous training sessions. ”
- “ I really enjoyed the humour and that Dylan showed personality throughout the workshop. ”
- “ Really engaging, and the participation element was enough to practice but not too much to feel overwhelmed ”
Upcoming Course Dates
No public dates are currently scheduled.
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