You may never have considered becoming a public speaker yourself, but there are important reasons for giving it a try:

  • It is a skill that is often required in one’s professional life, especially in the ICT (information and communications technology) sector. Every time you explain something to a group of people, you are, in fact, speaking publicly.
  • It helps increase your visibility. People come to your talk, you talk is often announced online, there may be a video recording that people watch, etc. As a result, more people are aware of who you are and what you do.
  • The audience also teaches you things. The information flows the other direction, too, from your audience to you, because audiences often give feedback, tips, etc.

What’s keeping you from public speaking?

These are a few things that may keep you from public speaking. In each case you can do something about it:

  • I’m too nervous.
    According to a study, “75% of all people experience some degree of anxiety/nervousness when public speaking”. In other words: it’s normal. Most audiences appreciate nervousness, because it means that the speaker cares – nothing is worse than a speaker who doesn’t care. Nervousness can also add energy to a talk. Lastly, don’t forget that nervousness is often a sign of intelligence. Less intelligent people tend to be over-confident; it’s called the Dunning-Kruger effect.

    The best antidote against nervousness is preparation: You can practice on your own (speaking aloud!) or in front of friends. Going through the talk several times will make you feel much safer.

  • I don’t have enough experience.
    Everybody has to start somewhere! The best way of learning is by doing. Public speaking is not much different from having a normal conversation. The main things to keep in mind are: breathe properly and slow down (talk slower than you would in a conversation).

    Additionally, there is a lot of material on speaking available online. Simply do a web search for “speaking tips” or something similar. I have also included a list of resources at the end of this blog post.

  • I don’t have anything to talk about.
    Anything you have tried out or discovered can make a good talk. Aspects of your work that seem unremarkable to you may well be interesting for others. You can also use a talk as an opportunity to research a topic that you have always wanted to know more about.
  • The audience will criticize me.
    Technical conferences are increasingly making efforts to create safe environments for public speaking. Therefore, you can usually count on being protected from malicious reactions. In my experience, most reactions are well-meaning and genuinely interested. Keep in mind that no one knows everything! Therefore: don’t be afraid to admit when you don’t know something. You can even pass questions on to the audience (“I don’t know – does anyone in the audience have an idea?”).

    Then there is feedback that is negative or angry without being truly malicious. This can hurt, but I’m trying to approach it with a positive attitude: it is often better than no feedback at all and can contain valuable information (which is what I focus on, not the negativity).

  • I don’t have enough time to prepare a talk.
    You don’t have to finish a talk in order to submit it. Creating an abstract and a title is enough.
  • I don’t know how to write a talk proposal.
    Check out the JS Kongress blog post “Tips for submitting a talk to a conference”. It gives tips for finding a topic, creating an abstract, etc.

Reasons for speaking at JS Kongress Munich 2016

The deadline for submitting contributions to JS Kongress is May 15. So there is still time! These are a few reasons why you should submit a talk or a workshop to that conference (taken from a previous blog post):

  • In 2016, JS Kongress is the largest JavaScript conference in the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland).
  • If we reject a talk, we give feedback why it was rejected. So you profit from a submission even if it wasn’t accepted.
  • We strive to create a safe and welcoming atmosphere for everyone. Among other things, this includes keeping conversations civil and constructive.

    We have a code of conduct. It must be agreed to by all attendees, speakers, sponsors and volunteers at our conference.

  • We help with submissions and slides. Just send us an email: speakers AT js-kongress.de.
  • For talks that we accept, we offer trial runs via Skype to give you feedback.

Other open calls for talks

These are lists with conferences that are currently looking for speakers:

More information on public speaking