The Art of Writing Conference Proposals  ## Metadata - Author: [[Major League Hacking]] - Full Title: The Art of Writing Conference Proposals - Category: #articles - Document Note: --- tags: - #conferenceproposals - #publicspeaking - #developeradvocacy Author: Adam (Principal Consultant at Every Developer; Author of *Developer Marketing Does Not Exist*) Source: YouTube Session – *The art of writing conference proposals* Reference: [The art of writing conference proposals](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Oh3CVm9Prg) date created: 2025-08-22 22:05 --- # Title: The Art of Writing Conference Proposals ## Table of Contents: - [📝 Summary](#-summary) - [📖 Main Content](#-main-content) - [🗒️ Notes](#️-notes) - [📖 References](#-references) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) - [✅ Action Items](#-action-items) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#-questions) - [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#-implications) - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#-deib-diversity-equity-inclusion-belonging-assessment) - [✅ Logical Validity](#-logical-validity) - [🔍 DARVO Analysis](#-darvo-analysis) - [🔍 SEO Evaluation](#-seo-evaluation) - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) --- ## 📝 Summary: Adam, a principal consultant and author, shares **seven timeless strategies** for writing effective conference proposals. His approach stresses understanding both **attendees and organizers**, showcasing your **unique experience**, and crafting clear, compelling titles and descriptions. He encourages **research, feedback, and networking** as core practices, while offering practical guidance on audience engagement, proposal structure, and building credibility over time. --- ## 📖 Main Content: The session explains that strong proposals balance professionalism with authenticity. Organizers look for talks that add value, while audiences want content that resonates with their needs. Writing proposals is less about tricks and more about **clarity, specificity, and audience focus**. A good proposal begins with research, moves into well-written descriptions and headlines, and is supported by networking and credibility signals. ### 🗒️ Notes - [02:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Oh3CVm9Prg&t=139) **Why Proposals Matter** - Writing them well improves selection odds. - Struggles are common—even experienced advocates refine proposals continually. - [04:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Oh3CVm9Prg&t=263) **Seven Timeless Strategies** - Originally created for SendGrid evangelists. - Enduring principles, not shortcuts. - [09:33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Oh3CVm9Prg&t=573) **Understand Your Audiences** - Two groups: attendees + organizers. - Avoid self-centered proposals—focus on attendee takeaways. - [12:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Oh3CVm9Prg&t=725) **Differentiate Yourself** - Highlight what makes you uniquely qualified. - Example: employment context (SendGrid, MLH Fellowship). - [13:39](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Oh3CVm9Prg&t=819) **Do Your Research** - Study past talks, conference themes. - Adapt angle of your topic to fit. - [17:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Oh3CVm9Prg&t=1032) **Write for the Program** - Assume description will be published. - Avoid vague promises; write confidently as if selected. - [19:21](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Oh3CVm9Prg&t=1161) **Compelling Descriptions** - Identify audience directly in your text. - Provide clear outcomes + bullet points when possible. - [23:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Oh3CVm9Prg&t=1415) **Headlines = 80% of the Work** - Craft at least 25 variations (Upworthy method). - Titles must hook but stay authentic. - [25:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Oh3CVm9Prg&t=1554) **Seek Specific Feedback** - Ask reviewers for targeted critique (e.g., “Does this headline work?”). - [30:13](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Oh3CVm9Prg&t=1813) **Networking with Organizers** - Builds familiarity and trust. - Can reveal themes organizers prioritize. - Volunteering creates pathways to first talks. - [37:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Oh3CVm9Prg&t=2221) **Start Small** - Begin with meetups or community talks. - Early experiences become credentials. - [43:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Oh3CVm9Prg&t=2606) **Engage the Audience** - Lighthearted openings build confidence. - Use questions, humor, or interactive elements. --- ## 📖 References: - Adam DuVander, *Developer Marketing Does Not Exist* - [Upworthy’s 25 Headlines Method](https://www.slideshare.net/Upworthy/upworthy-25-headlines) - [The art of writing conference proposals – YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Oh3CVm9Prg) --- ## 🗣️ Paraphrase: 1. Original: *“Generic proposals are less likely to be selected. Get specific about your audience.”* Paraphrase: Proposals written in broad strokes tend to fail. Pinpoint exactly who you’re speaking to for stronger impact. 2. Original: *“Write your proposal as if it’s already in the program, not as a draft that might change later.”* Paraphrase: Treat your proposal like the final version attendees will read, ensuring clarity and confidence from the start. --- ## 📰 Newsletter: 🎤 **Want to land that conference talk?** This week’s spotlight is on Adam’s session, *The Art of Writing Conference Proposals*. His seven strategies—ranging from crafting irresistible titles to engaging organizers—offer practical, timeless guidance for aspiring speakers. Whether you’re eyeing WordCamp, tech summits, or local meetups, these lessons will sharpen your proposals and your confidence. Key takeaway? **Be specific, be authentic, and write for your audience (and organizers!)**. Watch the full talk [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Oh3CVm9Prg). --- ## ✅ Action Items: - Apply the **UVP framework** from proposal writing to clarify GoDaddy OSPO messaging. - Build **training modules** for WordPress contributors on proposal writing → bridges contributor growth + community presence. - Use **proposal-writing techniques** in funding requests for The WP Community Collective, emphasizing contributor needs. - Create a **WordPress governance workshop** where attendees draft mock proposals → simulates real contribution pathways. - Align OSPO director aspirations with **conference presence**: use speaking slots as strategic advocacy for OSS sustainability. --- ## 🧪 Hypotheses: - Proposals with **specific outcomes + audience focus** are 2–3x more likely to be accepted. - Networking with organizers significantly increases acceptance chances for first-time speakers. - Titles optimized through the **25-headline method** improve audience attendance. ### 📊 Methodology: - Survey accepted vs. rejected proposals (multi-year conferences). - A/B test proposal titles/headlines with community readers. - Ethnographic research on organizer decision-making. ### ❓ Questions: - How much does organizer familiarity bias selections? - Do conference CFPs unintentionally exclude diverse voices by favoring polished writers? - Can AI-assisted drafting help first-time speakers compete fairly? ### 🔮 Future Research: - Explore bias in CFP selection (gender, race, industry). - Longitudinal study: Does speaking increase career trajectory in DevRel roles? - Compare proposal frameworks across open source vs. corporate conferences. ### 💡 Implications: - Helps new contributors become community leaders. - Informs fairer CFP processes in WordPress and OSS. - Supports policy on transparent proposal evaluation. --- ## 🧠 Learning Styles Assessment: - **Visual**: Slide examples useful; more diagrams would help. - **Aural**: Delivered as livestream → strong for auditory learners. - **Verbal**: Rich in explanation, analogies, and storytelling. - **Physical**: Suggests practical exercises (writing multiple headlines). - **Logical**: Clear frameworks (7 strategies). - **Social**: Live Q&A fosters interaction. - **Solitary**: Reflection prompts about speaker uniqueness. - **Naturalistic**: Not present → could use nature analogies - Summary: Adam DuVander is a principal consultant at EveryDeveloper. He's also the author of Developer Marketing Does Not Exist and previously worked for ProgrammableWeb, Zapier, and Sendgrid. Join him on Nov 17, where he will talk about how to write significant conference proposals for your next event. Adam has sound experience writing proposals and delivering talks, which he will share with you. - URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Oh3CVm9Prg&list=WL&index=57&t=3s&ab_channel=MajorLeagueHacking foreign [Music]foreign[Music] foreign[Music][Music] [Music]foreign[Music] hello hello everyone I hope I am Audibleand uh this is something I do everysingle time I go live uh so yeah let mejust quickly test my audio on the twitch stream and then we can talk about whatare we going to do todayyes it is audible all right uh awesomeand also thanks uh thanks everyone forgetting me know in the chat at I amAudibleawesome all right um so yeah uh we arelive from Emirates fellowship and uhtoday what we are going to talk about issomething that's at least for me it'sit's something quite excitingum uh this is this is something I cameup with because I was actuallystruggling with writing great confidence proposal and then I thought about ifthis is a problem with me uh probablythis will be a problem with most of usand most of you uh Fox as well so whynot gets to uhum a session on it and uh all of us canlearn together like how exactly to guidecreate uh proposals and then maybe wecan end up at at the same conferences asa speakers so yeahum so what that means is today we aregoing to talk about how to get greatconference proposals and uh today wehaveum someone very special with us I am actually a big fan of this person Irecently found him on the internetbefore I was about to reach out to himum and uh he was suggested to me by uhby someone from my from from mih umso we have Adam with us and here here heis hey Adam uh basicallyyeah hium Adam is a principal consultant atevery developer uh he is also the authorof one of the very amazing book Istarted reading his that that book uh like a week ago Ium I think I I read the first chapter uhhe's the author of uh developermarketing does not exist and it's reallyamazing everyone should try that ifyou're into uh advocacy questionshe also previously worked with sendgridand Xavier exactly and uh yeah with uhwith his with his experience uh aboutconferences and developer Creations Etche is going to talk about uh how can we make how can we write a great conferenceprocess uh and and end up being aspeaker in those sessions so yeah withthat I will hand it over to you Adam andI us over the background musicall rightyeah thank you so much yeah it's uh it'sgood to be here and thanks for asking meand I'm excited to to hear from all ofyou as well I I think we'll have anopportunity for some q a right uh as part of thisyes yeahuh and so so that's good so we'll we'llmake sure and we leave some time forthat but uh this topic was one that thatI actually I wrote something up forthe developer evangelists at sendgridand Nick who is part of mlhkept a copy of it otherwise I might nothave kept might not have had a copy ofof this and so uh when when you reached out asking about this I I went and foundthat copy that's uh that I'd seen andlooked back and so this is actuallygoing to be the same seven things that Itold to the syngrid team and uh and thatwas many years ago now but I I thinkthat that shows that these are sort ofTimelessum things to keep in mind as you thinkabout creating a a proposal for a conference and uh yeah in a way to wayto be able to structure structure thatso even though this won't be sort oflike the the tips and hacks I mean youknow not the hacks it'll be the tips uhyou know no no hacks for like sneakingyour way into it I think these are goodfoundational things that we're going totalk about and actually I realized youmentioned the bookum developer marketing does not exist Irealized that actually a lot of a lot of the things that's that I wroteabout many years before the book for thesangrid teamfit really well in I mean they're veryrelated to to this so if you if you likethese seven tips I think uh you'll alsolike the book and there's there's anevents chapter in there and uh and onother types of content so I think thesesame things that we're talking abouttoday you can yes use them to to land a speaking slot at a conference I'myou can also use themas you're writing blog posts to get morepeople to see them those sorts of thingswhich is a lot of what uh artwork thatevery developer is about and andcertainly the bookis aboutso with that I thought I would jump juststraight into the seven you're gonna getkind of the seven I'll show you a listof all of them at the end so uh and then we'll have a chance to to dig into whatmaybe some questions that you havespecifically about some of them as we goso the first one thisvery much in in developer marketing workis important understandingthe audience or in this case theaudience isso I I specifically had that had that sadded on there andthe thing that that the mistake that I see people make both in conferenceproposals and in content that they writeis being very kind of inwardly focusedabout about them about a product notabout the thing that that audience mightcare about and sowanting to think about those thoseaudiences as you do and one of them Ibet you alreadyare thinking about and that is the people who are going to watch this talkand even even still it's really easy tokind of say like you know my best rusttipsuh which is still kind of about you it'sfor the audience but you know maybe itcould be more something like what whatwill this audience what will who hasn'tever used rust before what are the whatare the first things they could seeright so as you start to think about who are these people who will see this youcan get more specific withyour description and that will be atheme across all seven of these I thinkisgetting as specific as you can uhbecause generic is not something that'sgoing to get clicks on a blog post it'sthings that are less likely to beselectedin a conference proposal as wellbut can anyone guess the other audience that you should keep in mind with yourconference proposalgo ahead and if you're live drop it inthe comments with with who you thinkyou should uhyou should considerso I see someone say said the selectorsthat's rightsponsors is interesting uhorganizers is the one that I had in mindwhich is the uhyou know the selectors the in some cases sponsors help to organize conferences aswelluh so yes you wanna want to think aboutwho are the people who are going to beselectingthis talk and what are the things theywant to see andumand so they of course want a greatexperience for the attendees butsometimes there are a few thingsdifferent that they have to think aboutmaybeum the balance of types of talks um and so some of those things so keepthat in the back of your head becausesome of the things that we're going togo through here and then the next itemsare relevant to what an organizer wouldwant to seeand so this this second one is first ofall personal validation to all you areyou are important uh butsecondly is a reminder thatthat you're the one you're proposing to give give this talk and so finding thethings wherelike why are you the exact person whoshould give this and so that's wheresome of the again it's going fromgeneric to specific what is it that thatmakes you the obvious person over allthe other potential people who could whocould give this talk and sowanting to make sure that you thinkabout the thing so those of you that arein the fellowship that's a that's something worth mentioning as apart of your bio or even yourdescription uh right because that'sthat's differentiating you frommany others uh with the send gritters Ihad told them that I said you're workingat sengrid which iscurrently at that point every everywhereacross the globe helping people not justwith their email but with all of the developer problems that they bump intothat has some uhthat has some weight in these proposalsand so finding those thingsthat have the weight uh for you and soFellowship for sure thethe hands-on experience with with toolsthat uhumwith tools that you uhuh you might use that might be you knowcombination of tools that might be arare combination so looking for those uh looking for those things that have youstand out and remember to includeyourself in it and we'll get back tothat a little bit as we talk through thedifferent areasforeignthis next one to to do your research onone hand certainly you want to knowabout your topic that you're proposingum even if your topic is what someone completely brand new tosome technology sees like being able tostill at least understand that topicsome is important but really the bigthing that I mean when I say do yourresearch is on the conference that youare pitching foryour own slot and sogoing through and really making surethat's uh you understand the types oftopics they have and there are uh Iactually I wish I'd included in this uh in this deckum an example I saw recently for ait was for an incident responseconference so people who are reliabilityengineers and they did a really good jobthe organizers did of outlining the typethe themes that they wanted proposals onmost conferences will have thatsomewhere they'll have they'll kind oftell you a little bit about what theywant to uh to have and so look for that and take that seriouslyyou can still find a creative anglewithin a particular themeother things that you can do forresearch is to go back to uh to thatconference if they've done theconference multiple timesread through the uhthe the thesession descriptions from the last timethey've done it and uh and see what you can find to make sure that you can kindof change your topic to becloser to the the type that they havethat they have accepted in the pastunless you see something on their uh ontheir description ofdefinitely don't want to have any moreof this type of topic that we had waytoo much of last year right but uh butthat's that's rarer for sureum and uh you can kind of you can kind ofinfer also the topics that might beselected if if they've announcedKeynotes or particular speakers find outwho who those are and you can kind ofpiece together especially if this is afirst time what types of topics they'remost interested inum so you want to want toput yourself in the best spot to havewhat you're proposing find the angle toso it might be your same topic maybe you have a topic you really love and youwant to give give this talk well you'refinding a different angle at itfor each conference becauseevery conference is going to be a littlebit different with what they wantandso now we're finally we're finally tothe part where you actually get to writewrite something right so everythingbefore this has been kind of preparingthinking about who are these audienceswhat makes you special uhyeah researching the uh the things thathave happened there beforebut now you're ready to actually startwriting this down and so the biggestthing to keep in mindis that you are likely what you write islikely to end up sometimes in a printedprogram definitely on the websiteyou might not have an easy way to goback and change that so uh sometimes that can be really hard thinking aboutoh my gosh what I'm writing has to befinal this has to be the thing that'severyone's going to see but I think itcan also Inspire confidence in in yourdescription so instead of saying thingslike if this talk is selected I will gothrough these three types of whateverright instead it's in this talk I willright so when you put yourself in that this is the final version that's in theprogramuh you can kind of gain some confidenceby that as wellumsoYou Know It uh it doesn't have todoesn't have to be final copy and thereare ways to be able to get that changedin the future I mean if it's a if it'san in-person conference and there's aprinted copy at some point that goesgoes to the prayer right but you can uhyou canusually find a way to update it so don't feel stifled by that but let thatactually encourage you insteadumand uhI think being able so this is a spotwhere you think about yourself again andyour backgrounds and can you includethat in the description as well souhyou know if you've done uh if this is anadvancednode.js talk you should probably mention your nodeexperienceuh definitely in the bio that you putbecause a lot of times it'll be a bioalongside a description uh but even inthe description andI I rememberuh10 or so years ago putting in a aproposal to a conference and I I ran itby a mentor and they suggested puttingin some of that sort of stuff about me into the description andthat was really the first time that thathad occurred to me and that's somethingthat most of my descriptions now willhave something about that because againwhy is someone accepting this talk whyis someone attending this talk you knowthey're gonna see this in the programthey're going to see this in the partwhere they are going to select and youare going to be a big piece of why theythey select this so uhanother reason to think about writingfor the program is you don't uh you knowthis isthis is what it usually looks like afterit's this is I just did a quick searchthe other day to find this this isn'teven a technology conferencebut in the end I actually really likedthis description and soI thought I would I would dwell on thathere for a moment of why why I like itit's a pretty good title the best practices you know maybe that might be alittle more overdone in in our sort ofTechnology worldI'm but that first line so as Countyleaders so this is a for uh a conferenceforpeople in County governments uh asCounty leaders so it's reallyidentifying that audience right at thebeginning and then if you read throughit's all about what are the outcomeswhat are the things that these peoplewill actually get out of this they'll have a way to proactively approach theirCommunity engagements I mean in someways some some of this description couldwork for a technical community topicactually too right so Iso I really like that description sothat's why I I stuck with it but thebiggest reason why I brought it here wasto showwhat it looks what you want to avoidwhat it looks like when someone doesn'tprovide a description at all or I sometimes there'll be like a onesentence description and this is thekind of like oh I'm gonna fill out thiscall for proposals you know in the next10 minutes just gotta get this in andsee if they accept my talk up theyaccepted my talkand that description never gets updatedso if you're not writing for the programwhen you go from the start you can endup with a with something like this whereit's blank or where it isn't as as interesting and that can affect whoactually attends the talk becausesomeone pulls out their phone and looksat the schedulemaybe you have a great title and that'senough I mean what should your county bedoing to prepare for electric vehiclesthat might be a good enough title thatyou don't need a description to pullpeople in but if they're going to becomparing it to this one that's fullywritten here right then uhthen it's less likely for someone tochoose that over another if they're in a place with uh multiple tracks or uh youknow sometimes we see that with virtualconferences too where there aredifferent rooms souhthat bit about the title though leads into this next one who who has beenanticipating me saying how importantthis part is anyonedefinitely in writing in writing blogposts uh this is a this is kind of 80 the headline is eighty percent of yourwork reallyand souh the same the same is true in yourconference proposal for both of thoseaudiences that I mentioned right the theorganizers theythey want to see something that'scompellinguh and so do the uh so do the attendeesinterestingly the my my book that thatwe've mentioned a couple times now that title developer marketing does not existstarted as a conference talka conference talk title and before itwas a conference talk title it was likea littlepiece of a conference talk andthat's one of the things when you startto give more talks you're able to startto see the things that really resonatewith an audience and that's how it endedup being being a title that I used inmultiple places I'mand so you know I mean we could do a whole houror a whole day just on just on titlesand and headlines one one thing I liketo point to it's a it's another oldiebut goodie I mean this is areally likeI don't know maybe 2010uh eraI'mit was on SlideShare that dates it butpresentation from Upworthyand hey Ian another send gritter former sengritter in hereumand so Upworthy has this they have awhole presentation on their editorialprocess this specifically is aboutwriting headlines and I admit I haveonly donethis a handful of times to truly sitdown and write 25 different headlinesbut you'll find even after you get tolike five or six you start to realize that you got something better than thefirst thing that you thought of and soworking through and really thinkingabout that title thinking of it from theperspective of those uh those twoaudiences that we mentioned theattendees and the organizers andum and yeah putting your attention onthat and again the yes you matter but uhbut don't make it about you especiallyin the title is an important piece I'msoyeah all about the title I see somecomments the titles are super importantwe're all on the same page there in theQ a if you want to chat about ideas forways to ways to make better titles wecan uh but uh yeah go go check outupworthy's process that presentation orjust take the 25 headline approach thatthey mentioned and see how far you can get see if you can get to 25. it'sreally hard but it valuable stuff comesout of itand so I think we're on number six nowif I'm counting right out of these sevenandthis is to to get feedback and this isone that I admit doesn't come naturallyto meumand uhand I but I've seen people do it reallywell and I do try to do it anything I write nowabsolutely goes through at least oneother one other person for editing oftenmultiple on on the every developer teamand certainly stuff that the Arabdeveloper team writes we have a processfor it uhand you know the same same is true foruh for a conference proposal so someonesays headlines of the hook that's rightand then you want to fulfill that as you describe as you describe it and you wantto get feedback on both of those andactuallythe headlines being the hook is a greatuh a great that would be a great thingto so if you know that's the mostimportant part you ask someone forfeedback you can be specific about thefeedback that you want so that's one ofthe things that can be tough withgetting feedback isyou're looking for for someone who willgive feedback Beyond oh that that looksgreat or oh you spelled Google wrongright like that sort of surface level feedback and one of the ways to getbetter feedback I learned this at zapierit was one of the zapier values uh is uhis to ask forthe feedback that you want souh so saying can you have a look at thisthe headline is the one that I'm re thatI'm really you know I'd love you to lookat all of it but like I'm reallywondering about how I can make thatheadline better ordo you think that'sthat I've included enough about my background and why I'm the rightspeaker for this and you'll get betterfeedback when you're able to be specificabout uh about the feedback you want andlooking back at the uh at the originalpiece that I wrote for uh for thesengrid team I did say you want goodfeedback I didn't say how to get it andso that's one thing I've learned sincethen is how to get that feedback Beyondthat's great or you spelled Google wrong is to is to ask for some of the some ofthe feedback that you wantand then this last one is also one thatcould probably be a a full hour or a dayand also might like might feel a littlebitslimy to to some of you hearing this andI totally get that as as one who I meanthe the subtitle of the book is is authentic guide right you want to beauthentic and when youstart sort of asking people for favorsit feels like uh feels kind ofinauthentic uh and I get that but at thesame timethe organizers are humans right and uhhumans are much more likely to choosesomeone whowho they know uh whowrite who they're at least aware of um and so that's one of the one of theupsides to networking with organizersthethe other one that might even be biggeris by doing that you actually understandmore about what they want and uh and soyour goal should be to help them out andsobeing able tothink about the things that they wouldwant so they want to have the eventpromoted sohelp share it they will see that umyou can ask them what help they wantright starting to to get to knoworganizers can be a way especially ifyou haven't given a talk before it's away to kind of get that firstopportunity and and even I wouldI would suggest if if this is kind of afirst talk situation also that thinkabout what are some uhsome uh you know first steps you can have into that as far as networking withorganizers you could offer to volunteerto help them they need they need lots ofhelp especially if this is an in-personevent though it uh it is the case withwith online events also there's a lot ofdifferent things that need to happen sowhat are some ways that you can can beable to helpand uhandI mean network is uhis a term that you know means connecting of people so you already have a networksoyou can reach out to even if you don'tknow someone or even know the rightperson you can start to make those asksand that was one of the I think of thethe people that you have the theyour fellow Fellowship uh uh your fellowfellows uh if you're in the fellowshipyou're uh others that are that are partof your Tech Community and reach out to them uh for help on how to reachparticular organizers as well souh now is the the screenshot momentsthis is the one where you see all sevenof these onon a single slide and I will I'll pausethere and let you uh let you get itumand you can see how things like thetitle and the program go back to theaudience they go back to who you are and the skills andbackground you haveI'm it's certainly related to knowingthe things that would be on on theprogram doing your researchand you'll be able to hone that with thefeedback and uh and also with knowingwhat the organizers want when you get toknow them betterandI will say for those of you on that sortof first step to this it getsso much easier after that first one or two if you're if you're on the veryearly stages of this because part ofthat bio or description can be you spokeat this event right and being able topoint to thosethose things uh you know going back tothe you are important the thing theplaces you've spoken become things thatthat help sell you uh if you have thingsI meanthe I've I've now written two books writing that first one opened so manydoors to so many conferences uh I knowthat's a big project but you know whatare those things like a book that youcould put on that listum again to set you apartand uh yeah and it gets it gets mucheasier I mean the first time I spoke atSouth by Southwestit was on a topic like it was a panelthat I organized and it the topic was uhuh bringing kind of gaming concepts of like gamification intoyour non-game uh non-game websites andtoolsnot necessarily something I had a superbackground in I had an interest and Iknew people and I brought peopletogether there was someone who had hadcreated CD-ROMs way like a long time agowhen that was a thing and uh it was mucholder than me and there was someone whohad worked on flash games uh when thatwas a thing um and uh and you know in in between uhants it was a good discussion it wasn'tlikea uh likethe exact thing I would really reallywant uh uhfor uh for a topic but it was a a footin the door that I could then use atother conferences and South by SouthwestI think I spokefor four years in a row or something uhand it started with that first opportunity sothere are a lot of of aspects thereagain we didn't get into the like here'sthe here's the oneone word that you put in here toabsolutely get selected right it's it uhthere's a reason why I was able to pullthese same seven that worked eight yearsago when when NickuhNick asked me to to write it up then Ithink maybe too uh you know there's a reason that these seven worked then theywork now they're you know elements ofof the book uh for sureand it's really just aboutbeing able to help your own communityand I know that's if you're part of themlh community I know that's a big partof what you think about andum so use these seven ways to make surekind of as a checklist to make sureyou're really thinking through andcreating the best proposal you canandI I bet there are going to be some uh some questions about that and happy toget to those and thanks for for havingmeforeignsome of some of some of the audience mayhave some questions about what we justtalked about by the way I I do have I do have onequestion yeah uh all right uh let'sstart with the let's start with theaudience question thanksyeah so do I have any advice on anabsolute beginner souh you know I'm not sure if that'sbeginnerumbeginning speaker or uh or beginner in technology I mean if it if it's ifyou're new to Tech now okay beginningspeaker uh real quick on the if if youfeel like you're too don't have enoughof a background in technology to speakyou're always ahead of someone there'salways a a topic and a conference uhwhere you can participate I so the firstbook I wrote was on mapping apis uh andembedding Google Maps into into yourwork I went and brought that toa big Maps conference so I didn't knowanything about all the like map toolsthat they used butI had this one little nugget which isyou want to get this on the webI have written a book that helps you beable to do that so sometimes one of theways is going to an area I mean go to aconference that isn't technology andteach them what you know about technology you will be the star you willbe the one who knows everything right sobut for the beginning speakerumI would look forfor smaller events that you can be apart of so Iyou know pre-covered we we all wouldtalk about meetups they're starting theyin my city at least I'm in PortlandOregonuh they're starting to come back and sothat that maybe is an option is lookingkind of for those uh those events though certainly you can find that kind of in aumin a uh in a virtual place as well solook for it's a smaller thing even ifyou're giving a talk toyou know a handful of people five peopleit's still you are you're working onthat skill you have to write up thatdescription still right andum and then you have something to beable to point to and that really reallyis Big when you can say I've given talks on and and you know follow that up withone or more thingsum and then I think the for thenetworking with the organizers that Imentioned is kind of lookingeven from a Meetup perspective you couldgo attend the Meetup talk to theorganizer right that's maybe a veryfirst stepumand uh yeah and so that's what that'swhat I would do if I was I was anabsolute beginnerum also remember that that like question whether how absolute beginner you arehave you have you spoken in classesbefore right have you given thosepresentations you can like it helpssometimes helps me to build myself upand remember oh that's right I do havesome you know I do have some things I'vedone in the past and build on top ofthatall rightuh someone so the question is what wouldyou say to someone who has presented inother fields but is now switching fromspeaking at academic conferences to Tech conferences aha yeahare there specificities uh that need tobe taken into account so yeah soI mean academic and professional uh uhconferences are definitely verydifferent right you'll see academic onesuh the the description that I talkedabout the writing for the program that'sthat's the abstract right at a at aacademic conference and you know tends to like I think to to togo for that kind of uheye-catching title and you knowinjecting some of that thatsort of Interest would would be wouldrun counter to some academic conferenceslike that might actually work againstyou being selected that you have like aa click-baity up-worthy kind of uh titleat academic conferences uh so I think because of that you you might have somenatural tendency to towardtoward what appears generic in aprofessional capacity and so looking forum looking for for ways to remember toget that and that would be where gettingfeedback from someone who is outside ofAcademia and uhand saying and asking for that specificfeedback right like is this is this toodry can you read this and see if this is too dry rightumuh write in points or full sentenceswhen submitting The Proposal ooh goodquestion yeah so I I would say a mix soit's it is real good uh I wouldn't justsubmit bullet points but those really docapture the eye of both of thoseaudiences and so if you can getespecially if those bullet points can betowardwhat are the outcomes that someone uh someone's looking for soum you know I mentioned that in thatcounty uh that County description that Ishowed uh where they talked about herethe things that you'll get out of thatthey wrote it in Long in Long uh youknow in full sentences but if we were toWorkshop that one and and improve it oneof the way is absolutely pulling thosethree things that were kind of listed inin a list out and putting them in bulletpointsuh as this is this is what you'll get when you go to this is a great way sobeing able to look for places where youcan do that and that's in blog posts wedo that all the time too our oureditorial team will see someone putthree things in a row and it's like ohthat's all that not only is that a longsentence which is makes it harder toread butboy that's just begging to be bulletpointed uh because that really helpswith skimmers and that's the way peopleread online and I mean if you have 200 proposals for a conference to lookthrough you'll also be skimming some ofthoseuh beginner at public speaking any tipsto engage with the crowd like go-tojokes you keep that's a good questiontoo soI do like to I didn't do that for thisone include a include some kind of likejoke toward the beginning to to letpeople know oh it's okay you can you can laugh this is gonna be this is gonna befun right this is not gonna be boring sothat's a good idea one of the things Ioften do ispractice the first five minutes likemultiple times I mean it's great if youcan practice the whole thing multipletimes butreally get that five minutes that firstfive minutes in uh I mean assuming it'slike a30 minute talk or something right likeuh if it's a 10 minute talk really dialin that first minute right umand uh practice that over and overbecause that will give you moreconfidence when you're giving the talkespecially if you are new to publicspeaking you want to give yourself anyany chance at that you canbut then it also you being confidentgivesyour audience confidence and that that'sthe biggest thing that will push youthrough to having a great talk for the rest of that time is you if you can keepthat audience at first and and they uhsee that it's going to be interesting soabsolutely if you have a if you have ajoke I mean I know some people juststart with a joke uhyou can do that but I try to work insome some sort of uhsome sort of littleyou know thing that at least islighthearted toward the beginning um also engaging with the crowd it canhelp to even just meet a few of thepeople before or even kind of identifythem you know in the front like early onin the talk do you have a way to engagethem uheven a way to ask them a question uhcan uh can be a great way to again buildthat confidence in both of you at thebeginningumum and uhand the the the joke so the academictitle if it doesn't have a colon in thetitle it's not an academic titlelikethat could that could be an example of ajoke you could give at the beginning ifyou're trying if you have a firstprofessional talkand that's one of the ways you could sayI have been in Academia for10 years or whatever it is right uhand uh and this is the first talk I've given without a colon in the title or Iput a colon in the title because youknow I'm an academic but I'm here totalk aboutyou know this in a professional capacitynow like even that sort of thing isn'tlike uhyou know it's not aa planned joke but it shows that there'ssome some light-hearted aspects uhuh so suggestions on how to connect theaudience while presenting how to create that engagement so againquestions for the audience can helpumespecially virtual like that's inVirtual talks I will often have a pointuh where I get to kind of like animportant point in the talk and I mightsay this is the part where you're goingto want to tab back over from your emailto this to this window and listen tothis right like even that kind of likepulls them in I'm I I mean in personyou can this is it's like it's it's alittle bit of an advanced move but youcan you can actually go into theaudience but even from the stage kind ofwalking toward themcan help to to create that also but ifyou have a a way kind of in the audienceuh if there's a reason for you to bedown thereum I I did one where uh in in uh Stockholm where I learned I learnedlater that the the swedes are reallyunsure about you know it was likeeveryone's like why is he in theaudience uh but I had a had just a sillylittle thing whereI brought a remote that actually didn'tdo anything but it was I had a ananimation on the screen that showedNetflix and I was talking about theNetflix API and how it power Powerseverything there but I had someone think that they were controlling Netflix fromlive and so that was something that youknow could do to actually get with theaudience and kind of pull them into whatwe were talking about uh I think thegood one is is questionsuh a quiz even I so I used to have twodifferent pieces of documentation thatwere blurred out and I had people guesswhich oneuh you know or say which one theythought was the best by not even being able to see it and then you know had ahad a conclusion at the end of that thathelpedhelped explain a point but uh that canbe helpful forfor engaging but the very the verybasics for sure are are a question aneasy question too likejust you knowwho here has written any code beforeraise your hands and you do the littlespeaker trick where you actually inperson at least where you actually raise your hand and uh and people will willjoin you in that and that's just a wayeven to start feeling like you'reengaging that audienceyeah these are these are all really goodquestions and and I like that many ofthem are beyond that proposal so you'realready thinking that proposal isaccepted and you are going there and youare going to speak and uh I believethat's the case and so uhmake sure you go through these uh these seven uh seven pieces I'llshow you again there we go go throughthese seven uh as you put together yourproposals and uh yeah and let me knowwhere where you're speaking I wanna Iwanna see itawesome there is uh one other questionthere is I'm looking now I'm trying to get back to the the bottom there uhgoing back to the proposaldo you happen to have a sampleconference proposal example that youcould share what a great idea and Idon'tumyeah and so often what they ask for isdifferent but you'll almost always havebio and descriptionum but yeah that's a that's a good ideaand I don't have have one of thosethough uh you could probably search myname I I hesitate to give that uh give that advice search my name in aconference and you'll see ones that Ihave I have done in the pastumyeahall right awesomeumall right I think that was pretty muchit uh again amazing questions andamazing answers and uh the other uhsound points uh definitely I am going to write this because as I said initiallythis is something that I struggle withum and I am going to use this and thenuh I I will get you know where I'm goingto uh for for uh for a talk uh for ourpresentationexcellent yeah well you tell me about itI know you have my email address so letme know nowall right uh we will do the public thingwe just read about it right all right uh yep as uh that is prettymuch it uh and thanks again Adam for theamazing session and thanks everyone forjoining and asking those great questionsI hope to see you again next time on thetwitch stream and uh again thanks Adamhow yeah yes good to see you all yeahhi everyone [Music], The Art of Writing Conference Proposals, Major League Hacking, 01gped18yqpqq23x83swk29e7g.