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My first non-tech talk at ElaConf


I gave my first non-tech talk at ElaConf Nov 2015 last weekend. ElaConf is a conference that empowers women in tech and its proceeds all go to Girl Develop It. Learn more about it at elaconf.com. Why do I call my talk non-tech? Because the talk does not feature any code and it does not feature any technical problem that I solved.

My talk was titled "Preparing for your first talk" but it's applicable to anyone who is preparing for any kind of talk - technical or otherwise. I was inspired to give this talk after writing this detailed blog post on how I prepared for my first big conference.

Some of my tips and tricks were very well captured by the wonderful artist who was sketch-noting at the conference as well as one of the attendees.





One of my suggestions was to wear a blazer to cover food spills. (True story: This happened to me at AnDevCon moments before I went on. My blazer saved the day!) A lot of attendees loved this and tweeted it out!







I wouldn't have been able to give this talk without the wisdom of the people who have done this before me so I'm listing all of the resources I have used over the past year:

Technically Speaking
Technically Speaking is a newsletter with information on call for proposals and public speaking, with a focus on technical topics by @chiuki and @catehstn.

Write/Speak/Code
Write/Speak/Code empowers women software developers to become thought leaders, conference speakers, and open source contributors.

Femgineer
Blog: Femgineer
Book: Present Book: A Techie's Guide to Public Speaking

Garr Reynolds' Prezentation Zen
Blog: http://www.presentationzen.com
Books:
Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery
The Naked Presenter: Delivering Powerful Presentations With or Without Slides (Voices That Matter)

Scott Berkun
Blog: http://scottberkun.com/
Book: Confessions of a Public Speaker

TED Talks
https://www.ted.com/talks








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