How do you get to speak at the premier Python event of the season? Why would you want to? Learn more here!

1. Speaking at PyCon
The How and the Why
Cris Ewing
@crisewing
cewing

3. The How and the Why

4. The Why and the How

5. Why

6. Why Not?

7. FEAR

9. “Kill Your Heroes”

10. –Julie Pagano
“What I mean by kill your heroes is killing the
imaginary version of them that we have created
in our minds.”

11. Why Not?

12. Why?

13. Meet People
Learn More
Build Community

14. Meet People
Learn More
Build Community

15. “Public speaking is for introverts”

16. –A. Jesse Jiryu Davis
“…people you should meet come find you. It's
easy to talk with them, because you already
began the conversation with your presentation.”

17. “It gives me a way to learn”

18. –Pamela Fox
“After I give a talk on a particular technology,
that gives developers in the audience an
opportunity to come up and tell me about their
experience with that technology, and often
share different solutions from what I shared”

20. Meet People
Learn More
Build Community

21. Meet People
Learn More
Build Community

22. –Pamela Fox
‘When I had to put together a talk for a
conference, it would force me to take a moment
to stop working and just think, asking myself
questions like “What is it that I’ve learnt that I
think is worth sharing? What have I liked or
disliked about the technology we picked?”.’

26. Poetic APIs

27. Meet People
Learn More
Build Community

28. Meet People
Learn More
Build Community

30. –A. Jesse Jiryu Davis
“A talk about software doesn't have to be a tour
de force. It's just the campfire we gather around
so we can be together..”

32. • PyDX (http://pydx.org/)
• VanPyDay (http://www.vanpyday.com/)
• PyBay (http://www.pybay.com/)
• PyOhio (http://pyohio.org/)
• PyTennessee (https://www.pytennessee.org/)
• PyData (http://pydata.org/)
• SciPy (https://conference.scipy.org/)
• Plone Conference (https://ploneconf.org)

33. • PuPPy (https://www.meetup.com/PSPPython/)
• Seattle PyLadies (https://www.meetup.com/Seattle-
PyLadies/)
• Seattle Ansible Meetup (https://www.meetup.com/Seattle-
Ansible-Meetup/)
• Seattle SaltStack Meetup (https://www.meetup.com/
Seattle-SaltStack-Meetup/)
• Python Data Science (https://www.meetup.com/seattle-
python-data-science/)
• SeattleDAML (http://www.meetup.com/Seattle-DAML/)
• …

35. We Need You!

36. Why

37. The Why and the How

38. How

39. How
Pick A Venue

43. Start Local
Move Regional
Shoot for the Stars!

44. How
Pick A Venue

45. How
Pick A Venue
Pick a Topic

46. “lively conversations over random
observations"

47. –Ashe Dryden
“A good rule of thumb is if a bunch of people
have more questions than answers (or more
feels than facts), it'll make an interesting talk..”

48. –Ashe Dryden
“[speakers will] have the advantage of having
the fresh knowledge and experiences of a
beginner so they know what might trip other
people up.”

49. “Puts Butts in Seats”

50. –Ned Jackson Lovely
“The easiest way to judge coherence is to
consider your talk as a story, with a narrative. Is
there a beginning, middle, and end, with a
theme that ties it all together? That's coherent.”

51. How
Pick A Venue
Pick A Topic

52. How
Pick A Venue
Pick A Topic
Make a Proposal

53. • Duration
• Audience
• Level
• Objectives
• Summary
• Outline (with timings)

54. http://rhodesmill.org/brandon/2013/example-
pycon-proposals/

55. https://github.com/akaptur/pycon-proposals

56. How
Pick A Venue
Pick A Topic
Make A Proposal

57. How
Pick A Venue
Pick A Topic
Make A Proposal
Practice, Practice, Practice

58. Repetition

59. “educate your audience"

60. –Ned Batchelder
“Your listeners have a lot of other things on their
mind. Make your content easy to digest. Yes,
they are technical, and yes, they are interested,
but they are also human, and in an unusual
environment. Do what you can to catch and
hold their attention, and don't make them work
too hard to follow along”

61. How
Pick A Venue
Pick A Topic
Make A Proposal
Practice, Practice, Practice

62. How
Pick A Venue
Pick A Topic
Make A Proposal
Practice, Practice, Practice
Get A Coach

63. @carlyslater

64. How
Pick A Venue
Pick A Topic
Make A Proposal
Practice, Practice, Practice
Get A Coach

65. How
Pick A Venue
Pick A Topic
Make A Proposal
Practice, Practice, Practice
Get A Coach

66. Meet People
Learn More
Build Community

67. The Why and the How

69. • Julie Pagano: http://juliepagano.com/blog/2013/11/02/it-s-
dangerous-to-go-alone-battling-the-invisible-monsters-in-tech/
• A. Jesse Jiryu Davis: https://emptysqua.re/blog/tech-talks-are-
campfires-jesses-three-reasons-you-should-speak-at-pycon/
• Pamela Fox: http://blog.pamelafox.org/2013/08/why-do-i-
speak-at-conferences.html
• Eric Rose: Poetic APIs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQYnFyG7A8c
• Ashe Dryden: https://www.ashedryden.com/blog/what-you-
need-to-know-about-speaking-at-conferences

70. • Ned Jackson Lovely: http://www.njl.us/essays/pycon-
talks/
• Brandon Rhodes: http://rhodesmill.org/brandon/2013/
example-pycon-proposals/
• Allison Kaptur: https://github.com/akaptur/pycon-
proposals
• Ned Batchelder: http://nedbatchelder.com/text/
presentationtips.html
• PyLadies: http://www.pyladies.com/blog/speaking-
pycon/

71. • "I Can't Bare to Look" - by Rennet Stowe CC-BY-2.0
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tomsaint/3265581942
• "On a Pedestal" by Paul J Everett - CC-BY-2.0
https://www.flickr.com/photos/paul_everett82/3473643273
• "Contrail" by Fernando Kokubun - CC-BY-2.0
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fk_photon/15105244944
• "Knit Knit Knit" by fdecomite - CC-BY-2.0
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fdecomite/3122636240
• "Campfire" by Isaac Mao - CC-BY-2.0
https://www.flickr.com/photos/isaacmao/2440742452

72. Thanks!
cris@crisewing.com
@crisewing
cewing