
Speak Up - Speaking mentorship - craigkerstiens
http://speakup.io/mentors.html
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Shenglong
This is a really cool initiative. I've been organizing Canada's largest
student tech conference for a few years now, and one issue that comes up year
after year is selecting engaging speakers (and how to be an engaging speaker
is definitely a skill that can be learned). We end up skipping a lot of
potentially interesting speakers because we either don't know, or can't be
sure a few hundred university students will enjoy their talk(ing style).

The problem is definitely out there, and my best wishes to this project. You
may also want to address the burden of proof for speaker qualification.

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jnoller
Excellent suggestion - suggestions on how? Filed:
<https://github.com/jnoller/talk-mentorship/issues/11>

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Shenglong
Usually I try to devise comprehensive solutions, but there are plenty of smart
people on HN - so I'll just give my perspective here:

When picking speakers, we typically look for three things: 1\. Reach - what
cool things have they done that'll make them interesting? 2\. Popularity - how
well known are they? 3\. I they have reach and no popularity, will they be
able to express what they've done in a way students will find awesome? Alexis
Ohanian came to speak in CUTC 2011, and he was awesome, for example (although
some would argue he was pretty famous too).

For #3, maybe something in terms of videos for each user in a centralized
location

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jnoller
It's important to remember this is for men and women, to give them a safe
environment with access to people who are willing to help them. We welcome
people from any language/conference background.

Also, I wasn't don't fleshing out the site, so it's a bit raw still :)

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d4mi3n
Great idea. I meet so many engineers who never took a speech class or simply
don't know how to effectively present an idea to a group of more than one or
two people.

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rdl
I'm trying to figure out the best way to give 15-20 minute tech talks which
are incredibly engaging. I can do normal meetings, elevator pitches (not as
well as I'd like), and hour long talks, but I'd really like to master the 15
minute tech talk format.

I'm doing a 20 minute talk at RSA 2013 (traveling across borders with
laptops/other devices), and running the 15-20 minute talks at BSidesLV 2013,
so I'm trying to put together the resources for that.

It is tempting to also try to crack the 10 minute YC format (which I think is
useful in other contexts as well -- maybe just the transition from elevator
pitch into a breakout conversation?).

I haven't found any good advice, books, etc. on this. I've been watching TED
talks, which are sometimes compelling, but fail to communicate technical
content to a knowledgeable (if out of the direct field) audience, which is the
target IMO. Someone with a decent engineering or science undergrad education,
5-10 years out, with a couple years of work experience, should be able to
fully understand.

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stfu
It is a nice idea, but I am still skeptical on how somebody can improve his
speaking skills just based on virtual "stuff". It is almost like learning to
code just by writing out code by hand on a paper. This needs a lot of video
integration in order to work.

Otherwise your local Toastmaster group is going to be a much more effective
way to improve speaking skills.

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petercooper
I agree with your last sentence, but not everyone (who could eventually be a
great speaker) can be convinced to do that.

90% of the battle can be won by becoming good at recording videos (without 101
takes), doing live webinars, or even setting up a regular YouTube channel. New
speakers often battle with the _responsibility_ of speaking and being the
target of multiple people's attention for a solid block of time. These battles
can be fought virtually. (I'm a conference chair and have seen these battles
fought and won.)

There'll still be work to do once one gets up on a stage or speaks "for real"
but if one can get over 90% of the fear and do a lot of the work virtually, it
could be a big win, especially for people who are initially too hesitant to
attend something like a Toastmasters group. Virtual pep talks can work to a
point, much like self help tapes.

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jnoller
Yup. That's the idea. Want to help out as a fellow organizer? We're lookin for
this to help js, python, etc conferences

If we can get women, men - everyone, over that 90% hump and get them into the
CFPs and systems for conferences and coach them through it all, it's a net win

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adrianhoward
This is a lovely idea. If nothing else it gives conference organisers a place
to point folk to who are nervous/new to speaking - which is a common question
I get. Well done.

