[yapc] Nobody Is A Good Speaker When they Start

[Len Jaffe]

On Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 4:00 AM, YAPC::NA Director <admin at yapcna.org> wrote:

> From guest poster brian d foy <http://www252.pair.com/~comdog/>:
>
> I speak at many Perl events, from casual Perl mongers meetings to the big
> conferences. I’ve even been in front of a big room at Comdex and WWDC.
> That’s over a long career of speaking that built up to those big events. As
> conference season approaches, you have a chance to stand in front of a
> bunch of people and say whatever you like. You’re probably nervous about
> that, maybe even terrified. I want to you to tame that terror. It’s not
> going to disappear, but you can learn to control it.
>
> [ snip snip snip ]
>

Brian is correct.  Take a deep breath and just do it.  Find something you
think you know about and volunteer to talk about it.  Better yet, find
something you're a little fuzzy in, and offer to give a beginner's talk.
There is no better way to learn a topic then to prepare to teach it.

Last year, the person scheduled to give a dancer talk was unable to make
it.  I IMed a colleague, Jon Hogue, and he left the talk he was in, and
talked about dancer for ten minutes (with slides), on a moment's notice.

When he was done, Yanick Champoux brought his laptop to the front of the
room, and did an impromptu dancer demo for the rest of the time.

Neither one came to yapc to speak on Dancer, and they had to wing it.
Imagine what you can do with months of lead time, and a community that
wants to help you succeed.

Step outside your comfort zone, and you'll grow tremendously.

Len.
-- 
lenjaffe at jaffesystems.com   614-404-4214
Proprietor: http://www.theycomewithcheese.com/ - An Homage to Fromage
Grubmaster: Greenbar <http://www.greenbartraining.org/> 2011, 2010, 2009,
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