My experience as a first time speakerMy experience as a first time speaker<br>and some pointers for those who come after<br>August 22th 2026 - 09:00<br>My first conference talk<br>I was lucky enough to be selected to speak at the 2026 Gleam Gathering, which was my first conference talk ever. As you'd expect, I was nervous. You won't see it in the video, but I blanked out for a whole minute at the start of my presentation. Thankfully, the crowd was being patient, and once I found my first few words, I was on straight tracks.<br>I've learned a lot from this initial experience. Some things I did right, some things I wasn't prepared for, and I was very lucky to have such a good audience.<br>Public speaking is hard<br>... And it takes time to get right. Knowing your audience, reading them, pacing, intonation, not to mention preparing all of that ahead of time... It all sounds like so much work, so much guesswork.<br>Thankfully, just like everything, it takes practice, and it's easier than you think. Like we say in French, "It's more fright than hurt".<br>Capturing your audience is 30% content, 70% showmanship<br>I remember learning about Big Jay McNeely a few years ago, a legendary sax player who became famous by making some seemingly unappealing noises with his saxophone, honking and squealing. However, he played with such fervor, he was a real showman. He could've made drying paint feel exciting.<br>He's a great example of what capturing an audience is about: it's a show. If you go on stage and perform with confidence, you will naturally capture your audience, regardless of what you're actually doing.<br>With that said, my first advice would be to prepare a talk about the simplest topic, and focus your efforts on putting on a fun show . My first talk was about a little Eve Online web tool I'd made. Not a trivial project, but nothing ground-breaking either. However, that gave me plenty of room to focus on the performance instead.<br>Confidence is earned, not wished<br>You've for sure heard this advice before, "just be confident", whether relating to dating, job interviews, or public speaking like I did earlier. Sadly, you cannot just wish confidence into being, no matter how hard you try. Confidence is built off of defeating your fears. There are no shortcuts, but there can be smaller steps.<br>If being in front of a crowd is a problem, practicing in front of a crowd is the only solution, but you get to pick the crowd . There are ways to practice this, open mic nights in local bars, open presentations in university or professional settings, karaoke, music jams, busking, and I'm sure many others. Pick your poison, based on what you do and what you like. I'm a singer and musician, and so jams and karaoke are my picks, but there's got to be something that'll fit what you like. And, you get to pick a crowd that'll be patient. Some gatherings are specifically for people to practice public speaking.<br>Remember, no shortcuts, only smaller steps.<br>Preparing well ahead of time<br>When preparing for my Gleam Gathering talk, I had everything ready over a month in advance, the project itself, slides, script, jokes, intonation, timing, everything was practiced to death. I had a rock-solid foundation, reliable enough that I could always land on my feet. And this came in real handy when I froze at the start and forgot my opening lines, because when I finally remembered them, the rest was just a matter of following the rails I'd practiced for weeks before.<br>You can't know exactly how things will go when you go up on stage and present your work. However, you can make sure that push comes to shove, you can always get back on your feet. This is another reason why you should present something small and simple at first, so you don't have the added pressure of finishing the project shortly before the talk and having to update and remember your script last minute.<br>Storytelling of technical details<br>A few years ago, I was working as a Cisco networking instructor. I loved my job, and I was good at it. Students were captured by the course, and I think a lot of it was due to a framework I'd inadventantly stumbled upon. It can be summed up like this:<br>/\<br>/ \<br>/what\<br>/------\<br>/ how \<br>/----------\<br>/ why \<br>/--------------\<br>The lower layers are more important to get right than the top ones, so it's actually read from bottom to top. I would apply this structure for every single concept I wanted to present. Here's what it means:<br>"Why": This is storytelling, the most important step. You show your audience why they should care about what you're about to say. In the context of me teaching networking, I would usually present a problem which would arise from a previous slide.<br>"How": This is guiding the audience through the problem. If they were to solve this, how would they go about it? We're talking broad strokes, general notions, not implementation.<br>"What": This is the technical implementation, and often can be partially or entirely skipped. At this point, you're just reciting documentation.<br>Here's a...