In fact, the first time I submitted a conference talk, I hovered over the submit button for nearly an hour. I was convinced someone else had more experience, a better résumé, or more impressive GitHub stars. But I submitted anyway. And to my surprise, it was accepted.

Since then, I’ve spoken at more than 20 conferences including API Conf Lagos, Indabax Nigeria, multiple DevFests, and Write the Docs Prague. Some of my talks include:

• Leveraging Open Banking APIs for Innovation at API Conf Lagos

• Optimizing Your JavaScript Code for Speed, Sailsconf AF 2024

• Creating Documentation for the African Audience at Write the Docs Prague

Table of Contents

1. Don’t Wait Until You Feel Ready

2. Where to Find Calls for Proposals (CFP)

3. Start With a Story, Not Just a Topic

4. How to Write Strong Proposals That Get Noticed

5. Tailor Your Proposal for Each Event

6. How to Get Better at Giving a Presentation

7. Keep Going After You Speak

8. Expect Rejections — and Keep Submitting

I have three more talks lined up for the second half of 2025.

Along the way, I have developed a system that works. Whether you’re preparing your first CFP or aiming for bigger events, here is how I approach it and what I’ve learned.

1. Don’t Wait Until You Feel Ready

If you want to submit conference talks, you’re going to have to overcome your hesitation and start where you are.

In 2022, I co-submitted a talk to Write the Docs Prague with my friend Benny Ifeanyi Iheagwara. The talk was titled “Creating Documentation for the African Audience.”

It focused on challenges like language diversity, cultural assumptions, and inconsistent internet access.

We weren’t sure a European audience would care. But we believed the message was important, so we submitted it.

It was accepted.

That session gave us a platform to discuss issues that affect millions of African developers and users. We delivered it virtually, and the feedback showed us how much it resonated.

What I learned was simple: you don’t need to be perfect. You just need to be useful and timely.

2. Where to Find Calls for Proposals (CFP)

This might seem obvious, but many people don’t know where to start. I find most of my CFPs through platforms like:

• Sessionize

• Papercall.io

• cfp.land

• LinkedIn posts by organizers

• Community Slack or Discord channels

Some CFPs are hidden in newsletters or tucked away on event websites. If there’s a conference you admire, follow it and check in regularly. Keep a calendar of deadlines. The earlier you plan, the better your submissions will be.

3. Start With a Story, Not Just a Topic

Craft a compelling narrative that resonates with audiences.

The organizers have requirements to meet. Figure out what they are looking for and build your story around it.

For example, here are some submission guidelines from a conference that outline what the conference organizers are expecting and looking for:

When I pitched “Leveraging Open Banking APIs for Innovation” to API Conf Lagos, I didn’t open with code. I started with the story of a Nigerian fintech startup struggling with outdated bank systems. That story gave the session weight.

The technical content mattered, but the narrative made it relatable.

Start by studying the Call for Proposals (CFP) carefully. Most CFPs will tell you the themes, skill levels, and audience types the event caters to. Look for phrasing like “we’re looking for real-world stories,” “new voices,” or “hands-on technical depth.” That language is a blueprint for what the organizers want.

Beyond that, look at previous years’ talks. What kind of speakers did they feature? Were the sessions deeply technical, more inspirational, or a mix?

Finally, don’t be afraid to reach out to the organizers directly. A quick message like, “Hey, I’m thinking of submitting something about open banking and fintech devs in West Africa – would that be a good fit?” can give you early feedback that steers your proposal in the right direction.

4. How to Write Strong Proposals That Get Noticed

Learn how to make your submission stand out.

A strong proposal does a few things well:

• It starts with a clear, relevant problem

• It explains why this topic matters now

• It outlines what the talk will cover

• It describes what attendees will gain

Here’s an example from my “Banking without Banks” talk that got accepted for a conference just this past May:

When you’re writing these proposalas, keep the 5 W questions (Who, What, Where, When, Why) plus the story in mind. It’s a clear and effective way to communicate the purpose and value of your talk.

1. Who is this talk for?

This talk is for developers, tech leads, and product managers building or exploring financial technology solutions. It is especially valuable for startups embedding financial services like payments, lending, or account insights into their applications. It’s also for anyone interested in API-driven innovation in emerging markets, with a particular focus on financial inclusion.

2. What is this talk about?

This talk explores how open banking APIs are creating new opportunities for innovation in financial services. It features practical strategies, technical demos, and real-world case studies that show how developers can build robust, secure, and user-centric applications – even in regions with infrastructure challenges.

3. Where is this knowledge coming from?

The talk is grounded in firsthand experience from working with fintech startups in Nigeria and across emerging markets. These insights are based on real projects, real companies, and real challenges – with live examples of how open banking APIs are already being used to solve meaningful problems.

4. When is this talk relevant?

Right now. In March 2023, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) formally approved open banking regulations, making Nigeria the first African country with a legal framework for it. As more countries adopt similar regulations, the demand for embedded finance is growing. Developers must be prepared to navigate this rapidly evolving space.

5. Why Should People Care?

Open banking presents an unprecedented opportunity to unlock financial innovation. Also, brings technical, compliance, and design complexity. Developers must understand:

• What the framework enables and limits

• How to work with standardized APIs from banks and third parties

• How to manage security, compliance, and user experience in sensitive financial applications

5. Tailor Your Proposal for Each Event

Even if I’m presenting similar material, I never use the same exact abstract twice. DevFest Ajah and Google I/O Extended Ibadan have different audiences and energy.

I always reframe the content to fit the event.

Show that you understand the community and what they care about. Event organizers notice when you’ve taken time to customize your submission.

6. How to Get Better at Giving a Presentation

Your first talk may be terrible. But it’s ok – with practice and effort, you’ll get better.

Want to improve your delivery? Here's a method that works for me:

1. Pick a great talk from a past conference – something close to your topic or style.

2. Download the transcript and slides, if they’re available.

3. Record yourself delivering that exact talk as if it were your own.

4. Compare: Watch your version next to the original. Notice what works and what doesn’t – pacing, tone, energy, clarity.

5. Share your recordings with friends and ask for feedback.

This kind of deliberate mimicry isn’t copying – you’re not sharing it publicly. It’s training. Just like athletes study match footage, great speakers study other speakers. Over time, you’ll develop your own rhythm, voice, and presence.

Presenting is a skill. And like any skill, it improves with practice, feedback, and repetition.

7. Keep Going After You Speak

Leverage each talk to grow your influence and connections.

Speaking at a conference is only the beginning. After each session, I usually:

• Share my slides online. You can find mine on SpeakerDeck.

• Post a recap on LinkedIn or Twitter

• Thank the organizers publicly

• Connect with attendees who reach out

This helps you build momentum and expand your network. After my TensorFlow talk at Indabax, I posted a follow-up summary. That single post led to an invitation to speak at another community event.

8. Expect Rejections — and Keep Submitting

Not every submission gets accepted. I’ve had proposals sit in “in evaluation” forever and never hear back. Some were outright rejected. My talk on using SVGs to visualize election data was one I believed in deeply. Still, it never made it into any lineup.

That’s normal.

Rejection is not a judgment of your worth. It doesn’t mean your idea is weak or your voice is not needed. Conferences have limited slots, and even strong proposals get turned down.

But here’s the truth:

If your talk was rejected, accept yourself anyway. 😊

• You already have the speaker – you

• You already have the content – your proposal

• You may not have the audience yet – create one

• Set your own stage – YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, Dev.to

That talk you prepared? Present it.

Publish the content. Record a video. Host a Twitter Space. Turn it into a blog post or a mini-course. Accept your own talk. And then try again.

Conclusion

Sharing your ideas on stage can feel intimidating, but it’s also one of the most rewarding ways to grow. You don’t need to be the most experienced speaker to make an impact. You just need to start.

So take that first step. Hit submit. Your story might be exactly what someone in the audience needs to hear.

Conferences offer different session formats, such as lightning talks, workshops, panels, and full-length sessions. Organizers look for clear, relevant, and valuable topics for their audience. A strong proposal aligns with the event's topic and clearly demonstrates its significance to reviewers.

I have been selected to speak at conferences such as API World, API Specification Conference, PyCon Italia, and PHP Day Italy, and I co-organize API Conf Lagos. From both sides of the table, when submitting and reviewing CFPs, I have seen what works and what does not.

In this guide, I’d like to share what makes a good CFP and offer tips on creating a standout proposal. Whether you are submitting for the first time or looking to refine your approach, these insights will help you craft a compelling proposal that gets noticed.

In this article, you’ll learn the following:

• Understanding the CFP Criteria

• Key Components of a CFP Submission

• How to Choose the Right Topic

• How to Craft a Strong Title and Abstract

• How to Structure the Proposal

• Submission Best Practices

• Where to Find CFP Opportunities

Understanding the CFP Criteria

CFP requirements vary from conference to conference, so understanding the specific criteria before submitting your application is crucial to increasing your chances of selection. Most conferences provide a criteria page outlining key details. When you’re writing a CFP submission, some criteria are more crucial than others in shaping a strong proposal.

The most relevant criteria include:

• Topic – Areas of interest that the conference aims to cover.

• Session format and duration – This indicates the available sessions for the conference. It could be a session, workshop, or lightning talk, along with the time allocated.

• Audience expectations – This is used to gauge the audience's level of expertise (beginner, intermediate, advanced) and what attendees hope to gain from the event.

Keeping an eye on the core criteria, topic, audience, and format will help ensure your CFP submission aligns well with the conference expectations. And this can help increase your chances of acceptance.

While necessary for planning, other logistical aspects play a less direct role in crafting the proposal. These include:

• Speaker logistics and support – Information on travel, accommodation, and benefits for speakers, such as honorariums or reimbursements.

• Event fees and scholarships – Whether speakers receive free entry or if financial aid options are available.

• Code of conduct – The conference sets the ethical and behavioral guidelines for speakers and attendees.

• Conference duration – Whether the event lasts for one day, two days, or multiple days, which may affect scheduling and availability.

Elements of a CFP

Talk Title

First, you’ll need to decide on a clear, compelling title that makes it obvious what the talk is about in an easy-to-understand way. Clarity and simplicity always win.

You should avoid overly verbose or clickbait-style titles like: “Harnessing the Ultimate Power of Next-Gen APIs to Revolutionize Your Tech Stack”. Instead, you could say something friendlier and clearer: “How to Design Scalable APIs That Align With Your Product.”

Abstract

The abstract is a brief description of your talk. In this section, you should provide a summary that generally explains what your talk is about, how the audience would benefit from it, and why the conference organizers should value and select your talk.

It’s acceptable to discuss example scenarios you plan to cover and the tools or libraries you’ll be using, as this will help promote your idea more effectively than a simple sentence or two with no technical info.

Detailed Description/Proposal

I would like to note that not all conferences offer this section, but for those that do, it is a more in-depth and detailed explanation of your abstract, which sometimes can exceed 1000 words. This will enable you to explain the value, structure, areas of focus, and key takeaways of your talk.

In both the abstract and proposal, you should discuss the problems you’re addressing in your talk and what the audience stands to learn, which are both very important.

Speaker Bio

This is just as important as the talk title itself, as it informs the organizers about who you are, where you work, your relevant experience, and how the conference can benefit from having you at the event. Include a recent picture of yourself and, if possible, provide your social media profiles like LinkedIn, so they can connect with you.

Alright, now that you know the various parts involved in creating a CFP, let's look at each component in more detail – and how you can actually craft each part.

How to Choose the Right Topic

Most CFP pages showcase topics that interest conference organizers. As a prospective speaker, your goal is to select a topic that aligns with these subjects. You’ll also want to make sure that you have a deep enough knowledge on the topic you choose to speak and answer questions about it confidently.

For example, if a conference emphasizes specific topics such as PHP, Continuous Delivery, DevOps, Security, Testing, or APIs, proposals that align with those subjects are more likely to be accepted. Submitting a topic outside the listed themes the conference plans to cover may reduce your chances unless it provides exceptional value to the audience.

Here are some practical examples:

• If a conference is focused on DevOps, your proposal is more likely to be accepted if it covers continuous delivery pipelines, performance and monitoring, infrastructure automation, or incident response practices. Submitting a topic outside the listed subject, such as frontend design, may reduce your chances unless it offers exceptional value to the audience.

• If a conference is focused on APIs, your proposal is more likely to be accepted if it covers how to design versioned APIs, securing API endpoints with Authentication and Authorization, scaling API-first applications, compliance and governance, Api performance and observability, Api documentation, or managing third-party integrations.

• For a PHP conference, you should submit a proposal that cover performance improvements in PHP 8+, real-world security use cases in Laravel applications such as OWASP, PHP architecture patterns, scaling large PHP applications, writing extensions in PHP, highlighting important libraries you use daily, or guiding attendees on how to contribute to such PHP libraries.

When selecting your topics, ask yourself:

• What’s the value I’m bringing to attendees?

• Is the topic something I’m passionate about and knowledgeable about?

• Does it align with the needs and interests of the target audience?

To improve your chances, tailor your proposal to fit the conference’s focus. Pay close attention to the wording of your topic and ensure it directly connects with the event’s goals.

How to Craft a Strong Title and Abstract

Once you've chosen a relevant topic, you’ll need to create your talk title and abstract. For instance, you might focus on addressing security concerns using a particular programming language or tackle modern security challenges within a niche area.

It’s important to remember that while tools like AI models (for example, ChatGPT) can be helpful, relying too heavily on them to craft your title and abstract can work against you. The key is to use clear, simple language that speaks directly to your audience. Avoid overly technical jargon or convoluted phrasing, as this may hinder understanding.

Here are some key things to keep in mind when choosing a title and writing your abstract:

Select a Friendly Title

Your title is the first thing conference organizers see, and keeping it simple, engaging, and clear should be the goal.

Examples of strong titles might include:

• Moving Beyond CRUD: Designing More Scalable APIs with TDD

• How to Keep Your Application Secure with the Zero Trust Principle

• Why You Should Care About the Risk and Rewards of Feature Flags

• How to Orchestrate Effective Releases with CI/CD with Practical Tips for Teams

You may be wondering why these are examples of strong titles. Well, it’s because:

• They are clear and accessible, and at a glance, you already know what the topic is about. The topics are also approachable even if you’re not an expert.

• The topics also highlight values or possible outcomes: either the audience will learn about risk and rewards with feature flags, or they will equip themselves with knowledge of securing their applications using the Zero Trust principle, or learn how to design scalable APIs in a test-driven manner.

• The topic targets those directly involved in the software delivery lifecycle, including developers, DevOps engineers, engineering teams, and managers.

Writing a Compelling Abstract

When writing your abstract, it’s essential to provide a thorough overview of what your talk will cover. A one or two-sentence summary likely won’t be enough to give conference organizers the deeper insight they need into what your session offers.

Your abstract expands on the talk title, providing a more detailed description of the topic. This includes what your talk will cover (if it’s a workshop, mention the language or tools used, along with any expected outcomes or builds), the attendees who would benefit most from the talk, and possible learning outcomes.

Spending most of your time crafting your abstract is crucial to your talk getting accepted. From experience, here’s what a good abstract should include:

• Start with a sentence or two introducing the subject. So if you’re talking about the Zero-trust principle, explain what it means and discuss why it matters. Then talk about the problem it helps stakeholders involved in software delivery solve.

• Describe what the talk will cover. Mention tools, frameworks, or case studies you’ll use here to deliver the talk if selected. For example, “We’ll cover core concepts like 'Never trust, always verify,' least privilege, and continuous monitoring, along with practical steps such as using OAuth2, MFA, RBAC, JWTs, and encryption”.

• Explain who the target audience is. Are they beginners, intermediates, or experts? This will help organizers place your talk on the right track for the identified audience.

• End your abstract with 2-3 clear learning outcomes. What will attendees be able to do, understand, or think differently about after your session? For example, attendees will learn about Zero Trust architecture, enforcing strong authentication and authorization, as well as tools for continuous monitoring and auditing to detect threats.

Don’t rush through the process of writing your abstract. Allow yourself time to develop it gradually as ideas come to mind. It’s perfectly fine to keep your proposal open and pinned, updating and refining it over time. This approach will give you the bandwidth to ensure your abstract is clear, comprehensive, and engaging, ultimately leading to a stronger proposal.

Remember, your abstract should be written in simple, clear language and be free from grammatical errors. Keep in mind that some conferences have word limits for abstracts, so ensure your description fits these constraints.

How to Structure the Proposal

Once you’ve identified a topic and written the abstract, it’s crucial to structure your proposal in a way that is easy to read and provides clarity regarding your target audience and the learning outcomes. A well-structured proposal makes it easier for conference organizers to understand the value of your session and decide whether it’s a good fit.

To illustrate this, we’ll look at two proposal examples: one that can be improved and one with a strong structure that’s likely to be accepted.

❌ Weaker Proposal

Topic: Security in Software Development

Abstract:
Security in software development is important. This session will cover security practices and techniques in code.

Why this proposal is weak:

• The title is too vague and doesn’t specify the talk's focus.

• The abstract lacks depth and does not clearly describe what the attendees will learn.

• The audience is unclear, and no specific learning outcomes are mentioned.

✅ Strong Proposal

Topic: Building Secure Web Applications with Modern [Programming Language 1] Frameworks

Abstract:

It’s important to think security first when trying to build applications for the web, regardless of what programming language or framework you’re using. In today’s world, securing your application will protect you from data breaches, prevent fraudulent transactions, and help you avoid common vulnerabilities, ultimately improving the performance of your system.

In this talk, we will discuss the key security practices that developers should follow when building web applications with modern JavaScript frameworks, such as [Framework 1] and [Framework 2]. We’ll cover concepts such as input validation, securing APIs, handling authentication, and best practices to prevent common security vulnerabilities, including cross-site scripting (XSS) and SQL injection.

At the end of this session, developers will gain actionable insights on implementing security measures, explore common vulnerabilities, and build a demo app using [Framework 1] or [Framework 2] to address the security concept listed above, along with secure coding practices and tools to safeguard their apps.

This talk is designed for intermediate and advanced JavaScript developers who want to enhance the security of their web applications.

Why this proposal is strong:

• The title is clear and specific, highlighting the session's main focus.

• The abstract provides an introduction, a detailed description of the content that will be covered, ensuring organizers know exactly what to expect.

• The target audience is defined as "intermediate and advanced JavaScript developers."

• Learning outcomes are clearly outlined, including actionable takeaways and specific skills attendees will gain.

Here are two samples of my proposals that have been accepted in the past.

• PHPDAY ITALY ‘25: Securing PHP Applications with Zero Trust Principles

• API SPECIFICATION CONFERENCE ‘21: ABC of GRAPHQL

Submission Best Practices

Once you've completed your proposal, it's essential to take a step back and reflect on your topic and abstract. Review your submission carefully for any areas that need refining, check for typos, and ensure the message is clear and well-structured.

Sometimes, sharing your proposal with colleagues or peers for feedback can be invaluable. They might catch things you overlooked or offer suggestions to improve clarity or focus.

This reflection and review process acts as a safety net, ensuring you haven’t missed anything important before submitting. Keep in mind that conference organizers receive hundreds of CFPs, so taking the extra time to polish your submission can significantly improve your chances of standing out in a competitive pool.

The submission process typically looks like this:

1. Call for Paper (CFP) Announcement

The conference announces its call for papers (CFP) information, including details such as the deadline, topics, venue, session types, and submission guidelines.

2. Submission Platform

Conferences use tools like Typeform, Sessionize, Papercall, and even Google Docs, based on preference, and you’ll be asked to provide information about your talk proposal. This information includes:

• Talk title

• Abstract

• Talk format (Workshop, Session, Keynote)

• Target audience

• Speaker bio

• [Optional] Past speaking experience, like YouTube links to previous talks, and so on

Review Phase

After the CFP closes, panels begin reviewing submissions and deciding who will speak at the conference. They select speakers based on their own checklist and determine the lineup of speakers.

Notification and Follow-up

Successful speakers will receive congratulatory emails notifying them to confirm their participation in the conference and may need to submit additional information, such as a slide deck or session outline.

Speakers who don’t make the cut will typically get a rejection email, and often some organizers extend free or discounted event tickets to those speakers who have invested their time in submitting a proposal.

Conference schedule

Once selected, speakers will have their bio, talk title, and abstract published on the conference website. The schedule will also include the date, time, and room where each session will take place, helping attendees plan which talks to attend.

Where to Find CFP Opportunities

If you're looking for conferences to submit your proposal to, several platforms and resources regularly list open calls for papers (CFPs). Instead of waiting to stumble upon a CFP announcement, you can actively search for speaking opportunities that align with your expertise.

Popular CFP Platforms:

• Sessionize – A widely used platform where conferences post CFPs, allowing speakers to submit proposals easily.

• PaperCall.io – A hub for discovering CFPs across different industries, including tech and open-source events.

Other Ways to Discover CFPs:

• Conference websites: Many conferences post their CFPs directly under a "Call for Papers" or "Call for Speakers" section.

• Tech communities and newsletters: Platforms like Dev.to, Hashnode, and newsletters often share open CFPs.

• Social media: Following conference organizers and speakers on LinkedIn and Twitter can help you stay updated about new CFP openings.

• Local and virtual meetups: Many meetup groups are seeking speakers, and these smaller events can be a great way to gain experience before applying to larger conferences.

Conclusion

In this article, you learned what makes a good conference talk proposal, how to structure your proposal with examples, and submission best practices.

Keep improving your proposal, and good luck with your submissions!

You can find me on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Perhaps it's the fear of speaking in front of a large audience, the worry of forgetting your words, or the challenge of finding the perfect topic to discuss. You're not alone – many aspiring speakers face these same fears.

But creating an engaging conference talk is a skill that you can perfect with practice. In this tutorial, I will share effective tips for crafting compelling conference talks that captivate your audience and leave a lasting impact. I'll also provide examples of inspiring presentations that have influenced me.

If you're looking for a comprehensive guide on speaking at conferences, check out my video where I discuss topics such as finding a conference, preparing slides, delivering engaging talks, and networking.

Embedded content

Know Your Audience

It's important to understand your audience's interests and needs to tailor your content effectively.

Audience Expertise and Interests

Before preparing your talk, consider the level of expertise your audience possesses. Are you addressing beginners who are eager to learn the basics, or are you speaking to seasoned professionals seeking advanced insights? Understanding this will help you customize your content accordingly.

Gather Insights

To gain valuable insights into your audience's preferences, talk to event organizers or conduct surveys. This will give you a better understanding of their expectations and what they hope to take away from your presentation.

Balance Fundamentals and Advanced Insights

If your audience consists of newcomers to the topic, focus on providing clear explanations of fundamentals, terminologies, and motivations.

On the other hand, if you have an audience with intermediate to advanced knowledge, dive into the nitty-gritty, discuss pros and cons, share opinions, and share real-life experiences.

Avoid Jargon Overload

Ensure that your content is accessible to everyone by avoiding excessive use of jargon. Make complex concepts understandable by using clear language and providing relevant context.

Gauge with Show of Hands

During your talk, you can engage the audience by doing a show of hands to gauge their familiarity with the topic. Based on their response, you can offer a brief 101-style introduction for those who are new to the subject, or dive directly into the main content if most of the audience is already familiar.

People responding to a question by show of hands

Work on the Core Content of the Talk First

When preparing your conference talk, focus on developing the core content and the compelling story you want to share. Design and templates can be addressed later – prioritizing your message is key.

Identify the Key Objective

Start by answering this question: What is the one thing you want your audience to take away from your talk? This objective will be the central theme around which you build your narrative.

For example, if the talk is on "Angular to React migration", your key objective could be - what are the steps developers need to take to migrate their Angular app to React app. From there, your entire talk outline could frame around providing developers the background and context for providing information on migrating from Angular to React such as introduction to angular and react, need for migration, challenges and considerations, migration strategies and codebase analysis.

Create a Mind-Map

I find it helpful to create a mind-map of the topics I'll cover, centered around the main point I want my audience to remember. This approach ensures that your talk flows logically and maintains a clear focus throughout.

Check out this example of mind map I saw on LinkedIn for a conference talk on "32 things to help English Learners become successful readers". Mind map is a great way to ensure the talk is aligned on the key concept.

Example of a mind map

Tell a Story

As humans, we like storytelling. Instead of just talking through your content, frame the story around why you are sharing this.

By telling a story that follows this format, you engage your audience on an emotional level, make your content more relatable, and leave a lasting impact.

Here’s a template I like for storytelling:

Introduce the Problem

Begin by describing a relatable problem or challenge you encountered. Paint a vivid picture to evoke empathy and interest from your audience.

Highlight the Impact

Illustrate the consequences and impact of the problem. Share the challenges and struggles you faced, allowing your audience to connect with your journey.

Present the Solution

Transition into the solution you discovered or devised. Explain how you tackled the problem and the thought process behind it. Make it clear why this solution was unique and effective.

Celebrate the Improvement

Describe how the solution improved your life or the lives of others involved. Share specific outcomes and successes resulting from your approach.

Embrace the Journey

Be honest about the ongoing nature of progress. Acknowledge that the journey may not be perfect, and there might be continuous efforts to maintain the positive changes.

Empower Your Audience

Provide actionable insights or advice for your audience to avoid or overcome similar challenges. Encourage them to apply your learnings to their own situations.

Structure Your Talk Thoughtfully

Start with a Captivating Hook

Begin your talk with an attention-grabbing introduction. This could be an intriguing problem you encountered, a humorous joke, a compelling personal story, or a thought-provoking question. The hook sets the tone for your talk and piques the audience's curiosity.

Keep Your Audience Anchored

Recognize that maintaining audience attention is crucial. To keep them engaged throughout, provide a clear roadmap at the beginning of your talk. Briefly outline what you'll be discussing, so the audience knows what to expect.

An example of outline that highlights which section is being talked about

Throughout your presentation, periodically remind them of the main points you're covering and where you are in the narrative.

Deliver Smooth Transitions

Practice delivering seamless transitions between slides and sections. This ensures that your presentation flows like a cohesive narrative.

Familiarize yourself with your content to the extent that you know what slide comes next. Using presenter's view can be beneficial to preview the upcoming slide discreetly.

Strategically Reiterate Main Points

Identify the core messages or key takeaways you want your audience to remember. Make a conscious effort to repeat these points at various stages of your talk, reinforcing their significance.

Use Visuals in Your Talk

A picture is a thousand words. We're naturally drawn to visuals rather than lengthy text.

Utilize a Variety of Visuals

Incorporate images, graphics, GIFs, diagrams, illustrations, and charts to visually convey your ideas and captivate your audience.

Visual elements help break the monotony of text-heavy slides and enhance the overall appeal of your presentation. Explore free platforms like Unsplash and Imgur to find high-quality visuals that align with the content of your presentation. High-resolution images and graphics add a professional touch to your slides.

Animate to Explain Concepts

Animations can be a great way to explain complex concepts dynamically. Consider using subtle animations to illustrate processes or step-by-step explanations.

As a reference, check out this talk with impressive animations explaining the JavaScript event loop.

Demonstrate with Demos

If your presentation includes a demo, start by showcasing the end product first. Then, take your audience through the process of building it step by step. This approach creates anticipation and helps the audience understand the context and value of your demo

AI-Generated Images

For a creative touch, consider using AI-generated images created with tools like DALL-E or Midjourney. These unique visuals can add a distinctive element to your presentation. Just make sure they don't contain too many odd/unexpected features. Check out this AI generated image I created of an avocado swimming in the ocean.

An example of an AI generated image of a halved avocado floating in water

Optimize Slide Design for Clarity

Creating visually clear and appealing slides is crucial to ensure that your conference talk is effectively delivered to all members of the audience, including those seated at the back of the room.

Here are essential tips to optimize your slide design:

Use Large Fonts

Opt for large, easy-to-read fonts that are visible from a distance. This ensures that even audience members at the back can comfortably follow your content without straining their eyes.

Large fonts from Zach Holman's talk on "How Github uses Github"

Use Concise Text

Avoid lengthy sentences on your slides. Keep the text concise and to the point. Too much text can distract the audience from your spoken words and diminish their focus on your message.

Avoid Information Overload

Refrain from cluttering your slides with excessive information. Stick to key points and use bullet points to convey your ideas succinctly. This allows the audience to grasp the main concepts without feeling overwhelmed.

Format Code Clearly

When presenting code, use tools like carbon.sh to format it in a clean and readable manner. This ensures that even complex code is understandable to your audience.

Code formatted with carbon.sh

Ensure Visible Contrast

Check the visibility and color contrast of your content against the background. Do a dry-run on the day of your talk to confirm that the slides are clearly visible on the projector or screen. Monitors can have varying color resolutions, so it's essential to be prepared.

An example of a slide with sufficient color contrast

Avoid Distracting Design

While visual elements can enhance your presentation, ensure that your design template doesn't distract from the main content. Keep it clean and professional to maintain focus on your message.

Avoid Over-Reliance on Presenter Notes

Presenter notes can be valuable tools for staying on track during your conference talk, but it's crucial to avoid relying on them too heavily.

Here are key points to consider when using presenter notes effectively:

Stay Natural and Engaging

Reading directly from presenter notes can make your presentation sound robotic and disengaging. Instead, aim to speak naturally and connect with your audience.

Familiarize yourself with the content to the point where you can convey it in a conversational manner. Treat presenter notes as aids rather than a script. They should serve as a helpful guide to remind you of key points, transitions, or specific details, but not dictate your entire presentation.

Practice Makes Perfect

Rehearse your talk multiple times until the content becomes ingrained in your memory. By knowing your material inside out, you'll be able to deliver it smoothly without relying solely on presenter notes.

Keep Your Audience Engaged

Keeping your audience engaged is essential to ensuring the success of your conference talk. By incorporating various interactive elements, you can captivate your listeners and maintain their interest.

Here are effective strategies to achieve this:

Inject Humor and Memes

Light-hearted humor and relevant memes can add a touch of fun to your presentation. Well-timed jokes and amusing visuals help create a relaxed atmosphere and make your talk more enjoyable.

Note on Jokes: If a joke doesn't land as expected, simply move on without dwelling on it. Avoid explaining the joke or making the audience feel uncomfortable for not getting it.

Interact with Your Audience

Engage your audience by asking them questions or encouraging them to participate in brief activities. Interactive elements make your talk more dynamic and involve the audience in the discussion.

Offer Quick Breaks

If your talk contains substantial content, consider giving the audience a quick break to recharge. This break can be as simple as taking a sip of water or pausing briefly to allow the audience to take screenshots of important slides.

Leverage Live Demonstrations

Live demos are excellent ways to immerse your audience in your topic. Letting the audience interact with your demos, ask questions, and explore the process hands-on keeps them engaged and interested.

Share Swag or Resources

If appropriate, consider offering swag such as stickers, or t-shirts. This can serve as an incentive for active participation and create a positive association with your talk.

Share Resources for Ongoing Engagement

Empowering your audience with valuable resources ensures that the impact of your conference talk extends beyond the event itself. Here are effective ways to share resources and foster continued engagement:

QR Codes for Accessibility

Make it easy for your audience to access your slides and additional resources by displaying QR codes at the beginning of your talk. By scanning the code, attendees can quickly access relevant materials on their devices. Check out this slide where I shared a QR code of a code demo.

An example of how to share QR code in your talk for code examples.

Tweet Links to Slide Deck

Increase accessibility by tweeting links to your slide deck a few minutes before your talk. This allows people to access the content during your presentation and refer back to it afterward.

Provide GitHub or CodeSandbox URLs

If you demonstrate a technical project, share the URL to the corresponding GitHub repository or CodeSandbox. This enables your audience to explore the project further and gain hands-on experience with the code.

Include Your Contact Information

Display your name and contact information on every slide, ensuring that attendees can easily reach out to you after the talk. This is particularly helpful if they want to share the slides or contact you for further discussions or inquiries.

An example of including your social handle at the bottom of every slide

Give Action Steps

Leave your audience with a call-to-action or "from here, do this" tasks related to the topic. This encourages individuals interested in learning more to take action and engage further with the subject matter.

Make it Relevant for Your Audience, Not Just You

Ensuring that your conference talk resonates with your audience is essential for creating a meaningful and impactful presentation. Consider the following points to make your talk relevant and valuable for your listeners:

Abstract the Problem and Solution

If you're sharing a talk about a problem you encountered and the solution you formed, abstract the problem to make it relatable for the audience.

Avoid overwhelming them with excessive technical details or specific scenarios that may not directly apply to their situations. Instead, focus on the core principles and broader implications that your audience can relate to and learn from.

Avoid Over-Marketing or Over-Selling

While it's natural to be passionate about your work or product, avoid turning your talk into a promotional pitch.

People attend conferences to gain knowledge and insights, not to be sold to. Provide valuable content that genuinely benefits your audience, and let the quality of your work speak for itself. Authenticity and value will naturally attract interest and followers.

Note on Self-Promotion: Subtly promote your social media presence at the beginning and end of your talk, but do so in a non-intrusive manner. Mentioning your Twitter handle or other social links during the introduction and conclusion allows interested listeners to follow you for more content without feeling overwhelmed by constant promotion.

Where to Find Templates

I'm a fan of simplicity when it comes to design templates. There are various sources to find templates, such as Envato or Canva. You can also hire a designer from platforms like Fiverr or Upwork to create a custom template for you.

Personally, I've refined my design template in Keynote over the years, and it's the one I use most frequently. This is the template I started off with.

Examples of Great Talks

• Zach Holman's Talk with Huge Fonts
• Jason's Talk with Great Fonts
• Andre's Funny Talk with Cool Animations
• Shaundai's Talk with Great Use of Visuals

Speaking at conferences is an enriching experience that allows you to share your passion and expertise with others. Following these tips will help you create powerful conference talks that leave a lasting impact on your audience. Embrace visuals, engage your listeners, and deliver valuable content that inspires and empowers others.

Remember, every great conference talk starts with a few seconds of courage. Take that step and share your knowledge with the world!

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And this year's event should be no different – filled with opportunities to learn from speakers and expand your professional network.

This year, the event is focused on Blockchain Development. It will feature talks on beginner and intermediate topics.

Tickets are free if you use the code "FCC". All proceeds from the conference will go to support 4 partner organizations – one of which is freeCodeCamp.

The 2-day event will take place on March 31 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. , and April 1 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The event will feature both Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, and US Securities & Exchange Commissioner Hester Peirce.

It will also feature speakers from several major in the blockchain networks:

• Solana
• Near
• Polygon
• Maple Finance
• Aave
• Mysten Labs
• Eigenlayer
• Cega
• Gelato
• Starkware
• Across
• and many more

You can sign up at https://www.hacksummit.org

This year I had the honor of speaking at VueConf US 2022 and I thought I would share my experience.

Part of this article will cover my personal process, part will look at VueConf specifically, and the rest will be about the conference at large. I hope you enjoy it.

How to Get into VueConf

Call For Papers

Let's start at the beginning, as that's a good place to start. As soon as VueConf announced the Call for Papers (CFPs), I submitted my talks. I had submitted a few, and the one they selected was called, "Maintainable & Resilient Projects Through Internal UI Libraries".

I submitted other talks that I thought had a better chance, but they selected this one, which turned out really well.

The submission process the conference uses is a Google Form. There's nothing wrong with that, but I've noticed that some other conferences use Sessionize or PaperCall which I prefer because you can have an account with your details that pre-fills the forms. With the Google Form, I had to re-type a lot of the same data each time (my life is so hard).

It's not a huge deal, but I mention it in case you're a conference organizer. Those dedicated platforms are pretty sweet. :)

After several weeks, maybe a month, I got the email that I'd been selected. Yay! That gave me plenty of time to prepare.

If you're thinking about speaking at a conference, here's my advice:

• Submit several talks. You're not limited to just one.
• Find out who the organizers are and connect with them. They don't only pick their friends, but it doesn't hurt if they recognize you.
• Try giving your talks ahead of time at meetups. It'll get nerves out, works out kinks, and gets you some good feedback.
• Make your talk stand out. Probably the most important thing is that you need to take time to create a title, pitch, and description that will get the attention of the organizers AND the audience. Communicate the value succinctly.
• Do it! It's a great way to connect with people and potential future employers.

Also, shout out to Wes Bos and Scott Tolinski for giving some good tips on a recent Syntax.fm episode.

After being selected, there was the matter of convincing my boss that our company should sponsor my trip.

How to Convince Your Boss

Some conferences will actually cover flights, accommodations, and even pay speakers. I think it's far more common to cover all the expenses yourself, minus the entry. This means either paying for everything out of pocket, or having your company sponsor your trip (heck yeah!).

Convincing your company to send you to a conference can be tricky because it has to be worth it for them. That's not always easy to prove. If you're presenting, it's better because that could provide an opportunity to promote the company or engage with your community.

Of course, this is going to vary greatly based on your company, their budget, the nature of your role, your team, and your workload.

As a developer advocate, it's a lot more typical for me to go to conferences now, but there's a greater expectation for me to speak, run a booth, host some sort of gathering, and create content (ahem).

Some companies are really good about conference policies, others not so much. One cool thing VueConf does that's really cool is provide folks with a "convince your boss" template that you can copy and fill out with your own details.

I didn't use the template, but they do cover some things that I recommend. In particular, doing the research ahead of time for how much it's going to cost (tickets, flight, accommodation, meals, other travel, and so on) is a good idea.

Something else that helps is arranging to create content or a presentation that you can bring back to your organization. That can help spread your knowledge around and get more value for your employer.

How to Write the Dang Thing

Once you know for sure that you're going, you have to also prepare your talk. If you've never written a presentation before, they're a LOT of work.

I don't even want to tell you how much time went into this presentation in case my boss reads this post (only kind of joking). That's another unspoken cost of sending someone.

You have to come up with a main concept, write an outline, write the script, find funny GIFs, come up with a new but more relevant title and hope no one notices, start wondering why they even picked you because it's not that good of subject after all, consider calling out sick, IMPOSTER SYNDROME, decide you don't care what people think and do it anyway because even if you fail you can always be a goat farmer, practice the talk, realize it's way too long, cut out half of the work you've already done, practice again, halve it again...and this all has to happen the night before your talk because you procrastinated.

And even if you don't you'll still be fiddling with your slides up until 5 minutes before you have to give your talk.

It's exhausting (but worth it).

How to Write a Conference Talk

If your curious about my process for writing a talk, I've been working on it for a while now, and have come up with this little system:

1. Start the content as a blog post.
2. Create a high level outline.
3. Shift concepts around into an order that works.
4. Fill in the gaps for a rough draft.
5. Copy the content into a markdown file.
6. Use Slidev (awesome project by Anthony Fu).
7. Come up with a story arch to make the content a little more interesting.
8. Fill in text.
9. Fill in helper graphics (code, charts, img, gifs)
10. Create speaker notes.
11. Practice reading through.
12. Practice reading through with timer.
13. Practice speaking through.
14. Practice speaking through with timer (camera optional).
15. Practice speaking it to Nugget.

I like this approach because in the end, I have a nice presentation as well as a rough draft for a blog post I can continue with later on. And Slidev is great because I can keep one main theme and reuse it for most of my presentations.

What VueConf is Like

The Check-in Process

I arrived on the first day to help Jessica Sachs give her workshop, "Stress-free Testing for Vue 3" (she's great and you should take her workshop some time).

The check in process was smooth, and one unique thing they had was a nice color-coded sticker system to communicate peoples preferred greeting: wave, hand-shake/fist-bump, hug. So you could stick it to your name tag to let other folks know your preference.

There wasn't much discussion around COVID protocols, but it's worth mentioning in case any of you are concerned about it. There was around 10 of us wearing masks, which I think goes for most events. It's mostly up to individuals, so if you're still uncomfortable in large groups, it's probably good to stick to the virtual events. I did hear of someone testing positive.

The People of VueConf

Ok, on to some more fun stuff – the people. This is one of my favorite parts of events, you get to meet so many great folks. And Vue folks are among the best!

I was happy to see greater diversity among the attendees than in the past. Like most tech events, it was still mostly men from the same few majority groups, but the gap didn't feel as stark as past events.

It felt like a larger distribution of people across the different race, gender, age, and experience spectrums. It was also represented in the speakers. It's working, people – more colors for our kick-ass rainbow!

How to meet people at a conference:

• Don't hang out with the same people. It's easy to fall into chatting with the same people you know, but it's fun to meet new people and you never know what you'll learn.
• People want to meet you. Some people have a harder time initiating a conversation, but are still eager to participate. Keep an eye out for folks and invite them in.
• Follow the Pac-Man rule. If you find yourself in a circle of people chatting, always leave a gap for someone to step into. So your circle should look more like a Pac-Man.
• Unless you need to recharge, during meals, sit at tables with people you don't know and strike up a conversation. It's great to see the variety of folks around you.

Vendors at Conferences

I don't spend a lot of time at the vendor booths, but they are super important for supporting events, and it's a good place to see who's taking care of your community. For that reason, I always like to swing by and talk to each vendor at least a little bit.

One thing I would really love to see from vendors is less wasteful swag. There's always so much stuff they give away for free that I'm sure just ends up in waste bins.

Some swag is super effective and a great way to get a brand name out there, but less garbage would also be awesome :)

VueConf Content

I thought the talks were well-selected, but they definitely leaned very heavily towards testing. I didn't mind that because each testing talk brought it's own perspective, and it's an important subject.

Not every talk was specific to Vue, which I always appreciate. It's cool to see a broad range of talks, both in the topics represented and in their target experience level. There was also a good range of talks from broad concepts to very specific, personal experiences.

This year I got to experience a workshop as well (as an assistant). I really liked the experience because workshops give you much more time on a single topic to really dive deep and get your hands dirty. And there's way more opportunity for one-on-one time between attendees and instructors.

HOT TIP: if you know someone putting on a workshop, ask them if they need any help. It got me into a workshop for free, got my friend some extra help, and it got the attendees more individual attention. Triple-win!

VueConf follows a single-track system which means every single talk happens in order, in the same room. This is different than other conferences that do the multi-track approach where there are multiple tracks running simultaneously, with a more dedicated focus.

They each have their pros and cons:

• Single-track: You know where to go for each talk. You never have to choose between two talks. There's plenty of opportunity to follow the "hallway track" and just chat with folks. You inherently get a little bit of everything.
• Multi-track: There's usually way more content to choose from. There's more content for each specific topic. It's less likely to have time slots with nothing that interests you.

I don't know if I have a preference, but it's something I thought about.

As mentioned above, one of the presentations was done by yours truly. It was a lot of fun. And despite the overwhelming feeling of impostor syndrome, I felt like I did pretty well.

There were a few points that I could have improved upon or just missed, but I don't think it showed on stage. Some folks even told me it was their favorite talk.

That was really nice...( ˘ ³˘)♥︎♥︎♥(°◡°♡)

It's published on Vue Mastery now. You can find it here: https://www.vuemastery.com/conferences/vueconf-us-2022/maintainable-and-resilient-projects-through-internal-ui-libraries/

Would love to hear what you think.

One last little tip/trick I might start doing is to ask organizers if I can give my talk on the first day. I'd rather get it out of the way so I can actually sleep at night and really enjoy the rest of the conference.

In-Person Conference Extracurriculars

In case you've never been to an in-person conference, you should know that post-conference events (parties) are going on probably every night. And it's great! Most of the time it's around grabbing drinks at a bar, but some conferences focus more on networking events.

At VueConf this year, I went to a few events.

• The first night, after the workshops, there wasn't much because it was technically still before the conference. It was a great chance to catch up with Bart Ledoux.
• The second night there was no official event because the organizers were hosting the speaker dinner. This consisted of drinks at the hotel pool beforehand, some swimming, and then walking over to a Thai restaurant with amazing Massaman curry. I also got Alex Kyriakidis his first Thai tea.
• The last night of the conference was spent once again at the hotel pool for swim and drinks, then there was a hosted happy hour with some food and drinks. After everything, we found a karaoke bar for some songs and drinks (there was some drama finding a place, but in true VueConf fashion, we found it).

In case it wasn't obvious, a lot of the external events revolve around drinks and/or bars. Which is fine for me because I don't mind a few drinks and can keep myself under control. However, I wish there were more events that focused less around alcohol. It would be more inclusive for folks that prefer not to drink.

Anyway, regardless of the venue/activity, I think it's worth going to as many extra events as you can. They're usually a lot of fun, and are a great way to connect with folks, both professionally and to make new friends. There's so much value there.

Two tips, though:

1. Don't forget to bring your badge to after parties (learned that one the hard way).
2. Try not to get trashed. Some folks did, and it's a bad look for you and possibly your employer (learned that the easy way).

In Closing

Conferences are great, and VueConf was no exception. If you haven't been to a conference, you should go. If you've been to a conference, you should go again. I find they are a good way to recharge my battery.

From this lineup, my favorite talk was probably "How we migrated our HUGE app to Vue 3" by Alex Van Liew. It was very informative from hands-on experience, but it also wasn't so subjective that it wasn't useful. Alex did a great job putting it together and delivering it (and I think he said it was his first talk ever).

One last minute tip for the whole event. Be active on Twitter before, during, and after. Put the conference name in your Twitter name. Use whatever hashtag is associated. It makes it way easier to find other folks.

And if you're not already on Twitter, you should get on it because everyone uses Twitter (right Adam?).

Thank you so much for reading. If you liked this article, please share it. It's one of the best ways to support me. You can also sign up for my newsletter or follow me on Twitter if you want to know when new articles are published.

You can subscribe to the freeCodeCamp Talks channel here.

I personally use tech talks as a way to top-up my developer knowledge. Most of these are just 20 or 30 minutes long, and are perfect to watch during a lunch break.

In this article, I'm going to share 10 of my favorite tech talks that we've published so far.

Talk #1: Understanding the V8 JavaScript Engine – A Visual Explanation – By Lydia Hallie from Reactathon 2020

How does the Chrome browser actually run JavaScript? In this talk, Lydia will show you what happens under the hood, in Google's V8 JavaScript Engine.

Lydia says of her talk: "As JavaScript devs, we usually don't have to deal with compilers ourselves. In this talk, I’ll use visualizations to show you how the JavaScript engine handles our human-friendly code, and compiles it to code that machines understand."

You can watch Lydia's talk here (11 minute watch)

Talk #2: Building Your Own Design System with CSS Variables – By Scott Tolinski From the Reactive Online Meetup

This talk is by Scott Tolinsky, host of the popular Syntax.fm podcast and creator of the LevelUpTuts YouTube channel.

Scott says: "You probably don’t need a CSS framework. While CSS Frameworks are wonderful and certainly have their place in the development landscape, they are often overused in place of a custom solution."

In this talk, Scott will show you ways to avoid the additional performance cost of using a CSS framework, and how to "quickly build a robust design system of components tuned to your needs using CSS variables."

You can watch Scott's talk here (40 minute watch)

Talk #3: Using curl better – By curl's Creator Daniel Stenberg at FOSS-North 2020

curl is one of those open source libraries that most developers will have used at some point. It is a powerful and flexible command line tool.

And who better to learn from than curl's creator himself.

In this talk, Daniel Stenberg will bring you up to speed on the history of curl and how it became so pervasive. He'll also talk about some of the decisions and tradeoffs he made when designing it. And he'll show you some curl tricks for consuming HTTP APIs.

You can watch Daniel's talk here (55 minute watch)

Talk #4: Everything You Know About MongoDB is Wrong! – By Mark Smith at Europython 2020

Mark Smith is a developer advocate at MongoDB. And in his day-to-day work contributing to the popular NoSQL database, he's heard a lot of misconceptions.

"MongoDB is webscale, right? It's a JSON database, it's eventually consistent, and you use map-reduce to query it. Oh, and it's insecure. Let me clear up some things: MongoDB is an ACID-compliant database with transactions, schemas & relationships."

"It includes a powerful aggregation query language; map-reduce has been deprecated for some time now. MongoDB doesn't speak or store JSON, and nowadays it comes with pretty good security defaults (we think)."

In this talk, Mark aims to elucidate some of these myths and explain where they come from.

"Like any database product, you need to know its capabilities and how to get the best out of it. On top of this, the product has changed a lot over the years, but lots of information out there hasn't caught up. I'll cover 8 myths around MongoDB, explain how they're wrong, why the myth originated in the first place (some of them weren't originally myths)."

You can watch Mark's talk here (25 minute watch)

Talk #5: How to AVOID Becoming a 10x Engineer – By Ivana Kellyerova at Europython 2020

Ivana Kellyerova is a back end developer from Austria. In this talk, she highlights the absurdity of some of the coding advice out there.

"The internet has never failed at being, among other things, a giant treasure of unsolicited advice by random people on all sorts of things, programming being no exception."

She says of the conventional wisdom around being a 10x engineer: "Wanna become a better coder? Learn to maximize your WPM. Never look at documentation because that's just embarrassing. And for crying out loud, change your screen background to black! So there you are, a fairly okay programmer, looking for ways to become better at coding. How do you achieve that? Well I'm no 10x engineer myself (thank goodness), but I do believe that there's a handful of things we can safely rule out."

You can watch Ivana's talk here (30 minute watch)

Talk #6: Functional Programming with JavaScript – By Simon Painter at FOSS-North 2020

Functional Programming is a popular alternative to Object Oriented Programming and other coding approaches. And there are programming languages designed around functional programming approaches, such as F#, Haskell, and Erlang.

But you don't need to learn a new programming language. You can practice functional programming right in JavaScript.

Simon Painter says "Using just a few JavaScript libraries, such as RamdaJS, developers can implement some of the most powerful patterns and techniques from the world of functional programming." You'll get code that is:

• More robust
• Easier to read
• Easier to maintain
• more scalable

This talk is recommended for anyone who wants to learn some Functional Programming in the comfort of familiar JavaScript.

You can watch Simon's talk here (55 minute watch)

Talk #7: Linux Basics – A Hands-On Workshop – By Bill Stearns at the Wild West Hackin' Fest

This is a full-blown 3-hour Linux workshop from a seasoned Linux teacher. It focuses on networking and security commands.

Bill Stearns, an instructor from the SANS Institute, says of this workshop: "Maybe you've not used Linux, or you have and just aren't comfortable with using the command line. Here's your chance to see an instructor guide you through commands as you try them yourself, hands-on. You’ll learn more about what they do, and why you might want to use them."

You can watch Bill's entire workshop here (3 hour watch)

Talk #8: Object Oriented Programming is Not What I Thought – By Anjana Vakil at the Øredev Conference

Anjana Vakil has given some of the most widely-watched tech talks in recent years. And this talk on Object Oriented Programming is similarly great.

Instead of trying to describe her talk, I'm just going give you the full description she wrote for this talk when she submitted it to the Øredev Conference because it's gold:

"Join me as I have my world shaken by the discovery that objects & classes aren't OOP's most important concepts: messages & late binding are. We'll try to peek inside the heads of Alan Kay & other OOP founders as they created languages like Smalltalk, and find that those "old" ideas seem strikingly relevant today.

"Our jaws may drop as we realize that OOP & functional programming aren't as different as we may have thought and that the 1st OO language wasn't created in the 60's or 70's, but much, much earlier… What awaits us at the end of this journey?

"At worst, we'll undergo a brief crisis of faith in everything we ever thought we knew about programming. At best, we'll shift the way we view this near-ubiquitous but oft-misunderstood paradigm, and walk away with new insights for how we architect & understand our code."

You can watch Anjana's talk here (40 minute watch)

Talk #9: The Basics of Social Engineering (AKA How I Break into Casinos and Airports) – By Chris Pritchard at DEF CON 27

Social Engineering is a fancy word for tricking people. Even the most sophisticated security systems usually have humans in the loop somewhere. And humans are one of the most vulnerable components. So it is no surprise that a lot of big real-world hacks use social engineering.

As Security Risk Manager Chris Pritchard explained to conferences goers at the legendary DEF CON: Social Engineering isn't just about reading body language, facial expressions, and being charming.

"I’m going to focus on the basics: how to perform reconnaissance, how to match dress styles, how to make up a pretext that fits your knowledge, how to get real staff to help you, what to do if you do get in, why you should interact with staff, and why you should practice being observant. These are important tools to learn and use, which can help you make a start in social engineering."

That's right. You're going to learn how to trick people. But more importantly, you're going to learn how people trick people, so you can defend against it.

You can watch Chris's talk here (25 minute watch)

Talk #10: Level Up With the Fundamentals of Web Development – By Colby Fayock at Byteconf React 2020

Colby Fayock's 2020 tech talk: Level Up With the Fundamentals of Web Development

Finally, freeCodeCamp contributor Colby Fayock gives some web accessibility design tips in this fun, breezy talk.

"Seasoned and beginner alike, developers have a habit of jumping right into a framework or new technology that makes a lot of promises while also glazing over important fundamentals that without, tend to hold back a website or application’s potential. Without some basic knowledge of HTML, you might inadvertently exclude people from learning about your company through your website due to poor accessibility."

He also gives some quick performance tips. "Lacking an understanding or simply being afraid of CSS, you might be more prone to add unnecessary libraries on top of libraries that just add to the weight of the page, impacting how quickly your app can load."

Colby covers some basic HTML and CSS strategies that you can start using right away to make your websites faster, more accessible, and ultimately more SEO-friendly for search engines.

You can watch Colby's talk here (22 minute watch)

We Publish New Tech Talks Every Week

Again, we've partnered with dozens of major developer conferences to publish their tech talks on freeCodeCamp's Talks channel.

Shout out to PyCon, DEF CON, Reactathon, and so many other awesome developer conferences out there for making these talks freely available through the freeCodeCamp Talks channel.

The best way to stay on top of the newest tech conference talks is to subscribe to the freeCodeCamp Talks channel here.

Enjoy the talks, and happy coding. 👍

Reactathon (also known as the San Francisco React Conference) usually takes place in downtown San Francisco in March. You can probably guess why they postponed it this year. (It starts with P-A-N-D and doesn't eat bamboo.)

The good news is the conference was fully online, and you can watch all the talks right now, safe from the comfort of your own home.

Note that for each conference talk listed below, I've included the introduction segment by conference MCs Anjana Vakil and Jonathan Cutrell. These are no ordinary MCs – they are both icons of the software development field.

Jonathan is best known as the host of the popular Developer Tea podcast. And Anjana has given a number of particularly influential conference talks on JavaScript-related topics, like this one.

Reactathon 2020 Day 1 Talks

Guillermo Rauch talk on Next.js

Day 1 started off with a keynote from Guillermo Rauch, founder of Vercel (formerly Zeit) and co-creator of the popular Next.js full stack development framework.

Guillermo is one of the most exciting figures in JavaScript at the moment, and I think you'll dig his keynote.

You can watch Guillermo's talk here.

Lydia Hallie talk on JavaScript V8

Then Lydia Hallie walked everyone through how the JavaScript V8 engine works. It was a heavily visual explanation of this cornerstone of Chrome, Node.js, and much of high-performance JavaScript.

You can watch Lydia's talk here.

Swizec Teller talk on Authentication

Next, Swizec Teller showed everyone how to add authentication to any React app in 5 minutes using Auth0.

You can watch Swizec's talk here.

Alex Krolic talk on Async React Testing

Alex Krolick then showed everyone how to test asynchronous React components using the React Testing Library.

You can watch Alex's talk here.

Bryan Manuele talk on Static Analysis in React

Bryan Manuele showed everyone how to use Static Analysis to quantify the health of their React Codebases.

You can watch Bryan's talk here.

Jana Beck talk on Dimensionality Reduction in React

Jana Beck showcased some advanced Data Science in the browser. She used Web Workers and OffscreenCanvas to perform Dimensionality Reduction in the browser. This way, you can look at multi-dimensional data visually, in a way humans can more easily understand. It was a lot of fun.

You can watch Jana's talk here.

Shawn Wang (Swyx) talk on Type-safe Full Stack React

We closed out day 1 with a talk from freeCodeCamp local hero Shawn Wang (Swyx) about type-safe full stack React. That's right – static typing on both the front end and back end.

The benefits of Shawn's approach: better warnings (and thus, better developer experience) and fewer errors.

He even live-coded a TypeScript + React + GraphQL app live to showcase this approach. Live coding. What can go wrong? A lot, but Shawn is a pro. He's always a blast to watch in action.

You can watch Shawn's talk here.

Reactathon 2020 Day 2 Talks

Kent C. Dodds talk on React Application State Management

Kent C. Dodds kicked off Day 2 with a keynote about React Application State Management. He showed how to organize your app to avoid maintenance headaches down the road.

Kent also gave some tips for how to increase performance just by being more thoughtful in how you categorize your app.

You can watch Kent's talk here.

Tejas Kumar talk on React as a Component Abstraction Layer

Next, Tejas Kumar took a look at how developers use React as a sort of Component Abstraction Layer. He gave everyone a peek under the hood and see what exactly makes React React.

You can watch 's Tejas's talk here.

Daria Caraway talk on writing highly readable React Component APIs in Typescript

Then Daria Caraway shared tips for writing highly readable – or "considerate" as she likes to call it – React component APIs using TypeScript.

You can watch Daria's talk here.

Quincy Larson interview (oh hey, that's me, the author of this article)

At this point, Anjana and Jonathan interviewed me for about 10 minutes about freeCodeCamp, its history, and our big goals for 2021.

You can watch the interview with Quincy Larson (me) here.

Naomi Meyer talk on Internationalization in React

Naomi Meyer will share best practices in the related fields of internationalization (I18N), localization (L10N), and Globalization (G11N). She'll share some related React tooling recommendations.

You can watch Naomi's talk here.

David Khourshid talk on Model-Driven Development

David Khourshid will introduce you to Model-Driven Development and "how state machines and statecharts can be used to model even the most complex logic and automatically visualize, generate tests, produce documentation, and more."

You can watch David's talk here.

Reactathon 2020 Day 3 Talks

Becca Bailey talk on React Codebase Refactoring Tips

Becca Bailey will start off the day right with what I nominate as the best talk title of the conference: "Konmari Your Code: Finding Joy in Refactoring."

She'll share tips for simplifying your React codebase, stress-free refactoring, and more.

You can watch Becca's talk here.

Lee Robinson talk on Client-side VS Server-side Rendering

Lee Robinson will explore data fetching with the React-powered Next.js framework. He'll talk about Client-side Rendering VS Server-side Rendering, and other important web development concepts.

You can watch Lee's talk here.

Brian Leroux talk on Deno

Brian Leroux will talk about Deno, the new JavaScript runtime from the same creator of Node.js.

Brian will demonstrate some of the key differences between Deno and Node by deploying his own serverless backend using AWS Lambda.

You can watch Brian's talk here.

Cassidy Williams talk on Sci-Fi Inspired User Interfaces

Cassidy Williams will talk about Sci-Fi inspired user interfaces. If you're familiar with Cassidy and her developer-themed Tik-Tok videos, you already know you're in for a treat.

You can watch Cassidy's talk here.

Live Taping of the Syntax.fm Podcast with Wes Bos and Scott Tolinsky

And finally, Day 3 ended with a live recording of the Syntax.fm podcast. Hosts Wes Bos and Scott Tolinsky shared some coding insights, jokes, and as always, some "tasty treats."

Like the other Syntax.fm live tapings I've seen, it was a blast, with lots of audience participation.

You can watch the live recording of the Syntax.fm podcast here.

That's all, folks. I hope you enjoy these talks, and look for more full-length conference live-streams on freeCodeCamp's YouTube channel in the future.

I personally like to fire up a tech talk and sit back while an expert explains a new computer science concept to me.

There are hundreds of coding-related conferences around the world every year. And you can often hear insights about important projects through tech talks – straight from their founders and maintainers.

An image from a freeCodeCamp tech talk video by Daniel Stenberg, Swedish developer and creator of the popular curl Linux library

The freeCodeCamp Talks YouTube Channel

The best place to find full-length tech talks is the freeCodeCamp Talks channel. We publish new talks by developers Monday through Friday.

Our nonprofit has partnered with PyCon and dozens of other tech conferences around the world to bring you awesome tech talks for free – right from the convenience of your phone or laptop.

You can work these talks into your daily routine. Or you can just Voltron them all together into your own mini tech conference, and binge-watch them over a weekend.

An image from Nina Zakharenko's PyCon talk about pdb and other Python debugging tools and techniques

What are these Tech Talks like? And what topics do they focus on?

Most of these are about 30 minutes long. Here are some of the topics we've published on:

• Functional Programming
• Penetration Testing
• Front End Development
• Python Libraries
• Web Assembly
• Robotics
• And a whole lot more.

An image from Scott Tolinksy's talk about how to build your own CSS Design System instead of just using popular CSS tools like Bootstrap and Foundation

Sounds rad. Where can I subscribe to freeCodeCamp Talks?

You can subscribe to this channel for free.

Also be sure to click the little “bell” to turn on notifications. YouTube will let you know when we post new videos.

Again, we plan to continue publishing new talks Monday through Friday each week. We already have 35 talks live, and we hope to eventually have thousands of talks.

Imagine a virtual Library of Alexandria overflowing with developer wisdom goodness. That's what we're aiming for.

If you yourself have given a tech talk at an event and would like for us to publish it and publicize it to the global freeCodeCamp community, be sure to email Beau Carnes, who runs the Talks channel. He may be able to feature it.

What about the original freeCodeCamp YouTube channel?

It’s still going strong!

We are publishing several videos each week there, including lots of full-length programming courses. You can subscribe to it for free here. (Again, be sure to ring the bell so YouTube will notify you when we publish new courses.)

Happy coding.

Over the past year, I've received many messages asking how I got into WWDC 2019 as a scholar. And I've finally decided to write this post to answer those questions.

So chances are, if you're wondering how to apply for the scholarship, your questions will be answered in this article.

What is the Apple WWDC Scholarship?

First things first, WWDC is Apple's World-Wide Developer Conference held every year in June. There, Apple announces recent software (and hardware) updates to some of its products including MacBooks, iPhones, and iMacs.

If you want to attend WWDC these are the associated costs:

1. Event ticket price: $1600
2. One week stay in San Jose, California: $1000-$1500 (depends)
3. Travel and other expenses - $400-$500 (again, depends)
4. Plane ticket: $1500-$2000 (again, depends, but from India, this is a fair price)

As a student, you likely can't afford this much. But Apple offers a scholarship to students, where they sponsor your plane ticket, event ticket price, and one week stay. That's about $5000 in savings if you manage to get selected as a WWDC Scholar.

Who am I?

I'm a web developer who was an Apple WWDC '19 scholar. To sum up, I was probably the only person in the WWDC crowd who knew JavaScript better than Swift.

But if I can get the scholarship, so can you. So now let's discuss the WWDC scholarship in more depth.

WWDC Scholarship 101

This is a scholarship which Apple offers to people enrolled in STEM programs around the world. If you're enrolled in a college or you're in school, chances are that you can apply for this scholarship.

To apply for the scholarship you have to build a simple project that the Apple review team can use and experience in under 3 minutes. More or less, these are the ONLY requirements of your WWDC app:

1. Size limit (20 MB)
2. You should be enrolled in STEM organization
3. You have to use Apple technologies (Xcode, Swift, MacBooks, etc.)
4. Make it a small app, something that can be used and understood within 3 minutes

Now, let's start in on how I did it, and then I'll give you a few pointers to help you out with your application next year.

How I cracked the WWDC19 scholarship in 10 days

To begin, I literally learned everything about WWDC: the Swift programming language, and the tech around it all in 10 days. No lies. And this helped me get the scholarship (I was one of the few from India that year).

But I don't want to confuse you with some clickbaity thing - it is not possible to crack that scholarship application from a complete beginner state in just 10 days.

I was able to do it because I had a little programming experience before, mostly with Node. The general concepts in programming remain the same, and after a while you're just hopping through syntax and documentation for the most part.

Here is what I submitted for WWDC 2019:

Trust me, I had no idea either how to build this whole thing. I learned the required Apple APIs and frameworks in 10 days.

So here's how you can approach WWDC '21 in 5 steps:

#1: Learn Swift, and Apple frameworks

Apple loves to see students using their technology - Swift, SwiftUI, ARKit, , and so on. The more you can use, the better. Don't force or bloat your app, but try to showcase what you know.

If you're creating a simple game, try to introduce some AR version of the game too. If you're creating a project for WWDC which could use some ML, do that. You'll get points for it.

#2: Pick difficult ideas

When I started to create my project for WWDC, I had no idea how would I do it. Not gonna lie, my final version wasn't really what I had imagined, but it was pretty close.

The more ambitious the idea you pick, the better are your chances. But balance your ambition with your timeframe – you don't want to have an incomplete app before submissions close.

For me, it was a very close call (I had my submission ready just about an hour before the deadline). Plus I had to work a lot to learn all this new Apple tech as I didn't know anything beforehand.

So make sure you have an estimate of what you need to learn and what you want to build. But like I said, go for shiny and ambitious ideas that stand out.

#3: Write your ideas down, then build them in 10 days

This is more of personal opinion. But I've seen people who prefer to build something over the course of 2, 3, or 4 months before the scholarship kicks off. Trust me, you'll get a 500% productivity boost when the countdown starts ticking.

I would say keep a list of unique or innovative ideas you have with you. Learn the skillset, but develop projects which you intend to submit in the provided 10 days only. Honestly, it is enough time to pull off something decent which the Apple staff can experience in under 3 minutes (their direct instructions).

I recommended focusing on ideas that really impact the world – education, the health of the planet, making technology more accessible to people, and so on.

These are ideas that the Apple scholarship panel values a lot (at least that's what I've observed in most accepted submissions). And if you are interested in any of these fields, it would be a fun and good match for you.

#4: Try going for Swift Playgrounds on iPad

If possible, I would recommend NOT going with MacBook-based Xcode playground submissions.

I know there have been people who have won with their Xcode playgrounds. But I believe that if you go with a MacBook-based playground, you miss out on a ton of things.

I say this for two main reasons:

1. iPad has a better camera and API support for things like ARKit and a better CPU for ML models/intensive apps
2. Swift Playground Books (available only on iPad) are beautiful to use and interact with (as a user)

For quite some time, Apple has not changed its guidelines for the scholarship much. So it should be safe to assume that Swift playgrounds will be a choice next year too.

They're easy to work with (just like Swift playgrounds on Mac), and are highly engaging. iPads really enable a lot of useful things. So give iPad submission a try for the scholarship if possible.

#5: Focus on your responses, too

The Apple panel also reads your responses to basic questions about what technology you've used and built your project with.

Make sure you mention everything and anything you've used, from the best Apple frameworks to external assets if you have used any.

Proofread your paragraphs – the only thing worse than a little bug in your code could be a little bug in your paragraph.

Apart from this, stay focused for 10 days, (I remember I pulled all-nighters for almost all 10 days), and most importantly do it for fun. There are a lot of ways to go one step forward in life, and this is just one of them.

Don't stress out too much over what the result might be. Because if you're attempting this, you're probably in your early 20s which means you have a full life in front of you. You'll have plenty of time to do more amazing things, irrespective of the result. So just go get it!

My Experience with WWDC

In short: mind-blowingly amazingly super cool!

Although I wanted to keep this article focused on helping you out, I also wrote this section to motivate you to work hard for this scholarship. It unlocks a TON of networking opportunities, and you meet and make a bunch of cool friends (MKBHD included haha). Plus you'll have a lot of fun.

I shared some of my moments in the full vlog last year, see if you like what I did there.

If you still have questions, or this article helped you out, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter or Instagram and tell me :) I'm also working on codedamn, a platform for developers to learn and connect, feel free to give it a visit too.

If you’re like most people, the idea of public speaking terrifies you (it terrifies me too). So how do you get over those jitters, get up on stage, and give an amazing talk? First, a disclaimer: this article is purely about your stage presence, not about crafting the content of your talk.

Tip #1: Practice, practice, practice.

Don’t just read through your notes, talk out loud. Talk to yourself, talk to your friends, talk to the mirror. It doesn’t matter where you practice as long as you do it out loud.

Get used to the sound of your own voice. It might sound strange at first, particularly if you haven’t done it before. But it will help you identify phrasing that sounds strange or points that don’t connect much more quickly than reading your notes in your head.

Often, when someone tells you that you sound ‘rehearsed,’ it actually means you haven’t practiced enough to make the speech sound conversational. If you’re feeling very brave, record yourself and watch your performance. Notice your movements. Do your hands distract from the points you’re trying to make? Do you sway back and forth nervously? Are you making eye contact?

Tip #2: Listen to others.

Watch others give talks. How do they speak, gesture, relate to the audience? Go to talks similar to the ones you want to give and pay attention - not just to the speaker’s content, but to their delivery. Do they seem excited about their talk? Are they making eye contact with the audience? What do they do with their hands? How quickly are the speaking? Now, pay attention to the audience. Are they engaged, or are they on their phones? Are you interested? Now think about why.

If you need inspiration, check out these TED talks. All three speakers have very different talks and very different styles, but they have several things in common. They talk relatively slowly, pause often, and make deliberate hand gestures.

The best advice I ever got before giving a speech (as I tend to talk very quickly) was to speak so slowly it felt painful. Particularly as most people tend to talk faster when nervous, it’s pretty great advice.

Figure out where there is a natural break in your speech, and pause there. Take a deep breath. Hold it. Does it feel uncomfortable yet? You’re doing it right. Okay, keep going. At first, your speech cadence and pauses will feel far too slow. That’s okay. Keep doing it. On stage, when you’re nervous, you’ll naturally speed up, and your speech will feel normal.

Tip #3: Avoid Reading.

Notes, or a script, are definitely easier, but they put up a barrier between you and your audience. Try your best to avoid staring down at a screen so that you’re not distracted by looking down. Spend your time focusing on the audience instead, in order to connect with them.

Tip #4: Beginnings and Endings.

People tend to remember the beginnings and endings of things, while the middle tends to fall away. Open with something which gets your audience engaged (try asking a question, playing a game, or telling a fun anecdote). When you end, summarize your talk, and give one (or a short list) of key takeaways.

In order to develop this, think about your audience leaving your talk. When someone asks them ‘What was that talk about?’, what do you want them to say? That’s your takeaway.

Tip #5: Keep it Relevant.

Try your best to keep the talk specific to this audience (even if you’ve given the same talk 100s of times). Can you incorporate a reference to a previous speaker? What about the place where you are, or the type of event? People will pay more attention, and appreciate the talk more, when they think it is directed at them.

Think about your audience and put yourself in their shoes. If you can, talk to the speakers before and after you. Can you connect your presentation to theirs?

Tip #5: Slides.

Ensure that any slides you use are necessary and avoid words as much as possible. Any time you have words on your slides, you audience will stop to read them, and you’ll lose their attention. Keep words to a minimum, and keep the slides simple and relevant.

If you're showing code snippets, make sure they're big enough that people in the back can read (my favorite suggestion I've received for how large a font you should use is to take the age of the oldest person in the room and halve it. Someone's 40? Great, make your text size 20. It's lighthearted, but it helps ensure your audience isn't squinting at the screen to read).

Tip #6: One Day Before.

Great, you’ve practiced, you’re ready, and you’re at the conference. Figure out where and when you’ll be speaking. Think about your audience at that time. Are they sleepy after lunch (how can you get them moving and engaged)? Is it first thing in the morning (great, they’re probably still really focused!)? Is it right before lunch (definitely end on time!)? If you can, check out the room ahead of time.

• How big is the area where you’ll have to stand?
• Where will your slides be broadcast?
• How big is the room?
• Is there a timer available?
• Can you test your presentation?
• Where should you stand before your presentation?
• Is someone announcing you?
• What should you do if there’s a tech issue?
• Do you have a microphone? What kind (does it clip onto you, or is it on a podium)?
• Does the audience have a mic for questions?

Tip #7: Prepare for EVERYTHING.

Assume that anything which can go wrong, will, and pack accordingly. With that in mind, what should you bring to your talk?

• Your (fully charged) laptop
• An adapter to connect your laptop to ANYTHING
• Charging Cable, adapter (if necessary)
• Water
• Slides clicker (if you have slides)
• Your slides on your laptop
• Your slides on a USB
• Your slides printed and ready to go
• If you have a live demo, make sure you also have a video pre-recorded in case something goes wrong

Tip #8: Take Care of Yourself.

Get a good night’s sleep the night before. Don’t be afraid to call it an early night to review your presentation one more time. You don’t want to be hungover, tired, or sick tomorrow. If you’re jet-lagged, keep that in mind and make sure you’re well rested.

Tip #9: Relax

Take a deep breath and give your speech. You’re going to be great! Personally, right before I get up on stage, I like to imagine the audience applauding at the end of a great talk. At that point, there’s no preparation left to do, and it helps calm my nerves to imagine the most positive outcome. Remember, everyone gets nervous. Public speaking is all about dealing with the nerves, and pushing through it.

Tip #10: Celebrate!

Don’t forget to relax and celebrate your accomplishment afterward. Giving a talk can be really, really hard and just finishing it is an accomplishment.

You’ve attended a few conferences, watched a lot of presentations, and decided it’s time to give a talk of your own! As someone who has both given talks at conferences, and sat on the proposal review board for others, I’m here to tell you what I’ve learned and to encourage you to submit your own talk proposals.

How do you go about doing that?

First, find your niche.

Figure out what you want to talk about. What are you passionate about? What kind of unique perspective do you bring to this topic? That doesn’t mean that if someone has written about it, or presented about it before, that you should completely avoid the topic.

However, you should think about how your presentation is different than the content which already exists, and what new example, viewpoint, or data you’re bringing to the topic (your view on a particular thing counts as a unique viewpoint!). Also, you don’t have to start out by presenting for an hour. Conference talks range from 5 minute lightning talks (a great way to get an introduction to conference speaking!) to 15–30 minute presentations, to 2+ hour workshops or panels. Figure out what you’re comfortable doing.

Then, based on your idea, figure out where to give your talk. You can look at online lists such as CallbackWomen or Paper Call for CFPs (or Call for Presentations/Papers) or try looking at some of the following:

• Internal company presentations (Can you host a lunch & learn event? What about an annual conference your company might host?)
• Look at past conferences you’ve attended (or search for conferences based on the topics you’re interested in).
• Get involved in local organizations, meet the organizers, and ask to present (Meetup is great for this).

Then, write your proposal.

Follow the rules outlined in the call for speakers. Seriously. You’d be surprised how many people don’t do that, and while some reviewers or conferences are willing to overlook that, don’t take the chance. Just follow the requirements.

1. Avoid the sales pitch (if you work for a sales-driven organization). It’s fine to use your organization to illustrate a case study, but avoid making your proposal a giant advertisement.
2. Write a great title. Pick something catchy, but that clearly explains what your talk will be about. Think about your title as if you were an attendee. Would the title draw you in? Does it tell you enough about the proposal to pique your interest? I like puns, but that’s a personal (and surprisingly polarizing) choice. The title for the last talk I gave was 'Shooting Phish in a Barrel: Practical Proposals for Reducing Phish Click Rates'
3. Write the abstract. If a proposal is accepted, the abstract is often used (unedited) as the description of your talk the audience will see, so make sure it caters to the audience (not to the conference reviewers). Think about what matters to them. Tell a story, but keep it brief. Clearly explain what your talk is about (why do I want to go?), who the talk is aimed at (is this talk a good fit for me?), and what your audience will gain from attending (what did I learn from this talk? What can I do now, that I couldn’t before?).

Personally, I recommend the following structure:

State the problem [Sentence one]. What did you do to approach the problem? [Sentences 2 and 3]. Actionable takeaway for the audience [Sentences 4 and 5]. That's it! Don't use more than 5 sentences, and you can usually do it in less. If it takes you more than that to explain your proposal, it probably isn’t well thought through.

5. Most proposals consist of an abstract and a bio, but some will have additional sections (justification, outline, etc.). For these additional sections, keep in mind the same key principles as above.

6 . Create a bio. This is an opportunity for you to highlight your relevant experience and explain to the organizers (and later attendees) why YOU are the best person to give this talk. What experience do you have that directly relates to this talk? Here’s a helpful place to start (it's my favorite template for writing a conference bio).

Here's mine from a recent conference: Megan Kaczanowski is a Threat Intelligence Analyst at S&P Global who works closely with the threat hunting and incident response teams to protect organizations from emerging cyber threats. Megan understands that delivering effective threat intelligence isn’t about utilizing the latest industry buzzwords – it’s about delivering curated, actionable intelligence to the relevant stakeholders.

In addition to her experience in threat intelligence, Megan runs the simulated phishing training program at her organization and co-leads a Security Champions user awareness initiative. Megan holds a BA in Economics and Political Science from the University of Michigan. In her free time, she enjoys rock climbing and is a PADI certified scuba diver.

7. When you’re finished, check your spelling, grammar, and formatting. Use an app like Hemingway or Grammarly or ask a friend to review it! Little mistakes can impair a reviewer’s ability to read and understand your proposal and you want to make it as easy to read and understand as possible. This is particularly important if you're writing a proposal in a language which isn't your native language. Often reviewers have very little time to look at each proposal simply because there are so many proposals. Make their job easy.

8. Feel free to submit more than one proposal, if the conference is something you’re very interested in (but make sure that all of the topics are something you’re excited about, and feel comfortable speaking on).

Still looking for help? Check out these resources:

• How to Write a Successful Conference Proposal
• Writing a Conference Proposal
• What Your Conference Proposal is Missing
• Conference Prompts: Or How to Submit Proposals and Influence People
• What I learned from reading 429 conference proposals
• Is Your Proposal Good Enough?
• How to Write a Compelling Proposal

If your talk is rejected, don’t worry! This can happen for many reasons, and doesn’t mean that your proposal was necessarily bad. Perhaps there were 4 other proposals on the same topic. Perhaps the conference organizers are looking for a range of different tracks/experience levels/topics and yours wasn’t a good fit this time.

Whatever the reason, if the conference provided feedback, read it and use it to improve your next proposal. If not, ask for it. They might not have time to provide feedback for every single proposal, but there’s no harm in asking, and feedback will help you improve faster. Don’t let one rejection discourage you. Everyone gets proposals rejected. Improve your proposal, or write a new one, and try again!

If your talk is accepted, congratulations!

Time to write your talk. Here’s some resources to help:

• Practical Tips for Creating Great Slides
• Practical Tips for Being a Great Speaker
• Toastmasters (an organization which can help you improve your public speaking skills)
• How to Improve Your Communication Skills

Eleftheria moved around a lot when she was young, but settled in Thessaloniki in northern Greece as a teenager. When she had to decide which track to take in school, she picked technology, science, and math. It turned out to be a good decision!

After bouncing around a bit and completing some internships, Eleftheria found a place that suited her. She learned to code by supplementing her education with free online resources (like freeCodeCamp!), leveled up her skills by completing numerous challenges like #100DaysofCode, and realized she had a passion for design as well as front-end development.

Today, she works as a developer, she's getting her Master's degree in design, she attends numerous conferences throughout Europe - and speaks at many of them - and she has a growing YouTube channel. She also has a blog where she shares all kinds of tips, tutorials, and bits of knowledge for beginning developers.

When she's not busy juggling her many tasks, she likes to workout to clear her head and hang out with her friends.

This interview is about a 1 hour listen in your favorite podcast player app - just search for "freecodecamp" and you should find it.

If you have an Amazon Echo, you can just say "Alexa - play the freeCodeCamp podcast."

Or you can listen to it right here in your browser.

Find Eleftheria on Twitter here.

Visit her website here.

Conferences can be stressful even if you are not giving a talk. On the other hand, speaking can really boost your career, help you network, allow you to travel for (almost) free, and give back to others at the same time.

I’ve given over a dozen conference talks in the last few years and I want to share some of the things I’ve learned from my experience here.

Applying to Conferences

It can be tricky to get accepted at your first conference. Your best bet is to speak at local meetups, user group meetings, or nearby events first. The people who run those groups are always happy to have volunteer speakers and the audience is much more forgiving when you are starting out.

Before speaking at my first conference, I met lots of people by speaking at local events. This really helped to boost my confidence enough to start projecting my voice better and make eye contact. After a few local talks, someone recommended that I apply for a new, local conference. I got in! Then one talk led to another and here I am today.

Here are some conferences I recommend applying to:

1. Any local conference — They love to attract local speakers because it’s, A: cheaper, and B: better for local advertising and promotion. You can also usually connect with the people who run it beforehand and ask them to give you a chance as a first-time speaker.
2. NDC conferences — These are very well run conferences that are hosted all over the world. They pay for your airfare, hotel, and some events, meals, and, of course, give you a free ticket to the conference. It’s not just about the free stuff though; they attract top notch speakers and a wonderful community of people. I’ve personally been to NDC conferences in London, Sydney, and Minnesota. I plan on applying for many more in the future, so maybe I will see you at one soon :)
3. Python conferences — The Python community is known for being very open and welcoming to newcomers. Many of the conferences are low cost or free and you can sign up to give a five minute lightning talk if you just want to get your feet wet. The people at all of the Python conferences I’ve been to are so nice and will try to help you and give you feedback on what you can do better.

Making a Proposal

Once you have found a conference you want to apply at, you have to write a proposal for the talk and come up with a title. Most of the time, the requirements will be similar or the same so you can pretty much copy/paste to reuse talk proposals. Here are some general steps to making good proposals:

1. Research the topic: Usually, you can see a list of the speakers and talks from previous years on the conference website (unless it’s the first year, of course). Take note of about what people spoke about and which topics were underrepresented. Most of the speaker profiles will also link to contact information, so you can reach out to individual speakers and ask them their opinion on the conference and for advice on applying and getting accepted.
2. Make a catchy title: The title is the first — and sometimes only — thing attendees see when they are scrolling through a list of talks online or in the brochure at the event. It has to grab their attention, so conference organizers look for great titles when they are reviewing talks. Pick out some of the titles that pop out at you when you scroll through talks from previous years and keep a list of them for inspiration as you are making your proposals.
3. Create a proposal: Make a quick list of things you will cover and in what order. It’s good to write down an overview of what the talk will be about and then make notes about what you want the audience to get out of the talk. Experienced speakers have always told me to talk to the audience in the proposal and tell them how they will directly benefit from attending. From reviewing lots of talk descriptions in the past, I have found that it can also be good to start the description with a question to pique interest. Here is an example: “What if we could build apps that aren’t just functional, but also fun to use? Done right, gamification can vastly improve user experience as well as boost…” Some conferences will ask you to do an abstract as well as a description and some will ask only for a description and then truncate it if they need a shorter version. Either way, the method of writing the proposal is about the same.
4. Ask someone to review it: Several experienced speakers have helped me a lot over the years; from reviewing my talk proposals to giving me advice to helping me practice. It can never hurt to ask someone for help. The title of my last conference talk, “Game on! Gamifying your apps for fun and profit.” — and the idea for making it — came from another speaker I met years ago who has helped me with encouragement and advice for almost every talk I have given. People can seem scary, but they are usually nicer than you think.
5. Save your proposal: Many conferences manage their proposals with something like Sessionize.com or PaperCall.io so you can log back in and look at them in the future. Some conferences, however, have their own forms that you won’t have access to, so it’s best to save the title, abstract, description, tags, and any other information you enter in a separate location just in case.

Rejection

Everyone gets rejected. It happens all the time, even to experienced speakers. You never know if it was because you are a new speaker, or maybe the topic didn’t fit in with one of the tracks, or they might have had too many people applying to give similar talks. It’s not personal, you just have to keep applying and you will get in somewhere.

Planning & Preparation

Like I said before, practice the talk at local meetups first. If you have already been accepted, then you have to prepare the talk anyways — you might as well use it more than once. Meetup.com, Facebook groups, and local coding bootcamps are great places to ask if they will listen to you give your talk.

When I get accepted for a conference, I like to make a map of what I have to get done and by when I need to do it. Preparing for a talk is not easy. There is research to do, code to write, and slides to make. If you don’t plan and start working in advance, the time for the conference will arrive with you scrambling to get everything done. This makes an already stressful situation even more stressful.

Every talk will be different, but I generally find myself following similar steps to prepare. For example, I usually make a list of relevant articles and books to read right away because that takes the longest. Once I have done some research and have lots of notes, I go through them and write out a detailed outline of what I will cover in the talk. Then I decide what framework I want to use for my slides; if I can reuse styles from someone else’s template, all the better. After that, I make some placeholder slides for each section of my talk and then work to fill in the details. Note: it’s a good idea to keep the description of your talk nearby where you can see it while preparing for your talk. This will help to make sure your content doesn’t diverge from what you promised the conference and your audience.

Once I have the talk and slides almost ready, I will start practicing it. This helps me find holes and inconsistencies that I might not notice while creating individual slides and sections one at a time. If the talk is longer than 30 minutes, it can be hard to practice the whole thing many times over. In that case, I shoot for at least 3–6 complete run-throughs, depending on how well I know the topic. For long talks, it’s easy to start practicing and then have to stop and go do something else: Thus, it’s important to make sure you aren’t only practicing the beginning, but the middle and ending as well.

In addition to preparing your talk, here are a few items to remember to bring with you to the conference:

1. I like to prepare cables for my laptop and any dongles just incase the conference doesn’t have the right ones for my setup (most will, but you never know).
2. I also store a copy of my talk in the cloud or on a thumb drive just in case something happens to my computer. If you are using slides.com, google slides, or something similar, they have the ability to export as html or pdf files.
3. If you are doing any sort of live coding, you should probably have a video or slideshow backup. All sorts of things seem to happen when you are on stage and it never hurts to be extra prepared. Video backups have saved me a few times.
4. I always make sure I have business cards to give out after my talk in case there is someone I want to connect with.

Arriving at the Conference

You arrive in a new place with lots of strange people around you. What do you do? Who do you talk to?

The best thing is to arrive at least a day early and get situated. This can really help to relax your nerves and feel more confident. I like to check out the conference venue in advance and make sure I know how to get there. I was late for one of my talks once because I got lost in a new city trying to get to the conference. I felt terrible about it for the rest of the trip.

When you arrive at the conference venue, the first thing you will see is an info desk where you can check in and receive a speaker name tag or badge and whatever official swag they are giving out. If the room you are speaking in isn’t marked on your name tag, make sure to ask them so you know where it is and aren’t scrambling at the last minute.

As a speaker, you will probably have access to a few rooms that other attendees do not. Most conferences have a tech check room where you can plug in your laptop ahead of time. Make sure you ask about this at the info desk if you can’t find where it is. There will also be a speaker room for you to work on your talk and relax or chat with other speakers. This is probably the best place to go to meet people when you initially get there. It’s a relaxed environment and it’s great to start networking with other people in the speaker circuit as soon as you can.

When I started going to conferences, I would hide in my hotel room during meals if I didn’t know anyone. I don’t do that anymore. Now I make myself sit at a table with other humans and start a conversation. The other people are usually just as awkward and nervous as myself and I’ve met lots of cool people like this.

On Stage

If you are more of an introvert, it can feel very overwhelming to know you are about to go on stage and start speaking. In the past, I have even had panic attacks before giving talks. It’s just something you have to push through if you want to become a good speaker. Remember, everyone wants you to succeed, especially your audience. I like to go into the bathroom beforehand and take a few deep breaths. Then I arrive at least 10–15 minutes early to get set up in the room where I will give my talk. This has really helped in calming my nerves.

I once listened to a talk by Robert C. Martin — author of “Clean Code” — and asked him for speaking advice afterwards. He told me that I have to believe that I am the expert in the room and the audience is stuck there listening to me no matter what, so I might as well have fun with it. It was a simple thing to say, but for some reason it stuck with me and my speaking improved after that.

Remember, it doesn’t have to be perfect. Everyone has good and bad speaking days. It can be a good idea to lead off the talk by saying that it’s your first conference and that you really appreciate XYZ conference for allowing you to come and speak. It’s always a good thing to start off by getting your audience to relate to you somehow, and that will probably make you feel more comfortable too.

If I have more than a few minutes left at the end of my talk, I will ask the room for questions and try to answer them in front of everyone. Otherwise, I will wrap up and tell attendees that I would love to answer their questions or talk to them afterwards.

Note: there may be times when you only have a few or even zero attendees. I’ve personally seen this happen to two very experienced speakers. Sometimes, it’s a topic that people aren’t interested in, or there is another famous speaker scheduled at the same time as you, or it was just a bad time of day (early in the morning after people went out the night before, or at the end of the day when people are worn out).

Afterwards

You’re done! Almost… Be sure to stay around for questions and discussion. If there is another talk after yours in the same room, just say you’ll be in the hallway after. It’s a great feeling to finish and then have people tell you thanks and give you compliments.

Don’t forget to thank the conference organizers for allowing you to attend and give a talk. If you don’t want to do it in person, a thank you email is great too. Tweet or write about your experience on a blog like freeCodeCamp’s.

Wrap Up

Don’t be afraid to speak at conferences. It’s a great way to improve your speaking skills, meet new people, and travel, among other benefits.

I hope to meet many of you at conferences in the future. Please let me know in the comments or on Twitter if there are good conferences that you have attended in the past. I’m always looking for new ones to attend :)

My Twitter: https://twitter.com/gwen_faraday

My YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxA99Yr6P_tZF9_BgtMGAWA

Great! You got a conference proposal accepted. Now you need to survive the talk. We’ll assume you’re already developed an idea, submitted a proposal, and written a description.

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The outline

First, draft an outline. Don’t skip this step. It’s really tempting, but it will help you organize your thoughts and ensure you have a clear beginning, middle, and end to your talk.

If you can, try telling a story. Personally, I like to use this outline, fill it with bullet points, and use it as the basis of my talk. I dislike using scripts because I find that no matter how well I’ve memorized them, once I get on stage (and stare out at the audience), I have a tendency to forget parts. If I have an overall outline, it makes it easier for me to remember the broad points I need to remember when giving a talk and I can present more freely.

For reference, here’s the basic talk outline I use (my examples are in italics below each section):

Start with a goal: What is the one (or short list) of takeaways that you want your audience to have after listening to your presentation? Reference this goal throughout your outline. Everything you talk about should tie back to this goal.

At the end of this blog post, I want you (the audience) to feel comfortable and prepared to give a conference talk.

Next, think about structuring your talk.

Grab Attention: How can you draw your audience in? Think about audience participation. How can you engage your audience in your talk?

I started one presentation with a round of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, complete with sound cues. Another presentation I opened with a corny dad joke to get the audience’s attention. (Do you want to hear a joke about UDP? You might not get it, but I don’t care.)

Think about Q&A. Do you mind interruptions or would you rather have the audience save questions for the end? Plan to let your audience know at the beginning. Ask your practice audience for questions, and think of questions you’re likely to get. Plan how to answer them.

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Introduction: Tell your audience what you’re going to talk about and why you’re a credible speaker on this topic.

I’m here to talk about surviving your first conference talk and share the lessons I’ve learned, having given talks to audiences of 1300+ people, reviewed conference proposals, and watched innumerable conference presentations, both good and bad.

First Key Point: Describe your first point, and any supporting facts or figures you want to remember.

In order to write your talk, you need to write an outline first, in order to organize your thoughts.

Second Key Point: Describe your second point, and any supporting facts or figures you want to remember.

Next, you need to create slides to enhance your presentation.

Third Key Point: Describe your third point, and any supporting facts or figures you want to remember.

Now, practice, practice, practice.

Conclusion: Review the key points you’ve pointed out, reinforce your takeaway (think of the goal you originally set), and include a ‘call to action’. Tell the audience what you want them to do after this talk (be specific).

Once you’ve written your outline, created your slides, and practiced, you should feel comfortable and prepared to give a conference talk. Run through a few tips for surviving and prepping the day of the talk and you’re ready to go! Go out and write your talk. You’re going to be great.

This outline doesn’t necessarily need to contain every single point you plan on making. It just needs to contain enough information to jog your memory when you’re reviewing it.

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Making slides

Next, create slides (if necessary). Here’s my quick rules for slides:

• Avoid too much text on your slides. Any time you have text on your slides, your audience will read it, and you’ll lose their attention. Recognize that and limit the texts to very important key points.
• Simple is better. Keep transitions, animations, fonts, and colors muted. Your audience should be thinking about your content, and not about the design of your slides. Make them professional, and standard, and then don’t worry about it.
• Finally, save them on a flashdrive, send them to yourself via email (in powerpoint and in pdf format), and to the conference organizers in the format they requested. Print a copy and bring them with you. You want as many back up copies as possible. Assume with presentation technology that anything which can go wrong, will go wrong.
• Personally, I prefer to avoid slides if at all possible (for example if I’m giving a talk on soft skills), or keep my slides only to a few images (if slides are necessary to show certain diagrams) and one final slide with the key takeaways listed. I find that this helps me focus on my material and to keep the audience focused on me, rather than on my slides.

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Practice makes perfect

Practice, practice, practice. No matter how much you’ve practiced, it’s not enough (I like to run through my talk at least once a day in the week or two leading up to the conference). Go through it again. Practice in front of the mirror, in front of a friend, or, if you’re really brave, record yourself. Listen to yourself speaking out loud, and get used to it. You’ll start to hear the flows in your talk, you’ll notice the key points, and and you’ll probably develop a better way to structure your talk. Let that happen. This is a good thing.

If someone tells you that you sound ‘rehearsed’, it’s generally because you sound scripted or stilted. That means you haven’t practiced enough. Go practice more. Do so enough that your presentation feels natural and that you can talk about your topic as though you’re having a conversation (with your 300+ closest friends). You’re done when you can close your eyes and feel comfortable talking through any of your slides (or your talk if you don’t have slides) individually without looking at them. If you have a live demo, TEST IT (repeatedly).

Work on your stage presence. Make eye contact with your audience (or different points in your practice room) and make sure to look around (try not to stare down any individuals). Stand up straight, avoid hunching or hiding behind a podium, and keep your gestures open (don’t cross your arms).

Practice hand gestures and movements which emphasize the points you’re making. Try to avoid wandering aimlessly or swaying back and forth. Make your movements deliberate so that the audience is focused on what you’re saying, not on your movement. I like to pick specific points where I’ll move across the stage to emphasize a point I’m making.

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Practice again. For the last talk I gave, I spent 3 hours the night before the talk, repeatedly giving my speech to the bathroom mirror until I felt completely comfortable and confident in what I was saying, even though I’d already been practicing daily. I know that public speaking makes me nervous and it always kicks in when I step up in front of a large audience. That means I need to know my speech so well that I can say it in my sleep (or when I’m really nervous).

You’re ready to go…now what?

On the day of the presentation:

1. Show up early. Check out the room set up, get comfortable, and if possible, test your AV setup. Bring your own adapters, power cables, and printed out slides/notes.
2. As you become more comfortable with speaking, begin to tailor your presentations to your audience. Talk to individuals in the audience (but don’t focus on any one individual for more than 5–10 seconds). Remember to pause, take a breath, and punctuate your talk with silence. It will help you and your audience recover and focus.
3. Remember that your audience wants you to succeed. No one wants to go to a bad presentation. They are rooting for you. Remember the old adage about picturing your audience in their underwear? I prefer to envision my audience applauding my talk. At this point, there’s little preparation which you can do, so relax, take a deep breath and picture your success. I know it sounds cheesy, but envisioning a successful talk helps me calm my nerves and focus.

_Photo by [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/@nickxshotz?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral" rel="noopener" target="_blank" title="">Nicholas Green on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral" rel="noopener" target="blank" title=")

After the presentation is over, think about whether or not you want to share your materials. If so, have a copy of your slides/materials you’re willing to share. Then, think about submitting your talk to other conferences!

Finally, ask for feedback (specific positive and negative feedback). The more feedback you get, the faster you will improve. I always find someone (usually another speaker or someone I know) for feedback after a presentation. I’ll specifically bug them for constructive feedback because I know it will improve my presentation skills.

Now give yourself a chance to relax! You did it!

Still looking for guidance? Check out these resources:

• Best Practices for Giving a Talk
• How to Prepare a Talk
• Giving a Talk
• A Multi-Part Guide to Giving Tech Talks
• Out Loud
• How to Not Throw Up

Notes from a front-end web performance conference

This week I had the privilege of attending #PerfMatters, a conference focused on front-end web performance. I’ve never been to a conference before, but I was thrilled to be attending because it promised an amazing lineup of speakers and topics.

I started delving into web performance about over a year ago, and so thought this would be a great chance to deepen my knowledge and meet other people in the community.

This post consists of three parts:

(1) my experience attending the conference,

(2) some of the things I learnt at the conference, and

(3) parting thoughts.

Thoughts on the conference experience

Everyone is so friendly and approachable

I went alone and it was a fairly intimidating experience, since I’m generally a shy person and can take awhile to warm up. But, I made a rule to not sit alone during lunch and to try to talk to at least 2 people each day. I’m glad I did because everyone I met was nice and fun to talk to.

I ended up meeting a lot of people, talking about things ranging from the PRPL pattern, experimenting with Cloudflare workers to better serve users in Australia (from servers in the US), functional programming’s increasing prevalence in front-end web development, and how to get started with snowboarding (not performance related, in case you’re wondering).

The talks were absolutely amazing

All the speakers had something related to web performance in one form or another to talk about, and it was obvious that they put in a lot of effort into their presentations. Jenna Zeigen’s talk covered a long list of performance tricks and each of her points had a song lyric to go along with them, which was so entertainingly informative. She told me that it took her about 15 minutes for each song and there’s like over 30 in there ?

Videos of the talks should be announced on @perfmattersconf soon, but a number of the slides have already been published with #perfmattersconf.

The talks cover the many facets of working on web performance

Improving a web page’s performance isn’t just a one-off audit, fixing the problems that makes that page slow, and then moving on. It takes a concerted effort from all stakeholders—business, design, engineering, marketing, product—in an organisation to get and stay fast.

The talks weren’t all just about how we could improve TTIs or load times, which are important. But, they also covered the other important parts of making the web accessible and usable for as many people as possible. From how people perceive performance to empowering a performance culture, and from how privilege defines performance to the intersection of performance and accessibility.

❤️ Thoughtful swag from the conference ♻️

A non-exhaustive list of performance tips and tricks learnt

Some, if not all, of these might be common knowledge, but many were new to me.

Performance Culture

• Empower developers with tools to enable better performance. Also, make performance part of the development process.
• Compare your site with your competitors’ to get executive buy-in on driving performance. Use WebPagetest’s side-by-side video comparison of your webpage against a competitor’s loading journey to succinctly drive your point across.
• Measure the potential annual revenue gains from increasing site speed with Google’s Test My Site tool.

Performance on the Web

• Latency has an outsized impact over bandwidth on network requests.
• SVG animations are great for animating loaders because of their (relatively) smaller sizes.
• Squeeze your page into 14KB if possible, to avoid multiple round trips because of TCP slow-start.
• Not all CDNs are doing HTTP/2 prioritisation as expected.
• If you have to use web fonts, Zach Leatherman wrote a great guide on how to load them well.
• Perceived performance is influenced by duration (actual duration that a process takes, referred to as “performance”), responsiveness, fluency (perceived smoothness of a process), and tolerance (how long does the user expect a process to take). Slides from Gemma Petrie and Heather McGaw’s talk on Measuring Perceived Performance to Prioritize Product Work.

Some Neat Tools

• Chrome’s code coverage tool is useful for determining where and when to code-split stuff out. Interact with the page a little to see how the numbers change, and according to Tim Kaldec, about 45% unused code is normal and it’ll be diminishing marginal gains to optimise over that.
• Chrome’s override network resource feature allows developers to return a locally saved file, which is useful for debugging something on the fly.
• Google Docs Spreadsheet to do bulk WebPagetest audits.
• Online JavaScript AST explorer (alright, this one isn’t exactly related to web performance, but I found out about it during the conference and can’t stop playing with it).
• Request Map creates a network graph from a web page and is useful for visualising third party requests.

Parting Thoughts

If there’s one overarching theme I got from the conference, it’s that to be good at web performance, it’s crucial to understand how the browser works (things like how rendering happens and the critical rendering path). But, performance doesn’t just stop at technical gains.

Getting buy-in from all stakeholders, not just engineering, is crucial to improving and maintaining performance because web performance goes beyond loading a page as fast as possible.

There’s also perceived performance to consider, and then determining whether further improvements in performance creates additional significant business or user improvements. It’s important to keep in mind that performance is just one part of the user experience.

I didn’t take too many photos during the conference (note to self to definitely take more photos the next time), but I did manage to snap this one.

_✨ Slide from Addy Osmani’s [talk](https://perfmattersconf.com/talks/#addy" rel="noopener" target="blank" title=") on The Cost Of JavaScript ?

If you’re interested in web performance or just web development in general, this is an amazing conference to check out and it’s scheduled to happen next year too! There’s also a scholarship program for those unable to attend without financial assistance. Looking forward to seeing you there next year!

Thanks to Hui Yi, Jingwen Chen, and Yao Hui Chua for reading an earlier draft and sharing their feedback.