Facts¶

• Your talk will be 30 minutes long. Your talk should cover the entire slot, or close to it.
• There will be a live Q&A, around 10 minutess long, that starts when your recording ends. It will be held in a different Hopin room than the main talk. The MC will moderate audience questions for you.
• The more you practice your talk, the more comfortable you’ll be when recording it. In addition to practicing by yourself, we strongly recommend you run through it in front of at least one other human.
• If you want to get some of that sweet internet buzz for your talk, we use the #writethedocs hashtag throughout the event.

Presentation format¶

Be sure to check the Guidelines for recording talks before recording.

If you haven’t spoken before, your recording time will likely run a bit shorter than when you are practicing.

Here are a couple of great resources for new speakers:

• Matt Haughey wrote a guide on giving a presentation.
• This article on speaking from Hynek is also a wonderful resource, which covers the steps to preparing for a talk.
• Sarah Greene wrote in detail about preparing for speaking when the very idea terrifies you.

There are a lot of different ways of thinking through making your slides. Idan Gazit, a previous speaker, has written up a great post on how his process works. Yours might not be the same, but it might be useful to think through the process.

For a ton of useful info and links about every step of this process, this article from the one and only Lena Reinhart, is jam-packed with of good advice.

Diversity and inclusivity¶

We strongly encourage all speakers to check and double-check their talks for any language that might be discriminatory or offensive. Remember that that includes needlessly gendered language (avoid ‘you guys’, for example), ageist language (please no ‘so easy my grandma could do it!’ anecdotes), and any other language that’s presumptive about or exclusive towards the variety of folks who will be in the audience.

Good resources on this include:

• The 18F Guide to Inclusive Language
• The Responsible Communication Style Guide
• GDS design principles

Also, we know there’s a ton of nuance and complexity here – just do your best to be aware of and sensitive about your language choices!

Slide display details¶

Here are a few other tidbits to remember:

• Make sure that your slides are high contrast. This makes them easier for everyone to read.
• Include your Twitter handle on your slides, so people can properly attribute your brilliance :)

Questions¶

Please let us know if you have any more questions. Your questions can help make this document better.