So you want to speak at Agile Testing Days

@DavidEvans66 @ewebber
Why Not Become a
Speaker at
Agile Testing Days?
David Evans & Emily Webber

Part 1: Everyone Has a Story
Part 2: What to do, what not to do
Part 3: Why Not?

Part 1:
Everyone Has a Story

David Evans Emily Webber
PhotobyMindtheProduct
PhotobynexoQA
Our Stories...

“I was terriﬁed of speaking in a group
-- so much so that I could barely speak
up about problems in internal
meetings of more than 8 people. I
really had to push myself to do that”
Selena Delesie

errantscience.com

How to ﬁnd your story

Lots of people think they
have nothing interesting
to say *
*(it’s just not true)

Finding your own story
● What do you love doing and what gets you animated?
● What interesting/surprising thing happened or helped you
or your team?
● What data have you gathered that is interesting to share?
● What ideas do you want to road-test on others?
● What do other people suggest you talk about?

“[she] has a powerful message about
transformation”
“I think [She] works in such an interesting way and
across many different disciplines and sectors”
“I think [She] should tell the world about her journey
from TV to service design and from corporate to
social good.”

“Co-writing a workshop with a
friend - it was great to try out
ideas”
Neil Vass

Writing a submission

Include
● What problem are you helping people solve?
● Describe your context
● Identify your audience & how you engage them
● List your key messages
● What will people walk away with?
● Use a catchy title, but it needs to make sense

Part 2:
What to do, what not to do
Preparation Tips & Common Mistakes

Preparing your talk

Scott Berkun’s talk preparation advice
● Budget preparation time at least 10x talk time
● Create a list of questions the audience will want answered
● Prioritise the list and sketch out relevant points, ideas, stories
● Develop 10 minutes of draft material
● Practice these 10 minutes -- don’t procrastinate
● Revise anything that doesn’t work, add ideas, and practice again
● Do a test run in front of people who will give honest feedback
https://scottberkun.com/2011/speakers-checklist/

“Rehearse,
rehearse,
rehearse”
Chris Young

No slides Tom Gilb
The slide scale

Don’t put too much text on a slide
It makes it diﬃcult to read and turns your presentation into a document. You have the
audience reading your slides instead of listening to you. They can’t do both.
Instead you should use your slides as a prop rather than a script for the presentation.
The same goes for bulleted lists, having too many makes the slide really hard to read.
● Nobody
● wants to have to work their way
● through yet another long list of bullet points
● that you are only going to read out to them verbatim anyway
Especially when you could be making those points in a more engaging way

Use your slides as a prop,
not a script
(calling out or repeating important points is ok)

Separate what you present
from what you share

Have a strong start
and a strong ﬁnish
(the Primacy and Recency eﬀect)

On the day

It’s ok to...

Feel nervous
(it’s human nature)

“I remind myself they're
not there to see me but
to learn stuﬀ”
Daniel Terhorst-North

Make mistakes
(we all do)

“The audience want you
to succeed”
Adrian Howard

Be you
(no one else does it better)

Fight or ﬂight,
or make friends

PhotobyHUSTEF
The greater the nerves, the slower you should speak.
Watch at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzY_i-QMW8M

Preparation tips - on the day
● Drink water / eat a green apple, avoid coﬀee
● Turn up early, connect and test your equipment
● Walking & deep breathing to calm your nervous system
● Relax, and smile at people as they enter the room
● Power posing / standing tall to build conﬁdence
● Go to the loo beforehand
● Wear clothes you feel comfortable in
(with somewhere to clip a mic safely & unobtrusively)

What has helped people
along the way?

“Barcamps & unconferences
that acted as friendly low-risk
environments to try things out”
Adrian Howard

“Pairing! Janet and I started pairing on
workshops in the early 00s. She has
worked so hard on her own public
speaking with Toastmasters and I picked
up a lot of pointers.”
Lisa Crispin

“Reading books on public
speaking, reading books on
storytelling, watching
stand-up comedy”
Gojko Adzic

“Recording
- painful but useful”
Tom Roden

Things you can try
● things other than talks, you can do workshops
● try things out at meet-ups and in a safe space
● pairing with someone else
● researching what other people do
● watching yourself (and try not to cringe)

Part 3:
Why Not?

What you get from public
speaking

“It allows me to attend the conference
without having to pay for it, so I can learn
stuﬀ and meet people! I also like to be
able to share experiences and things I've
learned to give back to the community.”
Lisa Crispin

What do you get out of it?
● Exploring ideas in depth, sharing insights
● Networking & meeting new people
● Attend more conferences for free
● Travel to new places
● Learning new things
● Being part of the speaking gang (& meet your heroes)
● Marketing and building brand, work leads
● Greater self-conﬁdence for yourself, and encouragement to
others

Further reading
Scott Berkun - “Confessions of a Public Speaker”
Naomi Karten - “Presentation Skills for Technical Professionals”
David Nihill - “Do You Talk Funny?”
Sharon Bowman - “Training from the Back of the Room” (etc.)
Carmine Gallo - “Talk like Ted”
Garr Reynolds - “Presentation Zen”
Doing Presentations (doingpresentations.com)

Further Viewing
Ken Robinson - “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” (TED talk)
https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity
Scott Hanselman - YOW conference Keynote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LMMW66iaZU

Thanks to all who shared your advice...
● Mark Dalgarno
● Chris Young
● Scott Colfer
● Daniel Terhorst-North
● Adrian Howard
● Neil Vass
● Lauren Currie
● Lisa Crispin
● Zsoﬁ Herendi
● Gojko Adzic
● Tom Roden
● Sasha Trutniev
● Viktorija Manevska
● Ben Williams
● Selena Delesie

Come to our workshop…
Get more tips and have a go, in a safe environment
Up next in the Creative Space Room

So you want to speak at Agile Testing Days

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