Simon Willison’s Weblog

Subscribe
Atom feed for speaking

107 items tagged “speaking”

2012

Product Demonstrations: What’s the best way to view/demo a website offline at an event?

If this is a static website (just HTML, images, CSS and a bit of JavaScript) you might be able to get it running on your laptop using a web server. OS X prior to Mountain Lion had a built in Apache which could be turned on using the “Web Sharing” option in the Sharing preference page, but it looks like they’ve now removed that option—a way of turning it back on again is described here: http://clickontyler.com/blog/201...

[... 377 words]

Is there a feed or otherwise centralized list of calls for proposals for technical conferences?

We have a crowdsourced index of calls for proposals from (mostly technical) conferences here: http://lanyrd.com/calls/—you can also subscribe to the RSS feed for individual topics, e.g. if you want to hear about PHP conference CFPs you can subscribe to the feed linked to from this page: http://lanyrd.com/topics/php/calls/

[... 72 words]

Who is the best conference panel moderator?

Two of the best moderators I’ve seen are Jeffrey Veen and Jeremy Keith, both of whom are regular contributors at SXSW.

[... 103 words]

What are the ideal laser pointers for conference presentations?

I’ll swear by the Logitech Cordless Presenter: http://www.gadgetgrid.com/2008/1...—it’s very popular amongst friends of mine who speak frequently as well.

[... 234 words]

2011

Public Speaking: How can I control my stress during my presentations?

Make sure you have run through your talk, in full, out loud in the privacy of your home or hotel room at least twice.

[... 185 words]

Why are TED talks 18 minutes long (or less)?

I imagine it’s because enforcing a shorter talk time results in consistently higher quality presentations, by forcing speakers to carefully structure their talk and strip out any unnecessary details.

[... 75 words]

Does Google (company) have their own Audio Visual department for their large conferences, or do they contract another company?

I believe it’s their own in-house team—when we ran the first DjangoCon at Google’s Mountain View HQ a few years ago I understood that the video team were their own (the same team that records their internal Google Tech Talks). It might be an external company that they contract in, but it felt like they were permanent staff.

[... 85 words]

Public Speaking: Where is a good place to get started as a speaker?

Start small. There are plenty of small local events around that accept (and even encourage) first-time speakers. The single most valuable thing you can do to improve as a speaker is to get as much experience as possible.

[... 244 words]

Who are the best female speakers on the topic of social media who are equal parts knowledgeable and engaging?

Meg Pickard from the Guardian
Suw Charman-Anderson

[... 32 words]

2010

What are some tips for moderating a panel?

It’s a very hard thing to do well.

[... 163 words]

How To Be A Good Participant On A Panel: Disagree. When I’m on a panel, I always try to have lunch or dinner with the other panelists beforehand to figure out in advance what points we disagree on.

# 5th March 2010, 9 am / panels, speaking

2009

What’s coming in Django 1.2 (presentation notes). I wrote up some background notes for the talk on Django 1.2 I gave at DJUGL last week.

# 5th December 2009, 5:10 pm / django, python, djugl, speaking

Exploring Python (via) Notes from the introduction to Python presentation I gave today at Stack Overflow DevDays Amsterdam.

# 2nd November 2009, 3:35 pm / stackoverflow, devdays, speaking, python

2008

Zeppelin 101 in 5 mins (via) Ribot videoed my five minute lightning talk on Zeppelins at last night’s Skillswap Brighton.

# 30th October 2008, 5:05 pm / video, speaking, lightningtalk, ribot, skillswap, vimeo, zeppelins

When Ajax Attacks! Web application security fundamentals. Slides and (other people’s) notes from my presentation at @media Ajax on Tuesday.

# 17th September 2008, 11:18 pm / ajax, atmediaajax, atmediaajax08, csrf, javascript, security, speaking, xss, recovered

DjangoCon and PyCon UK

September is a big month for conferences. DjangoCon was a weekend ago in Mountain View (forcing me to miss both d.Construct and BarCamp Brighton), PyCon UK was this weekend in Birmingham, I’m writing this from @media Ajax and BarCamp London 5 is coming up over another weekend at the end of this month. As always, I’ve been posting details of upcoming talks and notes and materials from previous ones on my talks page.

[... 446 words]

I love Zeppelins, and you should too (via) Slides from my PyCon UK lightning talk on Zeppelins. I’ve annotated them using SlideShare comments.

# 13th September 2008, 6:38 pm / zeppelins, airships, pyconuk, pyconuk2008, lightningtalks, speaking, slides

Django snippets: Orderable inlines using drag and drop with jQuery UI. Code example from my PyCon tutorial on customising the Django admin interface.

# 13th September 2008, 12:19 pm / pyconuk2008, pyconuk, django, tutorials, speaking, snippets, sortable, jquery, python, dragndrop

Debugging Django, a slidecast. I used SlideShare’s slidecast tool for the first time to synchronize audio of my Django London User Group talk with the slides. The talk included several live demos which aren’t represented in the slides so it’s a bit piecemeal in places.

# 25th May 2008, 2:47 pm / debugging, slideshare, slidecast, django, speaking, djugl

2007

Comet works, and it’s easier than you think

Visit Comet works, and it's easier than you think

I gave a talk this morning at the Yahoo! Web Developer Summit on Comet, cometd and Bayeux.

[... 1,314 words]

How to make Ajax work for you. Slides from my three hour Ajax tutorial, presented at Web 2.0 Expo Berlin on Monday.

# 7th November 2007, 10:35 am / ajax, javascript, tutorial, web2expoberlin, speaking

Webstock 2008—New Zealand’s web conference. I’m speaking next year in New Zealand! Very excited, plan to spend most of February there to make the most of the flights.

# 18th September 2007, 12:02 pm / newzealand, speaking, webstock, webstock2008, travel

OpenID Bootcamp Tutorial. Slides from the OpenID Bootcamp tutorial I gave this morning with David Recordon.

# 25th July 2007, 12:39 am / openid, david-recordon, bootcamp, speaking, oscon, oscon07

Django Master Class. Notes and slides from the OSCON tutorial I gave yesterday with Jacob Kaplan-Moss and Jeremy Dunck.

# 24th July 2007, 3:20 pm / oscon, jeremy-dunck, django, jacob-kaplan-moss, oscon07, speaking, tutorial, python

The Django Web Application Framework. I’m slowly pushing my presentations from the past couple of years up to Slideshare. This is a Django talk from April 2006, so it’s a little out of date.

# 5th July 2007, 1:07 am / django, accu, slideshare, speaking, slides, python

My Google Tech Talk on OpenID. I gave this extended and improved version of my “Implications of OpenID” talk at Google on Monday. Fast turnaround on the video!

# 28th June 2007, 8 am / speaking, openid, google, techtalk, google-video

Doing Local Right

Visit Doing Local Right

“Doing Local Right” was the title of my talk at this year’s @media Europe. Patrick had asked me if I could put together a case study, and I jumped at the chance to share some of the work of my former colleagues at the Lawrence Journal-World newspaper in Lawrence, Kansas. I had the privilege of working at the newspaper for a year in late 2003-2004.

[... 735 words]

@media 2007 writeup from AlastairC. Good notes on a bunch of sessions, including mine.

# 11th June 2007, 12:24 am / atmedia2007, atmedia, atmedia07, speaking, alastairc

The Implications of OpenID

My second presentation at XTech 2007. Unfortunately there’s just the Matt Webb keynote to go, and I spent most of the conference worrying about my talks. There’s a lot to be said for speaking as early as possible.

[... 86 words]

XTech 2007 Registration. Deadline for online registrations is 2nd May. It looks like it’ll be a really good conference this year (disclaimer: I’m speaking).

# 27th April 2007, 4:05 pm / xtech, speaking, xtech2007