book

Propose, Prepare, Present

by Alistair Croll

June 2013

Beginner

78 pages

1h 17m

English

O'Reilly Media, Inc.

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TL;DR: Twenty Things to RememberTen Things to IncludeTen Things to Avoid
IntroductionApologies in AdvanceWhom This Is For
Two Key Dimensions that Define a ConferenceThe Life Cycle of an EventStage One: What Is It?Stage Two: Why Should I Care?Stage Three: How Does It Work?Stage Four: Risks, Obstacles, and LegalityStage Five: What Can’t I Use It For?Beyond: What’s New?
Topic SelectionVenue SelectionAdvisory GroupCall for Presentations/Papers/Proposals (CFP)CFP ReviewWhat Are the Odds of Acceptance?Narratives and TracksFitting Sessions to TracksInviting PresentersFinalizing Titles and DescriptionsReviewing PresentationsThe Event ItselfFollow-Up, Sharing, and Feedback
Things that Will Get You ChosenInside RecommendationSample Videos and ReviewsA Speaker Who’s a MinorityA Clear Explanation of Who Should Attend and What They’ll Get Out of ItAlignment with the Narrative the Organizer Is Trying to CreateIndications that You’ll Be Entertaining as Well as InformativeAn Understanding of Macroscopic Trends without a Macroscopic PresentationEnd UsersWillingness to Adjust the Format and TopicMaking It About Something ElseOpening the KimonoTen Things that Will Get You RejectedVendor SalesmanshipCopy and Paste with Bad CharactersNot Including the Speaker’s CoordinatesJargonSounding Like SkyMallTrying to Change at the Last MinuteExpecting to Be Paid, or Have Travel Paid ForProposing a Subject Too Narrow to Capture an Audience’s AttentionBad Spelling, Formatting, and PunctuationSubmitting a BookA Bad Past Experience (Not Showing Up, Reneging on a Submission)
What It Takes to Stand OutWhat Speaking Consultants DoAvoiding the Almost-AwesomeToo Many WordsFinding Your Inner DiamondsLogistics and Polish
Engaging Before, During, and After

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About the Author

Alistair Croll has been an entrepreneur, author, and public speaker for nearly 20 years. He’s worked on a variety of topics, from web performance, to big data, to cloud computing, to startups, in that time.In 2001, he co-founded web performance startup Coradiant, and since that time has also launched Rednod, CloudOps, Bitcurrent, Year One Labs, the Bitnorth conference, the International Startup Festival and several other early-stage companies.Alistair is the author of three books on web performance, analytics, and IT operations, and is currently working on Lean Analytics, a book on using data to build a better business faster that's due out in March from O'Reilly Media. He lives in Montreal, Canada and tries to mitigate chronic ADD by writing about far too many things at Solve For Interesting. Alistair chairs O'Reilly's Strata Conference.