Overcoming Imposter Syndrome to Become a Conference Speaker!

The goal of this talk is to provide some resources to help everyone feel included and welcome as a conference speaker. Open source conferences are always striving to increase the diversity of their speakers by recruiting new speakers and encouraging people from underrepresented groups to submit talks. But how do you decide what topic to cover? What can you do to help your topic stand out? How do you prevent imposter syndrome from getting in the way of your success as a speaker?

You do not need to be the world’s leading expert on a topic to give a presentation. You just need to know a few things that can help other people learn enough about the topic to get started. By bringing your authentic voice and unique perspective to the topic, people will walk away from your talk with new insights that they wouldn’t get from another speaker.

This talk will cover:

• Selecting a topic and a conference for your topic.
• Writing a title and abstract that will increase the chances of your talk being accepted.
• The importance of your bio during the talk selection process.
• Tips for writing and preparing your presentation.

The audience will walk away with practical advice about writing and submitting talk proposals along with some tips for delivering a successful presentation.