Why not being an expert is your inner superpower

Strategies for a succeeding conference submission process

A common misconception that I have noticed is the belief that speaking at a conference requires an expert with previous conference speaking experience. How many times have you struggled with some issue and found a clever technique to fix the problem? Many people get impostor syndrome when it comes to comparing their skills to others with more experience. One great advantage of young career professionals is that they can relate more closely to the struggles of others and know the pitfalls better than an expert since they had recently experienced it themselves. Young and early career professionals provide new energy, fresh perspectives, and a desire to learn and grow. These unique experiences have value. I would encourage professionals and students of all levels to submit a speaking proposal on content that they feel is worth-while for the community, regardless of experience or job role. What do you have to lose?

In my case, I am a programmer/technical designer and saw that the Grace Hopper Conference needed more content focused on front-end engineering. It just so happened that this is my passion and daily work! Our team worked for months to create a quality workshop proposal. I was shocked when our Grace Hopper workshop was accepted. None of the team members had previous conference speaking experience. Grace Hopper Conference gave us an amazing opportunity and I believe the strength of our presentation was in the proposal.

Here are 7 strategies for creating a superpowered conference proposal:

  1. Identify a gap. Where is the current content lacking and where can your knowledge help? This may be simple, abstract, technical, or complex. If you think there is something lacking, most likely others do too. Maybe you have found some awesome brainstorming technique, learned tricks helping your daily routine, or engineered a novel new technology.

  2. Identify core concepts for each topic. If this is a workshop, try to stick 3-4 main concepts per topic. Too much content is difficult to cover in an hour. At this point, if you have multiple talk ideas, this would be a good time to evaluate those ideas based on the core concepts you’ve defined here.

  3. Create presentation material. Even if you don’t end up using this for your talk or tutorial, creating good material is an iterative process. Research how other people are teaching this material for a baseline on presenting and seek feedback often.

  4. Present everywhere! This is the most challenging but rewarding part. Actively look for places to get feedback. This is can be at meetups, schools, internal group at work, etc. Try to get these recorded if possible so you link it on your submission.

  5. Give yourself plenty of time to write the proposal. In your submission, it is important to be as explicit as possible on the learning outcomes and how you will deliver those outcomes. Breaking down to time-based learning objectives even if your plan is merely a draft will show that you have a plan. Pay close attention to details such as spelling, capitalization, and grammar on the submission. When possible provide links to GitHub, data resources, recordings, and code samples relevant for the submission.

  6. Keep your bio short and sweet. The most important facts should be in the first two sentences, in case the conference decides to only publish an excerpt of your bio. This includes where you work, where you’re from, and what you do. Don’t be afraid to add personality to your bio. Professional pictures are always a plus. Including links to your personal work (GitHub or professional portfolio), Twitter, LinkedIn, and personal website are great ways to highlight your interests and work. If you don’t have a personal website, this could be a great excuse to make one!

  7. Don’t forget a catchy name. This is where you harness your inner marketer and add some pizzazz. Without a good title, people will not have interest to look what your content is about. Researching past titles is a good way to get ideas. Pay attention to the format of past titles. At Grace Hopper many titles have the following pattern: leading statement + ‘:’ + descriptor. For example: “Falling in love with Click Bait titles: Writing titles to guarantee an attendance”. Mainly you are looking for something that is intriguing and unique. Don’t be afraid to be creative. 😊

I believe everyone has skills that they can share to better the community. Finding a mentor is a great source of guidance in the process. Don’t be afraid to share your insight, skills, and experience regardless of career stage or job role.

Best of luck on your submission!

❤️ Amber Hoak

About our Team:

We had the honor of speaking at Grace Hopper Conference 2019 to about 800 participants. Our workshop, “Designing Data Visuals that Sparkle: Creating Insight you can see”, taught participants basics of the popular open source library D3.js to create custom data visuals. The team consists of Kate Lytvynets, David Tittsworth, and Amber Hoak. In our everyday work, we are a part of a research team at Microsoft, focusing on designing custom interfaces to show the intersection between artificial intelligence and business intelligence. Check out our tutorial material from 2019 Grace Hopper Conference here: http://aka.ms/ghc19workshop