From Conference Attendee to Conference Speaker: A Few Tips

Me Presenting at Microsoft in May 2026

When I started my public speaking journey in 2016, I was a shy undergraduate student unsure of how I would be perceived. I had already completed the mandatory public speaking course offered by my university, but this experience was different. This time, I would be presenting technical topics to a group of women who had graduated from or were currently attending technical bootcamps. My role was to serve as a bridge between their bootcamp education and the world of data structures and algorithms. I had completed the same course as part of my degree program just a few weeks earlier, so I was anxious. I wasn't sure that my own understanding had fully cemented yet, let alone whether I knew enough to pass that knowledge on to an audience.

Still, I agreed to step into the role.

I didn't realize it at the time, but that decision would introduce me to one of my favorite parts of my career: public speaking. Over the years, I've had the opportunity to speak about software development, artificial intelligence, education, community technology, and the lessons I've learned while building projects of my own. I've spoken to students, developers, entrepreneurs, and community members, and each experience has taught me something new; not just about presenting, but about learning, communicating, and connecting with people. After nearly a decade of speaking, I've gathered a few lessons that have helped me become a more confident technical speaker.

Start Local

Your first speaking engagement doesn't have to be a TED Talk in front of an audience of 20,000 people. Start where you are. Local meetups, community organizations, universities, and smaller conferences are often looking for presenters who are willing to share their knowledge and experiences. These environments can be great places to develop your speaking style, experiment with different topics, and become comfortable answering questions from an audience.

You also don't need decades of industry experience before you're "qualified" to speak. If you have knowledge that could help someone else, you have something worth sharing.

Choose a topic you understand well enough to discuss extensively and, ideally, one you're genuinely passionate about. Your enthusiasm and willingness to engage with the audience can be just as valuable as your years of experience.

Create a Strong CFP

Most conferences recruit speakers through a Call for Participation, or CFP. This is your opportunity to explain what you want to present, who would benefit from the presentation, and what attendees will take away from it. Keep it clear and focused. Don't try to cram every industry buzzword into your proposal just because it sounds impressive. You don't need to mention AI, blockchain, cloud computing, microservices, DevOps, and Web3 in a single abstract if your presentation is really about building a React application. Be honest about what you will be presenting and specific about what attendees can expect to learn.

A strong CFP should make it easy for the reviewer to answer three questions:

• What is this talk about?

• Who is this talk for?

• What will attendees learn or be able to do afterward?

Build Presentation Confidence Through Practice

Practice makes progress, especially when you're able to see and hear yourself present.

Record yourself. Time your presentation. Practice explaining technical concepts without relying entirely on your slides. Pay attention to where you stumble, where you rush, and where your explanations could be clearer. Also, don't just practice the presentation when everything goes according to plan. Practice what happens when you lose your train of thought. Practice when your demo doesn't work. Practice when someone asks a question you weren't expecting. Practice transitioning between topics when you realize you've forgotten to mention something important. Your goal isn't to memorize every word. Your goal is to become familiar enough with your material that you can recover when something unexpected happens. No audience expects a speaker to deliver a presentation perfectly from memory. What they do expect is that you understand your topic and can communicate it clearly.

Learn How to Handle Rejection

Not every meetup or conference is going to accept your presentation and that's okay.

A rejected CFP doesn't necessarily mean the presentation was bad. Conferences have limited speaking slots, specific themes, audience considerations, and a large pool of submissions competing for those spots. When possible, ask for feedback. Not every organizer will provide it, but when they do, take it seriously. Feedback can help you refine your abstract, clarify your learning objectives, or identify ways to make your presentation more useful to a particular audience. Don't let a few rejections convince you that you shouldn't submit again. Technology changes constantly, which means there will always be new problems to solve, new tools to explore, and new conversations to have. Keep submitting. Keep learning. Keep an eye on emerging trends and think about how your experience can contribute to those conversations.

Turn Your Side Projects Into Talks

This is one of my favorite sources of presentation inspiration. When you're building something, keep notes. What was difficult? What was surprisingly easy? What broke? What did you have to research? What decision did you make, and why? What would you do differently if you built it again? Most importantly: What did you learn that someone else could benefit from knowing? Those questions can become the foundation of a presentation. For example, I've turned projects involving AI, software development, and community technology into presentations by focusing not just on what I built, but on the problems I encountered and the lessons I learned along the way. Additionally, if you can create a tutorial, code repository, worksheet, or other resource to accompany your presentation, even better. It gives your audience something tangible they can use after the talk ends.

Finding Your Voice

When I think back to that undergraduate student in 2016, I'm not sure she would recognize how much public speaking would eventually become a part of my career. I was worried that I didn't know enough. I was worried about how I would be perceived. I was worried that someone in the audience might ask a question I couldn't answer. Those fears didn't disappear overnight. I simply learned that I didn't need to eliminate them before stepping onto the stage. Public speaking taught me that expertise isn't always about knowing everything. Sometimes it's about being willing to share what you know, acknowledge what you don't know, and learn alongside the people in the room. Over the years, speaking has become more than a professional skill for me. It has become a way to teach, build community, explore ideas, and make technical concepts more accessible to people who may not always see themselves represented in technology.

So if you've been thinking about submitting your first CFP, guest hosting a meetup, teaching a workshop, or simply sharing something you've learned with a group of people, don't wait until you feel like an expert. Start with what you know. Share what you're learning.

Turn your experiences into lessons. Most importantly, give yourself permission to be a beginner at something that might eventually become one of your greatest strengths.