Diverse Speaker Training Workshop Part 2

So now we're going to go into writing your
pitch. Okay, so in this section, we are

going to talk about what a proposal AKA
pitch is, coming up with a great title,

and a little writing exercise. That's
actually switched around... Writing your

bio, writing exercise, and then optionally
anybody who wants to present their titles

into pitches. Okay, so, whatever your
motivation is for speaking, you first need

to get selected to speak. And for that,
you need to create a proposal or pitch.

And we'll use those terms interchangeably.
And one will that will get your talk

selected. And also, since your proposal
defines the scope of your talk, it can be

a good early step in the overall process
of developing your talk.

What makes a great pitch? So first, here's
an example of a good one. Responsify all

the Things. In our new web multiverse,
it's more important than ever to make your

valuable content available to all users,
regardless of how they access your site.

In this talk, we'll cover how responsive
web design came about, the latest RWD news

and trends, and some basic and not so
basic techniques you can use to make your

next WordPress theme a responsive one.
Intended for developers and designers who

aren't afraid to get their hands dirty
with a little code.

So this is a good length. It tells you
what the talk will cover and it tells you

who it's aimed at. In some cases, you
might also want to say what people will

walk away with from this talk. On the
topic of the title, beware of too clever

titles. The title should stand on its own
without a blurb. Here's an example of a

bad one, "CSS dreams and elephants." What
do you think makes this a good or bad

title? And this is a question for
discussion right now. Aurooba?

It doesn't really tell me what I will be
getting out of this talk.

Right? So in that title we have no idea
what it's about, what you'll be getting

out of it. Anyone else have anything to
add? Okay, great. Yeah, that's pretty much

it. That's, it's it's a cute title, but it
is too vague.

Generally, your talk proposal and the
introduction of your outline will be quite

similar. A good introduction should have
all the things a good pitch would have.

However, in a pitch, you might want to
spice it up a bit. Ultimately, both the

introduction and pitch should contain some
more content. For a pitch, you want to

tailor the tone of your writing and
vocabulary to the specific audience and

event that you're applying to. This is
very important. Some ideas of how you may

tailor your pitch for specific audiences
and events: The tone may be different. A

business crowd may be formal, a Meetup may
be more casual, so customize the tone of

your pitch to your specific audience. At
WordPress events, in general, we tend to

be pretty casual. You might want to use
different vocabulary depending on the

audience. And you might want to stress
different talks or points of interest

depending on the audience or event.

There are six important points to take
note of when writing both your outline and

your pitch. And this comes from the site
that is written on the screen:

weareallaweso.me/for_speakers/how-to-write-a-compelling-proposal.html.
Point number one: Direct the proposal to

the attendees, not the curators. Many
conferences use your talk proposal as the

description of the talk in their program.
With that in mind, your target reader is

the conference attendee who is reading the
program. Tell the reader why your talk

will interest them and what they will
learn. The curators want to put together a

great conference with compelling talks for
their attendees. The talk will be part of

the package they offer so sell it! Make
sure you research the event. Are there

different tracks? Is the audience. Are
there lots of devs? Is it mostly for

users? Is it design heavy? Different
WordCamps have different personalities.

Are they short on really technical
presentations? Light on talks for

beginners? Try to fill a need, such as
podcasting.

Number two: Be specific about the focus
that your talk will have. Generally

speaking, a shallow introduction to many
things is not as interesting as an in

depth introduction to one thing. If you
discuss the broader topic, do so only to

set the context for what you'll focus on.

Number three: One strategy is pose the
question that your talk will answer. Often

talks answer questions that start with
how, why, when, and so on. An easy trick

is to directly ask these questions in your
proposal, leaving the reader wondering the

answer.

Number four: Make your point as simply as
you can. If your first draft requires more

than two paragraphs to get to the point of
your topic, edit to narrow things down.

Take out any words that can be removed
without changing the meaning. You may have

a lot of competition so try to make a good
impression quickly. If your proposal is

too much work to read or understand, i
might get skipped during the selectio

process.

Number five: Use proper grammar, spelling,
and punctuation. If you submit a sloppily

written proposal, you appear careless and
as if you're not taking the opportunity

seriously. You risk being rejected on
those grounds outright. Speaking requires

a lot of thoughtful preparation, and
curators can only assume it will be as

careless when preparing the talk itself.

And number six: Have your proposal
reviewed by someone with experience. Just

as you might ask a friend to critique a
draft of your CV, an essay or the talk

itself, ask someone, ideally a writer,
speaker or curator to review your talk

proposal. They'll catch typos as well as
verify whether your proposal explains the

scope of your talk, and explains its
benefits to your audience.

Next, we're going to talk about coming up
with a great title. We need a good title

for your talk. You're going to want to try
to think of something catchy but

explanatory. Be aware of too clever titles
and create a title that can stand on its

own without a blurb. For example, don't
use something like "CSS and Elephants."

We're also going to talk right now about
writing your bio. When you submit a

proposal or pitch to an event, you'll most
often be asked to include a short bio.

Bios are often the hardest to write well,
but here are some pointers to follow. It

should be written in the third person.

It should be succinct, but descriptive. It
should only be a short paragraph and go

for economy of words. Try to say the most
you possibly can with the fewest possible

words. Mention what your position or job
is, and include any credentials that might

be relevant. Mention how many years you've
been in this field, or if it hasn't been

that many, tell a short story about how
you've ended up in your new field. Look at

past examples for the conference you're
submitting to. Why are you the right

person to give this talk and tailor your
bio so your topic makes sense. You might

want to tweak it differently for different
topics and different events. Be human.

WordCamps are usually not too formal. And
feel free to add something about your non

professional interests at the end, but
don't make it your entire bio.

So what we're going to do now is we're
going to have 15 minutes to try drafting a

talk proposal for the idea that you
brainstormed earlier, the title, and your

bio, There'll be a chance to read the
title and pitch to the group after if you

wish. We'll see if we have time for
reading it to each other today or that'll

be part of tomorrow's session. But let's
go ahead and do the 15 minutes. If you

need me to flip back and forth between any
of the slides, you can write that in the

chat; I'll watch for that. I'll also grab
a link from our Slack. I put the link to

the slides if you want to grab them and be
able to refer to those sections because

we're working on three things at once
right now. So go ahead and start that. If

you've any questions about it, put it into
the chat. I'll check that as well. So I'm

going to go ahead and start 15 minutes.

There's about 30 seconds left. All right.
If anyone needs more time, you can always

keep writing while we're going through
with presentations. So what I'd like to do

now is hear from anybody who would like to
share some titles and pitches. You'll have

about two minutes or less for a mini
presentation. There's no expectations;

it's not a chance to practice being great.
It's just an opportunity to practice being

in front of people. And you may request
proceeding feedback if you wish. And if

you do, they'll be about time for a minute
of feedback. So would anybody like to

share their pitch? Title and pitch?
Miriam? Don't feel guilty for being

awesome.

All right, so, my title is "The Big
Transition: Moving from an Office to a

Remote Work Culture." And the pitch I have
is, "Traditionally people have gone to an

office building for a typical nine to five
job. But more and more people, myself

included, make the transition to remote,
whether it's by their choice or not. So

find out about the successes and struggles
that this transition may cause and tips to

help you flourish going forth."

Would you like feedback?

Yes, please.

Awesome. That sounds great to me.
Everything was clear. It didn't leave me

with any questions. I was clear of what
I'd be getting out of it. And it sounds

pretty engaging to me. Does anybody else
have any other thoughts? And if you do,

just to reminder that be sure to say
something that you liked about it before

suggesting improvements.

It's it's really clear medium, what the
topic is, and it's really nice.

Thank you.

I don't really have any edits. That was
really solid.

Awesome. Okay, would anybody else like to
share theirs? Aurooba.

Okay.And yes, I'm absolutely open to
feedback. The title is "Extending Existing

Gutenberg blocks." And then the pitch is,
"Instead of creating entirely new blocks

to add a few features, learn how to save
time by extending existing Gutenberg

blocks. We'll cover basic JSX syntax, how
to create block variations, and how to add

custom attributes and controls to any
block. This is intended for intermediate

WordPress developers getting started with
native Gutenberg development."

Awesome. Great. That, to me, also seems
super solid. I have nothing to add or

change on it. It is very clear. I think
it's something that people are going to

want to hear about. And like you said,
really well in the pitch, you know, kind

of, you address the difference between
writing a whole new one and extending. So

I really like that. Bhargav, are you
giving feedback or sharing yours?

Sharing mine?

Okay, well, I'm just gonna see if anybody
has feedback for Aurooba before

continuing. Okay, I'm

Also very clear, so excellent job.

Awesome.Great work, everybody so far. All
right, Bhargav. Thanks for volunteering.

"Try to lose career opportunity that I
grabbed." Title two like, I thought, "A

journey of transformation from developer
to functional consultant: Challenges and

Outcomes." That is the title. And the
pitch decks is, "In the current market

scenario, everyone is trying to become a
developer. He also wanted to be one. But

destiny had other options in favor, and he
wanted him to try other career options. To

break the notion that 'once a developer is
always a developer,' he switched his

career to become one which he was
comfortable with. And which given him more

respect and reputation in the company.
Know his struggle and his journey of

switching the career. Everyone who is
confused in choosing their career path

must join this session."

Thanks, would you like feedback?

Yeah.

Awesome. Does anybody have some feedback
to give?

I vote for title number two. I thought
that was like more clear. And aside from

that, maybe the pitch could be slightly
shorter, but I felt like it also covered

everything. So maybe like some parts could
be shortened a little bit but otherwise,

it was pretty solid. I kind of knew what I
would be getting in for.

What else?

I also vote for the second title. I think
that's much better.

Awesome.

Everything else sounds good.

All right. Anybody else for feedback or
sharing their pitch?

Mine is still a pretty rough draft. So I..

Are you willing to share it?

I'm not sure though.

Okay. Angela?

Yeah, I can share mine. So my title is
"Building WordPress: Tips for

collaborating across time and space." And
the pitch is, "The WordPress open source

project is built by a global diverse
community. If you've contributed in the

past, perhaps something got lost in
translation. timezones made it impossible

to connect. In this session, Angela will
share some tips for stronger global

collaboration when it comes to
contributing to WordPress. She'll share

personal stories where things didn't quite
go as planned, and how the global teams

were still able to move forward, all in
the hope that you'll feel more prepared to

collaborate asynchronously and with a
greater shared understanding."

Awesome. Feedback?Are you willing? Great!
So the pitch is super solid. I...

everything was clear. It sounded really
engaging to me. Can you repeat the title?

For some reason? I did not hear it.

I called it "Building WordPress: Tips for
collaborating across time and space."

So I like it. But some refinements I would
suggest, I think "building WordPress"

doesn't address the fact that we are
talking about the distributed part. And

the the part about "across time and
space." I mean, I'm always thinking

"Doctor Who". And also I think I'm not
really clear from the title, like, from

the pitch its totally clear what it is.
And from the title, I don't quite get it.

I think I might use some of the words from
the pitch in your title instead.

I'm struggling to... I feel like my...
what I want to put into this talk is too

broad so I really would like to condense
more.

Okay, yeah. Um, is that something you want
help with now? Or do you want to just work

on that before our session tomorrow?

Oh, nope. Not now. My time is expired.

We have we have an extra minute or two.
But yeah. Great. Yeah. So yeah, I think

you're really onto it. And I think it's
just the title just needs a bit of

tweaking, or like you said it could be
reining in the whole thing in a bit. But

from the description itself, it sounded
that part sounds fine to me.

I have a question. So can I work on mine?
And do we have time to go over that

tomorrow? Or...?

Yeah, we absolutely could go over them
again tomorrow.

Okay.

In our last few minutes, I'd actually love
to hear bios from anybody who had the time

and wants to share theirs. I'll let
Aurooba go first, and then Miriam, and

then Bhargav. It'll be about a minute each
and we'll see if we have time to get

through everybody.

Okay, I am terrible at bios and I hate
writing them and every single time I have

to write them I want to kill myself a
little bit.

Thank doing it today!

No, but that I need help. So any feedback
you guys give, you folks give, that will

be helpful. "Aurooba was the co founder of
design and development studio Wanderoak.

She has been developing bespoke WordPress
solutions for five plus years and is

currently writing a course on WordPress
theme development. She's the co-organizer

of the Calgary WordPress meetup and has
been helping organize WordCamp Calgary for

three years. She loves putting together
dinner parties and getting lost in a

really good book." This is the longest bio
I've ever written in my life and all I can

think is, like "Oh my God, this is too
braggy."

I love it. I have no changes. It is
succinct. It's really clear. It's

friendly. It's... Ship it, in my opinion.
And I'm seeing Angela's nodding. Any any

other thoughts on that? Everyone is
nodding. Does anybody have any changes to

suggest? We all love it. Ship it! Good
work!

Is it maybe like too many things to say or
no? No,

I don't know. I don't think so either. It.
It sounds good.

It felt like the right length. It didn't
feel like you're going on and on. A lot of

people put a lot of stuff in their bio,
but I felt like it was, you know, economy

of words, not too many sentences. It just
covered everything.

Okay. Thank you. I always also feel
nervous.

Bios need to be a bit braggy which is one
of those things that folks from

underrepresented groups tend to not like
to do that as much. There's a bit of

conditioning in the world around that. And
the over represented population tends, not

always, but in general tends to be more
okay with it. So it's a great opportunity

to practice leaning into that, and owning
some of the awesome shit you've done.

Fair enough.

We have time for maybe one or two more,
probably one. Miriam was next.

I decided to write a totally new bio other
the one I've been using, so we'll see how

well this one is. So, "Miriam is a web
developer with 15 years experience and

currently works for Pondstone Digital
marketing. She's been working with

WordPress since 2008 and fell in love with
the community in 2016. Passionate about

giving back, she's an organizer for both
the Ottawa WordPress meetup and WordCamp

Ottawa. When not in front of a computer,
Miriam is either a karate sensei, ballroom

dancer, or clarinetist, just not all at
once, but she's working on it.

Awesome. Feedback? Open to it?

Oh, you always,

Always. Um, again, it is super clear,
succinct. I am friendly. I liked it. My

only feedback is you didn't mention your
work in our group. And I want you to

always mention our group,

I didn't know. I have that written down.
"And she is also involved with the diverse

speaker training group as
between-the-trainers lead." Yeah, I think

maybe that's a bit too wordy. Maybe I'll
just say "she's involved with the diverse

speakers training group."

That or saying "a leadership position."

Leadership position. Yeah. Instead of
going specific? Yeah.

I just want you to be mentioning it.
Because anytime you're speaking, we'll

have at least one spot to have a shout out
and get our name out there.

Now, I mentioned it in Niagara last
weekend.

Yes. Any other comments for Miriam?

That's good.

Great! I'm sorry, Angela?

I agree. It's great. And I think.. add a
little bit, a little bit more to your

experience, because you say you have like
15 years of experience as a web developer

but you didn't specify like one
experience. You can add, you can add a

little more in there. It's 15 years,
you've got a lot to share.

Okay, so where we left off in our session
was Bhargav was going to share his bio.

Did you still want to do that?

Yes. We'll proceed with it. Just Yes.

Great.

So should I stand?

Yes. Thanks.

I'm currently working as a functional
consultant at KrishaWeb. Ecommerce

increases my dopamine levels. He says
humming to the melodies of A.R. Rahman is

his full time job. Expanding the horizons
of knowledge by reading is what people

will always find him doing. Bhargav is a
co-organizer for the Ahmedabad WordPress

meetup and also WordCamp.

Nice! I think... did you want feedback?

Yes

Awesome. I thought you had some really
good points in there. It illustrated a lot

of, you know, what you do and a little bit
of your personality. And I think probably

just tightening it up a bit. Maybe
starting with some of your big roles and

just saying just a little bit. Probably.
It'll depend a bit on where you're

submitting the bio to. Some of them can be
more and a little bit more playful and

some of them should be really short and
tight. Any other thoughts? Aurooba!

I love the reference to A.R. Rahman. I
would like to see maybe another sentence

about your work. Just to make it a little
more balanced. I I felt had the feeling

that it's the doesn't really share a lot
about your experience as much. So maybe

another sentence about that might help but
otherwise really good.

Anyone else? Great, thanks very much
Bhargav. And Chandrika, did you work on

your pitch and want to share it with us?

Okay, my pitch is not ready yet, I tried
to work on it yesterday, but I just

couldn't get it. I just don't like it. So
I think it's, I know what I want to say,

but I just can't put it in words yet. So,

okay. Yeah. If you want it to run it past
us now or another time of whatever you

have currently, that's totally fine. And
otherwise,

I could do it. What I have now but it's...
I really don't like it. Okay, so the title

is "Building custom WordPress sites with
ACF blocks." Um, "ACF provides an easy way

to build custom functionalities and
templates in WordPress sites. Combining

this with Gutenberg gives more power to
the users, your clients. This talk is

geared towards beginner developers who
build custom WordPress sites for their

clients. You'll learn how to build ACF
blocks and how these blocks can be used on

multiple sites in different ways."

Nice. Did you want thoughts from us once?
Are you done?

No, no, I was done. I was done. I'm done.

Awesome

It's early. I would love to get feedback.

Great. I loved the last few sentences. I
loved the like, where you specified what

people are getting out of it and who the
talk is for and all those things. And

yeah, I think just working on that first
part, but you already said it was kind of

rough. Yeah. Maybe something around? I'm
not sure right now. It's kind of tough.

Does anybody else have thoughts on that?

It looks like Aurooba does.

Oh, sorry.

I think that maybe including who it's for?
Something about who it's for in the first

part will help. And the other thing I
would probably personally suggest is

mentioning that it's ACF Pro, because you
can't build blocks with the free version

way.

Okay. Sure. Thank you.

I will look forward to hearing the rest of
that when it's done. Does anybody else

have anything they wanted to cover before
we move on to section number four?