Presenting at Summit

Community means a lot of things. At its core it is about sharing a common experience. PowerShell Summit is a manifestation of that shared experience. Like any community project it only works when everyone contributes. If you’ve been to Summit before, think about some of your favorite sessions. Now try to imagine how much work went in to making that presentation (hint: it’s more than you probably guess). While we pay our presenters, it isn’t, generally, a profitable exercise. No one is getting rich as a PowerShell Summit presenter. That’s fine though, because, as near as we can tell, none of them are doing it for the money. They’re doing it because contributing is important. Creating content is important. Giving back to the community is important. We are greater than the sum of our parts, and the more we give, the more we all benefit.

And, not to get too kumbaya on you, it’s fun! Yes, it can be a little terrifying, standing on a stage with 100 people in the audience and a camera recording your every movement for all time… Never mind, ignore that part. Presenting actually has a ton of personal benefits. You’ll learn way more about a topic you think you know once you’ve committed to teaching it. You’ll learn time management, communication, content organization, and most of all, PowerPoint! Being a speaker at the PowerShell and Devops Global Summit doesn’t look too bad on a resume either.

Lastly, the real magic benefit of presenting, the thing that keeps people coming back year after year, is the people. Yep, the same thing that makes attending Summit so special. When you finish your session and walk off that stage for the first time, hand over your mic and pack up your laptop, you will undoubtedly have someone waiting to tell you “Wow that was a great session!” It sounds cheesy but that makes it all worth it. Then someone will hit you up in the hallway, and on the escalator, at dinner, at lunch the next day… well, you get the idea. (note: it doesn’t get old)

While presenting a session at Summit is an incredibly rewarding experience, it isn’t an insignificant amount of work. If you think you’d like to take the plunge, keep an eye on powershell.org for the “Call for Proposals” announcement around September. This is where any presentation starts. You’ll submit a session proposal idea and wait to hear back. If you’d like some help putting together a proposal or feedback on an idea in general, check out the #speaking-ideas slack channel. Folks there will be more than happy to help you nail it down.

Usually around mid December you’ll hear a decision about your proposal. If your topic is accepted, congratulations! You now have approximately 5 months to create your presentation. What that consists of is pretty much up to you, though we do have a few preferences for consistency. You may have noticed that most presentations are a combination of PowerPoint slides with a similar style (our template) and code demonstrations in the tool of your choosing (we prefer Visual Studio Code).

As you go through the creative process, here are a few key points to keep in mind:

1. You’re awesome! Seriously, you make Summit happen, quite literally.
2. People need to know how awesome you are. If you do social media, let people know about your session. That’s good for you, good for us, and good for you again.
3. Most Summit folks prefer code and demos over slides. When in doubt, do less PowerPoint.
4. Practice, Practice, Practice. The key to a great presentation is practice. The key to a low stress presentation is confidence from practice. The key to being sick of looking at your own code is practice…
5. Plan for the worst. Once you get your session down pat, start bulletproofing it. Double check all your demos, make sure they work with no Internet access, upside down and underwater. Have backups of everything and a plan in case of catastrophic computer failure. Hopefully you won’t need it, but it’s always good to be prepared.
6. You’re not alone. Everyone wants you to have a dynamite session. If you’re stuck on the best way to present an idea, jump in the #presenters slack channel and get some tips from other summit speakers. We also happen to know this guy named Don Jones, who has some pretty good tips on effective teaching skills.