Presenting at Summit

Community means a lot of things. At its core, it’s about sharing a common experience. PowerShell Summit is a manifestation of that. Like any community effort, 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 into making that presentation — it’s more than you’d guess. We do pay our presenters, but it’s not a profitable exercise. Nobody’s getting rich as a PowerShell Summit presenter. And that’s fine, because none of them are doing it for the money. They’re doing it because contributing matters. Creating content matters. Giving back to the community matters. 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 about it — it’s genuinely fun.

Yes, it can feel terrifying, standing on a stage with 100 people in the audience and a camera capturing every moment… but actually, presenting has real personal benefits. You’ll learn more about a topic you think you already know once you’ve committed to teaching it. You’ll develop time management, communication, and content organization skills. And being a speaker at the PowerShell + DevOps Global Summit doesn’t hurt on a resume.

But the real magic benefit — the thing that keeps people coming back year after year — is the people. When you finish your first session, hand over your mic, and pack up your laptop, someone will be waiting to tell you it was great. It sounds small. It’s not. Then someone catches you in the hallway. On the escalator. At lunch the next day. It doesn’t get old.

How to Get Started

Presenting is rewarding, but it’s not a small commitment. If you’re thinking about taking the plunge, keep an eye on powershell.org for the Call for Proposals announcement, typically around September. That’s where every presentation starts. Submit your idea and wait to hear back. If you’d like help shaping a proposal or feedback on an idea, the #speaking-ideas Slack channel is the right place — people there will help you nail it down.

Decisions on proposals typically come out around mid-December. If your topic is accepted — congratulations! You now have approximately five months to build your presentation.

Most Summit presentations combine slides (we have a template) with live code demos in the tool of your choosing — we prefer Visual Studio Code.

A Few Things to Keep in Mind

1. You’re the reason Summit happens. Seriously. Take a moment to own that.
2. Let people know. If you’re on social media, share that you’re presenting. That’s good for you, good for us, and good for the community.
3. Favor code over slides. Summit attendees consistently prefer live demos to slide decks. When in doubt, do less PowerPoint.
4. Practice. Then practice again. Confidence comes from repetition, and repetition is the only path to a low-stress presentation.
5. Bulletproof your demos. Make sure everything works without internet access. Have backups. Plan for catastrophic laptop failure. You probably won’t need it — but you’ll be glad you prepared.
6. You’re not alone. Everyone wants your session to be great. Jump into #presenters in Slack for tips from other speakers. And if you want to learn from one of the best, Jeffrey Snover — the creator of PowerShell himself — has spoken about effective teaching and communication more times than we can count. Don’t be afraid to ask.