I don’t mean learning to talk, I mean learning to address an audience, coherently and without dying of fright (actually I think I have clinically proven that it isn’t possible to actually stop living as a result of fright). There are a couple of things that I’m involved with that may help you, if you’re looking to improve your successes in this area.

DayCamp4Developers

This is a virtual conference, held a few times each year. I’ve spoken at some of the previous events and been really impressed by how smoothly something quite intangible can run! The next event is on Friday 22nd March and is about public speaking – but aimed specifically at developers. If you want to speak at a user group or conference, or be able to get through presentations at work without stress, then this session will give you some good pointers. The speakers are three excellent conference presenters – and me :) I love this format, what else are you doing on a Friday (especially for Europe, where this doesn’t start until our afternoon)? You can register and find out more about the event here http://daycamp4developers.com/. Did I mention that tickets are $40? You can also sign up to get the recordings if the date/time doesn’t work out for you.

WeAreAllAweso.me

There’s been lots of fuss lately about women speakers at conferences, or the lack of them. The low percentage of women in technology and a missing tendency to put ourselves forward for things means that this isn’t going to change any time soon. However if you’ve been thinking about speaking, then you should know about an online group WeAreAllAwesome which is a meeting point for women speakers to brainstorm ideas for topics, put abstracts together, and share experiences on how to give a good talk. Our office hours are 6-7pm UK time on Tuesdays, and I’m one of the mentors in that project, so if you might speak or just want to join in chatter with women who do, then you know where to find us :)

Toastmasters

This is a more personal entry to the list, as I’ve just joined toastmasters myself in an effort to move my speaking beyond the competent and continue to improve. After almost 5 years on the speaking circuit, I am not sure if my current issues are fixable, but I’d like to try. I may or may not write more about this adventure, depending how it turns out. If you’re a toastmaster and found this experience useful, or not, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts.