# Practical Advice for Preparing and Submitting Conference Talks

DevFeed: [Practical Advice for Preparing and Submitting Conference Talks](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/protips-for-conference-talks-41115.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.craigkerstiens.com/2012/06/19/pro-tips-for-conference-talks/>)

Author: Map

Published: 2012-06-19T20:55:56Z

Content type: tutorial

Language: en

Sources: [Craig Kerstiens](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/craig-kerstiens.md>)

Topics: [Django](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/django.md>), [Python](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/python.md>)

Tags: [conference](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/conference.md>), [conferences](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/conferences.md>), [django](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/django.md>), [hacks](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/hacks.md>), [learnings](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/learnings.md>), [python](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/python.md>), [talks](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/talks.md>)

## AI overview

The article offers practical advice for preparing and submitting conference talks, including starting with small practice opportunities and refining both the talk and its proposal. It uses Jacob Kaplan Moss's DjangoCon EU keynote as an example of testing a talk format among a familiar community.

## Source excerpt

A few weeks ago I was sitting at the hotel in Zurich with Jacob Kaplan Moss prior to DjangoCon EU enjoying a beer, talking about Django, and discussing a bit about our upcoming talks for the conference. He talked briefly about his upcoming keynote and how he was doing something different, including essentially 5 mini-talks. This seemed interesting enough, but the part that surprised me was when Jacob said, "I'm among friends here so it'll be a good place to test this format." Many if not all in the community know who Jacob is as one of the creators of Django, though still to be "among friends" at a roughly 300 person conference surprised me. However, as someone thats keynoted several times, spoken at conferences for many years, and familiar with many people in the community; for the 150-200 people there he had not met before, he was still truly among friends. While giving a keynote is never an easy feat, it seems to ease the worry ahead of time of doing such. Saturday night there was a bit of conversation on twitter that had some related discussion. In the last minute rush for DjangoCon US talk submissions a few that have been involved in the community for some time discussed submitting their first talk proposals. In parallel to that was some discussion around diversity, I volunteered the idea of not including presenters name's in the list when reviewing and voting on talks. While both of the above are controversial topics alone, I hope that can be left to another later time. The key idea that emerged that can be helpful to anyone looking to submit a talk to a conference is how the "pro's do it", as Jeremy Dunck put it. So without further adieu, hopefully without speaking too much for him here's likely why Jacob viewed his 300 person keynote as being among friends: 1. Start small Whether its practicing the talk itself or writing the abstract for a proposal practicing each step lets you refine this well ahead of time. In my experience, providing a talk description fo