Speaker Mentoring
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Speaker Mentoring
The Symfony community benefits greatly when as many people as possible share their knowledge and experience with others. Every different point of view adds to our collective understanding of how to best use and evolve the code, design patterns and architecture provided within the Symfony community. Because of this, we specifically want to hear from long-time contributors and new users, who often come across entirely different challenges with a totally fresh new look and perspective.
How to get started
Giving a first talk at a conference can seem quite intimidating. But don't worry! At one time, every speaker went through the same process. And so, we want to make sure that as many people as possible are empowered to take this path if they are motivated. We have collected a few resources with advice to get started. More importantly, we can connect experienced speakers with people who are just taking their first steps in this area:
Tip
A good first step might be to give a talk at a local user group to a smaller crowd that one knows more intimately. A next step could be to give a talk at a conference in your first language.
The best way to find people that can review your talk idea or slides is the #speaker-mentoring channel on Symfony Slack. There are many seasoned speakers with knowledge in various parts of Symfony that are motivated to help you get started on your path towards becoming a public speaker. They can even do practice runs via video chat! Furthermore, they can also be an ally when it comes to the day of giving the talk at a conference!
A great resource with advice on everything related to public speaking is a collection of links maintained by VM (Vicky) Brasseur. It covers everything from finding a conference call for proposals, how to refine a proposal, to how to put together slide decks to practical tips for preparation and talk delivery.