talk
Conference Talk Builder
Structured for technical developer conferences (25-30 min single track). Produces three deliverables: CFP abstract, talk outline with timing, key slides list.
What Makes a Talk Work
The talk structure that gets accepted and remembered:
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Visceral opening — a failure story, a question the audience can't answer, a stat that reframes what they thought they knew. Not "today I'm going to tell you about X."
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The painful thing everyone does — establish shared experience. The audience needs to recognize themselves. If they're nodding, you have them.
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The journey with failed attempts — how you discovered the solution, including what didn't work. This is what separates a talk from a blog post. The failed attempts are credibility — they show you lived this, not just read about it.
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The insight with a demo — the thing they came for. Keep demos minimal. Have a backup screenshot. Live demos fail publicly; plan for it.
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Monday morning takeaways — 3 concrete things they can do when they're back at their desk. Not "think differently about X" — actual actions.