I do! I do! Proposing to Speak at Claris Engage

Welcome

Thank you for your interest in my blog! This is the second in a series of articles (check out the first) that focus on speaking at technical conferences, especially the event I’m most familiar with, Claris Engage. I hope to offer some special insights emerging from having helped to produce this event in the past. In this article, I’ll examine the session proposal process while covering the following subjects:

• Overcoming self-doubt
• Understanding the new conference goals
• Proposing multiple sessions
• Adopting an attitude of service
• Writing your biography
• Recording your video statement
• Avoiding excessive self-promotion
• Finding models for your proposal
• Constructing your session title
• Writing your session description

Let’s start by tackling that big bugaboo, the obstacle of self-doubt.

Forgive My Impertinence

Dear friend and fellow member of the Claris Community, forgive my impertinence, but I have an intimate question for you:

Do you have an as-yet-unrequited passion for speaking at the conference formerly known as DevCon? Are you dreaming of getting down on one knee to bare your soul, proclaiming for all to hear: “My dearest technical conference, will you be mine (along with about sixty other people, and only for a year)?” Is there even a tiny seedling hope deep in your heart that someday such a thing might come to pass?

If this is so, let me counsel you.

I know all too well that such a prospect can seem daunting: despite having spoken more than once, I still find the Call for Proposals nearly impossible to contemplate and every year can barely bring myself to apply. There have been times when, despite a vigorous wrestle, my inner demons have bested me, and I have failed to put myself forward at all.

Perhaps you suffer, as I do, from that crippling affliction known as impostor syndrome, where you find yourself terrifyingly immobilized by symptoms such as these:

• You cannot think of a single session to propose.
• If you think of one, you cannot imagine that you would have anything to share on the topic.
• If you do come up with something to share, it is not nearly expert enough, you fear exposing your ignorance, and you ask of the indifferent air, “Whosoever would choose to listen to such as me?”

But, I tell you, here is the truth of it: you should indeed apply. What is the worst thing that could possibly happen? The worst thing is merely this: that your proposal would be accepted, and in consequence, you would need to stretch and learn and grow. Should it not be accepted (which, given the odds, is considerably more likely), well then, blithe spirit, you’re free to go on your merry way. You will simply have given yourself valuable practice at important skills such as the vigorous pitching of ideas and the aggrandized art of marketing yourself to all and sundry. In short, no matter what happens, you will benefit.

Enter a New Era

Having offered some encouragement, I’ll abandon this antiquated voice and return to the present day, or perhaps even the future, because this year we’re dealing with something new. Claris Engage is different from the conference we all know and love, and it’s likely to continue changing in the years to come. I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Rosemary Tietge, the Claris Queen of Conference Content, about both her goals for Claris Engage and her recommendations for would-be speakers. That conversation provides plenty of excellent advice.

For a summary of the changes, see the proposal submission page. Here’s the gist of it:

If you can propose a session that meets the above criteria, by all means do so. But if you can’t, I’d encourage you to propose anyway and go with whatever is exciting to you even if it doesn’t seem to fit. You never know: if it’s compelling enough, it might get included. The main thing is that you should be excited about it, and you should be ready to share that excitement with others.

Be Promiscuous

You may propose as many as three sessions. My advice is to propose at least two distinct topics. Writing more than one session proposal will get you in the proposal-writing zone where everything starts to flow better. Brainstorming a number of proposals will likely result in better ideas than the first one you came up with. And as you edit your top three proposals side by side, their strengths and weaknesses will become more obvious through comparison, each informing and improving the other.

In addition to all of this, there’s also simple probability: if you submit more than one proposal, you’ll have a better chance of getting picked. Of course, you’ll also run the risk of being asked to present more than one session, but never fear, my next article will be about Preparing A Session Or Two. I’m sure you’ll be up for the challenge!

Envision Your Audience

It’s helpful to envision who might come to your session and how you can help them. Free yourself of the requirement to be the smartest person in the room, and instead think of something that you’ve needed to learn and then imagine how you can help others learn it as well. When you approach speaking from the point of view of service rather than expertise, it can lift a tremendous weight of self-imposed expectations.

Regarding expertise, I like the metaphor of a voyage of discovery (sometimes even including sea monsters). As the speaker, I’m leading the voyage, but at the same time, I’m placing myself in the boat with the audience: we are all discovering together.

Committee Members

It’s also useful to envision the committee itself. They are simply a group of people, all of whom have demanding jobs, who have chosen to take the time to participate in the selection process. They have volunteered to read through the proposals, watch the videos, and juggle all the possibilities to put together the best conference they can.

Like any audience, they start out on your side. They want your proposal to be engaging. They want to enjoy your video and to get a sense of your personality. They get excited about your topic when you’re excited about it, when they sense that you have a sincere desire to help, and when you bring your authentic self to the party. They are looking to increase the diversity of the speaker group from many points of view, such as your market sector, business role, gender, ethnicity, technical background, and more – so don’t be afraid of your quirks. They make you interesting and memorable.

Trust in your love of the topic and the strength of your proposal, and represent your speaking experience honestly. Have you presented at technical user groups or within your company? The content doesn’t have to be relevant to your proposal; the point is to demonstrate your storytelling skills and your experience in putting together a compelling presentation.

Leverage a Mentor

If you’d like to keep growing in this area, my first recommendation is to work with a mentor or buddy within the FileMaker community. If you’re a woman, Women Innovating Together’s mentorship program provides proposal review and general support. You might also seek out a coach (I recommend the brilliant and intuitive Janna Sobel from Second City in Chicago). If you want a group experience, consider joining Toastmasters; attending narrative events like the Moth Radio Hour story slams, the Odd Salon, or Here Chicago; or participating in Jonn Howell’s Meetup group for practicing technical presentation skills.

Tell Us Who You Are

As part of your proposal, you will need to submit a short biography. A version of this will be published as your speaker biography on the conference website and helps to market your session. If people are interested in your biography, they will be more likely to attend your presentation.

If you don’t have an impressive technical resume, don’t fret. It’s enough to list a few facts about yourself, give some context for why you’re excited about your topic, and then close with something playful. Here’s a bio from FileMaker DevCon 2019 that embodies this approach. The speaker, Bradley Boggs, presented a case study of the custom apps that he designed for manufacturing and warehouse management:

If I were to follow Bradley’s lead, I would write something like the copy below. My session that year was about redesigning legacy systems, and this bio focuses on that aspect of my experience:

In retrospect, I think this contextualizing approach has produced a more relevant bio than the one that was published, where I tried to cover much more of my resume. For what it’s worth, if you’re chosen, you aren’t stuck with the bio you submitted with your proposal. You can always rewrite it when inspiration strikes (just be sure to do it well before the conference, not as part of a blog article six months later).

Show Yourself

In addition to the bio, you’ll need to submit a video of up to two minutes in length. You don’t need to pitch your session in this video. It’s just a chance to say hello to the reviewers, give them a sense of who you are, and help them connect your name to your face. If you have significant speaking experience, this is a good time to mention that briefly as well.

I wouldn’t sweat it too much: just point an iPhone at your face and talk. Introduce yourself, share a little about why your topic excites you, and then thank the committee for their time. Try not to write a script, but go ahead and record a few takes, learning more or less what you want to say without nailing it down. Keep it simple and let the committee see a little of the real you. After all, that’s who is going to give the presentation.

If you’d like an example, here’s the video that I submitted to Claris Engage 2020:

It’s not perfect, but I hope it embodies my advice. The first part introduces me and shares my speaking credentials (with a focus on the content I intend to present), and the second part shares my enthusiasm for the three sessions I’m proposing.

My friend Makah has a different take than I do on how to approach a proposal video. She read this blog post and shared the following:

Clearly, each of us needs to find our own approach. My preference is for a video that doesn’t feel scripted or overworked, where I’m feeling friendly and authentically present, but Makah needs something different. Give yourself whatever you need to get to your happy place (or as close to it as you can). Regarding energy, since Makah and I are both pretty animated as presenters, an energetic video probably represents us most honestly. But one of my intentions right now is to relax more as a presenter and trust I’m enough without fanfare or overcompensation. One way I’m practicing that is in my video.

Bewitch, Don’t Pitch

In all of your submission materials, be careful of pitching your services or product. Aim to get people excited about what you have to say, not about what you do or sell. I recognize that one reason to speak at a conference is to generate interest in your services. However, conference reviewers and the attendees can detect even a whiff of self-promotion, and often they don’t like how it smells. It’s up to you to judge what’s appropriate. I’ve had some people give me a hard time about mentioning my music on iTunes, though I keep doing it anyway because I like sharing another side of myself.

Along the same lines, avoid pitching the Claris platform. Neither the reviewers nor the attendees need to be persuaded that it’s worthwhile. Show how you use it to solve specific problems rather than making general claims about its value.

Beg, Borrow, and Steal

When writing your proposal, look at past DevCon session descriptions. Start by identifying the ones that have something in common with what you want to do:

• Is this a topic that keeps generating interest?
• Has it been done recently?
• What distinguishes your session from past sessions?

Next, look at all the session descriptions to identify which you find most compelling, then use those as a model. The published session descriptions have all been vetted by the Claris marketing department, so they can serve as a rough style guide for your proposal.

Each proposal primarily consists of a session title and a session description. You’ll also answer a few questions about your session, such as what attendees should already know, and whether it features any Claris products. Bear in mind that your session should be relevant to an audience who doesn’t use the Claris platform, although showing how Claris products solve problems is always welcome.

To start with, I recommend coming up with a working title, then writing the description, and then revising the title after finishing the description. To help illustrate this, now I’m going to take a pretty deep dive into analyzing a few titles and descriptions to identify common patterns and successful strategies.

Hook Them With Your Title

Your title should catch people’s attention and communicate the session’s content as clearly as possible. Have a look at all the 2019 titles and see which you find most compelling. Some ask questions, some are mysterious, some play with words, and some, frankly, are rather dull. Take heart from this! Even if you write a dull title, the reviewers may still choose your session.

Let’s start with an excellent model from a marketing professional. At Claris, I had the good fortune to learn from Leslie Kareckas, who, among other things, is the chief writer and editor of marketing content. I’ll try rewriting her session title to follow five common grammatical patterns: creating tension using a form of the verb called the gerund, calling the reader to action, making a statement or claim, leading with an adverb, and asking a question.

There you have it: the five commonly-used title types I can come up with today. I imagine that once this is published, I’ll think of at least a couple more (feel free to suggest some in the comments), but I hope that these spark some ideas for you, and get you thinking about the best match for the session you plan to give. Bear in mind that all five of these are used often enough that they can feel artificial and even cliché. Use your own judgment to determine what will best represent your session and capture people’s attention. If you need some objectivity, ask a trusted friend or colleague for some input.

Tell a Story

Now, having beaten the title to death, I’d like to move on to the session description and see whether I can do the same with it. Similar principles apply: you want to capture people’s attention, tell a story, and communicate the benefit that attending your session will provide.

There’s a tried-and-true formula for you to follow, and Leslie’s session description nails it perfectly:

Here’s My Story

Now that I’ve picked apart Leslie’s session description, it’s only fair that I go ahead and do the same with mine. As it turns out, it still could use some work.

Review Your Work

And what do you know? Here I am, doing the same thing as I did in that session, confessing and atoning for my sins. It seems that whenever I slow down enough to re-examine my work, there’s always something to learn. I hope this demonstrates that your session proposal doesn’t have to be brilliant right out of the gate – that’s what drafts are for.

It’s also what reviewers are for. When I’m writing for a friendly audience, it focuses my attention and motivates me to iterate, writing draft after draft until I run out of time or energy. Any flaws in this blog article are entirely due to those constraints, and much of what’s good about it comes from the advice of helpful friends. In the end, I promise that it has been a labor of love.

Go Forth!

My goal in writing this piece has been to encourage more people to apply as speakers this year. I hope that it has encouraged you. I’d love to see a diverse group of people with lots of new faces when the conference website goes live in the spring. Here is the submission link one more time.

If you need to talk to someone one-on-one or would like a reviewer for your session proposals, please feel free to get in touch. As long as time permits, I would love to help you out.