Talking Tech (A Speaker Training Workshop)
Sherry Sontag & Peter Muldoon
This two day on-site workshop will feature veteran presenters including Bloomberg’s Phil Nash, Peter Muldoon and Sherry Sontag and cameo’s by others.
A good technical talk needs a compelling narrative as much as it needs absorbing information. At best, it is a shared experience between speaker and audience sparking questions, and conversations that go on throughout the hallway track. When done well, a good talk becomes a great one and leaves everyone, including the speakers, with more: more understanding, more curiosity, more interest.
We can help you discover what makes a great technical story. We can show you how even small small tweaks to existing presentations can make a huge difference. Learn clarity, the best use of detail, slides that illustrate rather than distract and how to be truly comfortable on stage.
We will also go over where AI can play a role in helping develop a talk. Like good code, a good talk is never written with an LLM taking the lead. However, LLMs can be trained to ask questions, make suggestions and help wade through piles of material, freeing you to craft, think, and share experiences. Be aware that we come with the strong opinion that AI art is vastly overused and is often awful.
All participants will be given class time to present, though priority will go to people preparing to present at this year’s ACCU on Sea.
Sherry Sontag
Sherry became part of the CppCon program committee last year. She joined Bloomberg’s Technology Infrastructure team after co-authoring The New York Times‘ bestseller “Blind Man’s Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage.” She has been featured on 60 Minutes, National Public Radio (NPR), and The HISTORY Channel, and has given scores of talks in and out of C++ conferences. She has been leading writing and presentation workshops for a decade and coaches at Bloomberg. Sherry believes that we tell our best stories to our best friends. On stage, she is always just talking to her dad.
Peter Muldoon
Pete Muldoon has been using C++ since 1991. Pete has worked in Ireland, England and the USA and is currently employed by Bloomberg as a senior Engineering Lead. A consultant for over 20 years prior to joining Bloomberg, Peter has worked on a broad range of projects and code bases in a large number of companies both tech and finance. Such broad exposure has, over time, shown what works and what doesn't for large scale engineering projects. He's a proponent of applied engineering principles, elegant solutions and expressive code.