Conference Speaking And Presentation Skills: Mike Hall Interviews Brian Liles | WindyCityRails 2012
🚀 Brian Liles shares his insights on the evolution of the Ruby community and his approach to conference speaking. 🌟 Learn how he uses humor and personal connection to engage with his audience. Don't miss this! 🎤 #RubyCommunity #ConferenceSpeaking #BrianLiles #WindyCityRails #TechTalks
The Interviewer
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
The Guest
Brian Liles
conference speaking and presentation skills
The Conversation
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Hi, I'm Mike. I'm here at WindyCityRails again with Brian Lau, who is, if you're in the Ruby community, you've probably heard some of his talks or some of the fallout from some of his Twitter conversations with a certain other person who's well-known in the Ruby community. One thing is you've been around kind of forever in the community, and you've presented at many, many conferences. Over the years, kind of like how have you seen things evolve or change in the community?
Brian Liles
conference speaking and presentation skills
So, here's a good way of putting it. So, let's go back. Let's start at the beginning of Rails, 2006. I mean, really, the first RailsConf. There was the Canada on Rails before. Let's talk about that one. So, at that point, we just learned that we were on something, and then as the years progressed, we learned how to do something with that. And then as the years progressed, we got even better with it, and now, not only are we good at it. We're good at making money with it. So, I think that's actually, we've basically evolved from, hey, look, we have a cool toy. Now, look how much our toys make us. Yes. So, it's kind of matured from, oh, this is a fun kind of hobby, neat, we can do cool stuff, to we can do cool stuff and make money making cool stuff with the tools we like.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Right.
Brian Liles
conference speaking and presentation skills
We are actually living the dream. How many people actually can say, hey, my hobby is my job, and by the way, I paid a lot of money to do it.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Brian Liles
conference speaking and presentation skills
And if I didn't like it right here, I could actually pick up, I could pick up shop and move somewhere else. Not many people can do that these days.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Brian Liles
conference speaking and presentation skills
And with the conferences, though, in particular, you know, audiences mature. I mean, even, I've only been coming to Rails conferences for a few years, and I can see changes in the audience.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Has that affected, like, your perception of working with the Ruby community, or?
Brian Liles
conference speaking and presentation skills
Well, I mean, what's going on now is that.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Brian Liles
conference speaking and presentation skills
When we first started, we were all getting good together, but now, a few years in, actually at RailsConf the last couple of years, I've just been giving beginner talks, and the reason why is because there's so many people that we forget that not everybody has been doing this for a long time, and not everybody actually thinks like us and even understands why we think like we do, so we need to give those lessons to those people. So, I mean, that's actually a really big thing to show how we are maturing is that, hey, there's a lot of people who don't know how to do this and have never even heard of Rails before. This year or last year. Wow. And, you know, and also, you speak at a lot of conferences.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Do you have much experience working, speaking at user groups? You know what?
Brian Liles
conference speaking and presentation skills
Local, I've actually spoken at user groups in a few states.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Brian Liles
conference speaking and presentation skills
And, actually, across the pond over in Europe. I'm actually, I think I'm actually approaching my 20th conference. That's a lot. I do think I'm approaching that. It's actually, I've spoken a lot. And, actually. Now, so I spoke today about ZSH, which has nothing to do with Ruby.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Brian Liles
conference speaking and presentation skills
I'm actually speaking at the beginning of next month in Belgium at R camp, and I'm speaking at RubyConf, and I mean.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Now, R, do you mean R as in the platform, or?
Brian Liles
conference speaking and presentation skills
No, R as in, hey, matey. No, R as in pirates. Pirates, yeah. Yes, as in pirates. It's a Ruby conference in Belgium, and that's what I hear. It's very good. My first time there. They're flying me there. It's pretty awesome.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Okay.
Brian Liles
conference speaking and presentation skills
So.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
So, having spoken at user groups versus speaking at, do you ever use, like, try-out material?
Brian Liles
conference speaking and presentation skills
One thing that I've heard people do is they like to try out material. No, no. I'm like Jay-Z. I don't even practice my talks. I said I practice my talks. I don't practice my talks. I never do. I get up there, and the only part that you notice that I didn't even think about is the part that I was actually reading off of my tablet because I just thought of it. I actually write my talks about a week ahead of time. I actually keep notes for months ahead of time. I write the talk about a week ahead of time.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
And then I look at it before I talk, and I say, you know something?
Brian Liles
conference speaking and presentation skills
I know what I'm talking about.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Why don't we just go up there and have a conversation with the crowd?
Brian Liles
conference speaking and presentation skills
And that's what I did. Everything, most of that talk was unscripted.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah. Yeah.
Brian Liles
conference speaking and presentation skills
So, you like to just, I mean, a lot of people, you wouldn't recommend doing that. No.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
I mean, did you start off being kind of like, I'm going to wing it kind of guy?
Brian Liles
conference speaking and presentation skills
Well, no. Here's why. I have a different outlook on talks. You're either, you're coming to educate, and you're coming to entertain. Most people forget about the entertain, and they try to educate.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
You know something?
Brian Liles
conference speaking and presentation skills
In 30 to 45 minutes, I'm not going to teach you much of anything. But, if I tell you about a whole bunch of cool stuff that you could look at, and then I tell a joke or two, you're actually going to remember, hey, remember that funny guy from that conference?
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Hey, what was he talking about?
Brian Liles
conference speaking and presentation skills
Oh, Brian said that. And that's what it is. It's actually using the humor and using the personal, like, I feel like I'm talking to you because I am talking to the crowd. I feel like it's a mutual thing. But I use that to actually get my point across.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah, and it's how you got to be known as the T-A-T-F-T, is it?
Brian Liles
conference speaking and presentation skills
Yeah, I don't, yeah, I mean, like I said. People know that, I mean, because it's memorable, and it's a hook. It is a hook, and actually, that was the whole point. The whole point, so that was the second time I gave that talk. I actually gave it a little bit more serious the first time. I was talking about why people should be testing. And then I gave it again as a lightning talk. So I pared the talk down, and I said, you know something, this is a lightning talk. I only have like five to ten minutes to give this. So every other slide, I just put, test all the fucking time in there. And it was like, it was like, really tiny type, every single time. And, you know, people were like, by the tenth time they saw it, they're like, oh my God, this guy's a nut.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
But you know something?
Brian Liles
conference speaking and presentation skills
It works, because I'll tell you what, someone mailed me a shirt. Actually, I've had two shirts mailed to me now with that logo on there.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
With that on there?
Brian Liles
conference speaking and presentation skills
And I was like, you know something, it's great that I was able to inspire people to do this. And that's why I continue coming out and talking at conferences. Okay, well, you know, again, I want to just thank you for taking a few minutes to talk with me. Well, thank you.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
I appreciate what you've done. Well, thank you.
Critical Insights
durable
"The Ruby community has matured from a hobby to a lucrative profession."
durable
"Brian Liles avoids practicing his talks, preferring to wing it and use humor to connect with the audience."
durable
"Giving beginner talks at conferences is becoming more common as the audience matures."