I’ve wanted to speak at a conference for a long time and only recently decided to take the leap by submitting a talk for the local WordCamp in Saratoga. I chose the topic of the Cron API because I use something very similar everyday at Automattic and I’ve not seen any talks on the component in WordPress Core. Check out the video of the talk below. I’ve also posted the slides on Speaker Deck.

I’ve been waiting for the video to show up on WordPress.tv so I could review my first talk and see what I needed to work on. Overall I think it went well and there was a good turnout (we only had two tracks of talks) of around 40 people. A few things I need to work on: speaking more clearly and enunciate, refrain from using filler words as often, and use specific vocabulary consistently throughout the talk. I also noticed I looked down a little too much (mainly for keeping on track with my presenter notes) and I pointed at the projection a lot. I’m not sure if that was distracting or even necessary but I made my slides in a way that highlighted parts that I was talking about, pointing seemed redundant.

I was pretty nervous right up until I was standing in front of everyone and only became nervous when I lost my place or words. Regardless I thought it went well and I had fun. I plan on speaking again soon.

What did you think? What would you like to hear me talk about in the future?