For some people, the idea of speaking at a conference might seem daunting. Squeaky microphones, big echoey rooms, clunky podiums, challenging AV and terrible Q&As all flash into our minds. However, UnTechCon is not a typical conference. In fact, it is an UNconference, and we hope that people’s experiences here will be very different, and a whole lot more comfortable. We want this event to be as welcoming as possible for all — not just to attend, but also to contribute.
The whole point of an UnConference is that the lines between guests and speakers are blurred — everyone is a participant, and there is space for everyone to speak up. So if you have even the tiniest seed of an idea which you feel relates to the themes and topics we’re interested in, we want to hear your voice on December 10th, and we want you you feel as at-ease as possible about making a contribution!
This is our first event. Though we want as many people as possible to attend, realistically the vast majority of attendees will be ‘friends and family’ of the GFSC collective. We seek to foster a welcoming and celebratory atmosphere, where even half-formed or still developing ideas will be welcomed eagerly.
As long as your politics align with ours (anti-racist, trans-and-disability positive + + +), your words will be met kindly and sportively by the audience here.
The entire event is being run on Discord, which eliminates a lot of the typical meatspace AV concerns. We will be opening a test channel Friday afternoon (UTC) before the event where speakers can drop by to test how everything works and make sure they are comfortable with all the video channel interfaces.
It’s worth noting that the Discord app is a lot better than using Discord in a browser for this stuff, so we strongly recommend anyone who plans to present installs the app and visits our test channel the day before. There will also be room moderators and tech support available throughout the event itself, should anyone need support on the day.
Though we have the word ‘tech’ in the title of the event, we welcome and actively encourage contributions from those who might not think of themselves as traditionally part of the ‘tech’ world. Maybe you have no experience of building tech but a LOT of experience of how tech works (or doesn’t work) in support of your IRL community’s aims and goals. Maybe you have experience of breaking away from tech to do more work offline, with tech now serving as a background admin tool rather than front and centre. Maybe you simply have some ideas about what tech could and should be, were it to genuinely serve you/your community. No matter what your ideas, we want to hear them.
Something we hear a lot in our work is “I’m not a tech person” — usually from people who work all day every day on the computer making all kinds of wonderful things. If you use tech you are a tech person — if the tech makes you feel alienated or like you’re stupid, that’s the techs’ fault not yours. Come talk about it!
Maybe you have a great idea and would love to speak, but feel like you don’t have any time to prepare? Not a problem at an unconf! No fancy presentations required here (indeed, no presentations required at all if you don’t want one/have time to make one), and we welcome contributions with a minimum length of 5 minutes, up to a maximum of 15 minutes. This means that even if you barely have time to prepare any notes, you can speak off the cuff for a short period and simply introduce us to your area/ideas in your own, free-flowing words.
We’ll also hopefully have loads of time in the day for thoughts that come up after the conference has already started - we anticipate the themes developing as the day goes on.
David Hayward has kindly shared some top tips for first time speakers, which we reproduce an edited version of with permission below.