TechSpeakers
Overview
Mozilla Tech Speakers is a program to bring together volunteer contributors who are already speaking to technical audiences (developers/web designers/computer science and engineering students) about Firefox, Mozilla and the Open Web in communities around the world. We want to support you and amplify your work!
As Mozilla Tech Speakers, participants have an opportunity to work on public speaking skill development with a cohort of technical contributors from many countries. Mozillians old and new, and our allies across the open web, at all levels of experience in public speaking and at different stages in their careers, are welcome to apply. Most participants are not native English speakers, but at this time you must be willing and able to communicate in English to participate in this program.
Practice and constructive feedback in a safe and friendly environment are at the heart of how we work together. We are always experimenting with the design of this program, learning from participant feedback, with the aim of being able to grow to meet the global demand for this type of training.
Looking for a Tech Speaker? We can help you find one if you fill this form.
General info
Community Participation Guidelines | Event Process | Asset Folder |
---|---|---|
All our activities must respect this code of conduct. | How to find events, submit talks, and request sponsorship from the program. | A collection of documents and assets to be used and reused in talks and workshops. |
Calendars
- Call for Proposals Calendar – A community-maintained calendar of deadlines to submit talks and workshops to interesting conferences
- TechSpeakers Appearance Calendar – The calendar where you can announce your appearance, so we know about it!
Forms
- Event Sponsorship Form – The form to fill to request a sponsorship
- Event Feedback Form (2019) – The form to fill after an event - it tells us how it went.
- Event Feedback Form (2018) – The form to fill after an event - to tell us how it went.
More details about the program
Program objective: Increase developer awareness and adoption of the Web, Firefox, and Mozilla through a strong community-driven technical speaker development program.
- Promo video - Introducing Moz Tech Speakers
- Mozilla Tech Speakers playlist - includes Tech Speaker program masterclasses
We are currently accepting applications for new Tech Speakers! You can apply for the Tech Speakers 2020 Cohort. |
- Contact: Jean-Yves Perrier, Michael Ellis
- Current Team: Michael Ellis, Jean-Yves Perrier, Jessica Rose, István Szmozsanszky
- Alumnis: Thanks to: Rosana Ardila, Havi Hoffman, Dietrich Ayala, Soumya Deb, Emma Irwin, Janet Swisher
- For the most current information about Mozilla Tech Speakers, please visit the Speaking topic on Discourse
Mission & Purpose
Increase developer awareness and adoption of Mozilla products and the Open Web as a platform:
- Grow a base of qualified and well-informed volunteer speakers.
- Support volunteer technical evangelism efforts with training for speaking and creating presentation materials.
- Empower contributors to present timely, relevant technical material at conferences & regional developer events.
Desired Outcomes
- Volunteer speakers gain skill and experience as public speakers and gain access to information and funding when representing Mozilla at developer events, and at relevant regional, educational, and community-run events.
- Mozilla has a global team of trained speakers to send to conferences, to host workshops, and represent the project in other technical contexts.
- Speaker materials and assets become easily discoverable and accessible (content and templates).
- Graduates replicate the program in their regional communities.
How It Works
Tech Speakers is a six-week program supported by the Developer Relations team, part of the Emerging Technologies group. Originally, our program was by invitation only. Now we are growing the program through an application process. Our training meetings focus on group speaking practice and sharing constructive feedback. Active Tech Speakers who've completed the Tech Speakers program are expected to deliver 2 talks or workshops per quarter, in order to maintain their active status.
During the onboarding phase, each participant:
- Picks a topic at the beginning of the program
- Develops a talk or workshop or training on that topic over the course of the program.
- Submits their talk to a conference CFP, presents at a meetup or other relevant gathering.
We are currently accepting applications for new Tech Speakers! You can apply for the Tech Speakers 2020 Cohort.
Once onboard, Mozilla Tech Speakers:
- Regularly submit talks, workshops, or training session.
- Get help and advice from the program members and staff.
Resources for Speakers
- CFPs or How to find a conference to speak at
- One way to write a good CFP: Sample Proposals for O'Reilly Conferences
- Subscribe to Technically Speaking, a public speaking newsletter
- For developer-oriented conferences, subscribe to the CFP report and set your preferences
- Presentation Basics
- Storytelling (suggestions from Alison Meyer & other sources)
- The Science of Storytelling: What Listening to a Story Does to Our Brains
- 6 Rules for Great Storytelling
- Resonate (a book on presentations)
- The Danger of a Single Story
- Talk Coaching: Few Lessons to Keep in Mind - Tech Speaker Gloria Dwomoh wrote up the notes from her coaching session
- Finding Inspiration (suggestions from Pilot 3 - memorable presentations)
- Robert Waldinger - What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness
- Simon Sinek- How great leaders inspire action
- Simon Sinek- Why good leaders make you feel safe "Leadership is a choice. It is not a rank..."
- The 26%: Facebook’s Mary Lou Jepsen Says Tech is Hostile to Women "When someone tells you something is impossible, it really means they're a little bit jealous, and keep going, you're on the right track..."
- Technical Speaking
- Crafting Decks
- Tools
- Hemingway - online editor that analyzes readability
- Places to Get Help
- HelpMeAbstract - Get feedback on talk abstracts from real conference organizers
- Older Materials
- A repository of audience questions
Mozilla Tech Speakers
This is a partial list of people who have completed the Tech Speakers program. If you completed one of the Tech Speaker cohort trainings, you are welcome to add yourself and a link to your Reps or Mozillians page, or other relevant profile or contact info.
- Abhiram Ravikumar (India)
- Candy Tricia Khohliwe (Botswana)
- Abiel Tomás Parra Hernández (México)
- Luis A. Sánchez (México)
- Adrian Crespo (Spain)
- Adriano Cupello (Brazil)
- Ahmed Nefzaoui (Tunisia)
- Alaa Shaheen (Palestine)
- Alex Lakatos (London, UK)
- Alex Saladrigas (Spain)
- Amine Zaafouri (Tunisia)
- Andre Garzia (Brazil)
- Andrzej Mazur (Poland)
- Anghel Adrian "Jobava" Mârza (Romania)
- Anjana Vakil (Germany)
- Areej Amer (Jordan)
- Ayah Soufan (Palestine)
- Brou Yannick Aka (Ivory Coast)
- Carsten Sandtner (Germany)
- Chen Hui Jing (Malaysia)
- Christos Bacharakis (Greece)
- Christophe Villeneuve (France)
- Daniele Scasciafratte (Italy)
- Diky Arga Anggara (Indonesia)
- Dipesh Monga (Finland)
- Diwanshi Pandey (India)
- Dorothée Danedjo (Cameroon)
- Elio Qoshi (Albania)
- Eugenio Petullà (Italy)
- Fate Cabag (Philippines)
- Felipe Do E. Santo (Brazil)
- Gabriel Micko (Hungary)
- Gabriele Falasca (Italy)
- Giannis Konstantinidis (Greece)
- Gloria Dwomoh
- Harsha Vardhan (India)
- Ioana Chiorean (Romania)
- István 'Flaki' Szmozsánszky (Hungary)
- Jan-Erik Rediger (Germany)
- Jayesh Katta Ramalingaiah (India)
- Karthickeyan Narasimhan (India)
- Kaustav Das Modak (India)
- Kristi Progri (Albania)
- Kritika Maheshwari (India)
- Manel Rhaiem (Hungary)
- Mariot Tsitoara (Madagascar)
- Marko Letic (Serbia)
- Miguel Useche (Venezuela)
- Pooja Purswani (India)
- Rabimba Karanjai (USA & India)
- Ram Dayal Vaishnav (India)
- Riccardo Iaconelli (Italy)
- Rizky Ariestiyansyah (Indonesia)
- Robert Kaiser (Austria)
- Robert Reyes (Philippines)
- Rufus Chakravarthy Sharma (India)
- Saif Ahmed (Egypt)
- Salman Rahman Desh (Bangladesh)
- Santosh Viswanatham (India)
- Sayak Sarkar (India)
- Shagufta Gurmukhdas (India)
- Shreyas Narayanan Kutty (India)
- Soumya Chakraborty (India)
- Srushtika Neelakantam (England & India)
- Sumanth Damarla (India)
- Tanay Pant (India)
- Trishul Goel (India)
- Tushar Arora (India)
- U.M.K. Dikshit (India)
- Viswaprasath KS (India)
- Yuliana Reyna Jiménez (Mexico)
- Vigneshwer Dhinakaran (India)
- Willian Martins da Silva (Brasil)