[[!meta title="Notes and tips on preparing your talk"]]
[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2019, 2020 Amin Bandali<br />Copyright © 2021, 2022 Amin Bandali, Sacha Chua, Leo Vivier"]]
This page contains notes and tips for our speakers on preparing their
talks and presentations. Please read through the list and consider it
while preparing your talk. If you have any questions, concerns, or
suggestions please feel free to write to one our organizational mailing
lists: the public <emacsconf-org@gnu.org> list, or the private
<emacsconf-org-private@gnu.org> list, depending on the nature of the
matter you would like to discuss.
Note: being part of a wiki, this page is subject to change (including
by you!); so please check back every now and again for any changes and
updates.
[[Already done? Upload your video and other files|upload]]
### Guidelines for conduct
Please review our [[guidelines for conduct|conduct]] when preparing your
talk to make sure we’re all on the same page and strive to make the
event a great experience for all. If you’re not sure whether your talk
or presentation style meets the guidelines laid out in the guidelines
for conduct, we’d be happy to help. You can email Sacha Chua at
<sacha@sachachua.com> to chat more about this.
### Recording your talk
To help EmacsConf 2022 run smoothly, please prerecord your talk, and
plan to upload your video(s) by **November 4** to allow us enough time
to do any needed processing (e.g. format or codec conversion) in
preparation for the event. Please consider submitting a prerecording as
early as possible so that we can see if volunteers can caption your
video to make it more accessible and searchable.
To make it easier for organizers and attendees to correctly pronounce
your name, please start your video with something along the lines of:
"Hi! I’m ${NAME} and I’ll be talking about ${TOPIC}."
The talks will be broadcast with a resolution of **1280x720px**
(720p). Please make sure your text will be easy to read at that size.
[You can change the font-size in your Emacs](https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/SetFonts#h5o-6).
If you are capturing a single window, you can also resize it before
you record.
We recommend using **dark text on a light background** for your
recording, as this can be easier to see especially for people who are
visually impaired. Themes with more contrast are easier to read than
low-contrast ones. If you use a dark theme with your Emacs, you can
change to a lighter one with `M-x customize-theme` (look for those
with a `-light` suffix). The `modus-themes-load-operandi` command from
the `modus-themes` package can be a good option.
Audio quality can go a long way in making your talk enjoyable to
watch. Consider the background noise in the room that you are using to
record, and see if you can temporarily turn off things for your
recording. If you have a **headset or external microphone**, try recording
the audio through that so that you can reduce the sound of the
computer itself. If you have a smartphone, that might also be a good
way to record audio that you can then combine with your video
afterwards. Some people find that draping a blanket over their head
(including the microphone under the blanket) can help reduce echo,
which can be a good excuse to make a blanket fort. (It's for
EmacsConf!)
Please leave at least **5 seconds of quiet** at the end of your video.
We can use it to try to process your video in order to reduce noise.
Many speakers prefer to record and edit the audio until they're happy
with how it fits in the time, and then add the slides or videos
afterwards. It might be easier than trying to do both the audio and
the video in one go.
To record your video, you could use any of the following pieces of
free software, depending on your needs:
- [OBS](//obsproject.com)
- [SimpleScreenRecorder](//www.maartenbaert.be/simplescreenrecorder/)
- [vokoscreenNG](//linuxecke.volkoh.de/vokoscreen/vokoscreen.html)
- [peek](//github.com/phw/peek)
- [ffmpeg](//trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Capture/Desktop)
If you decide to use OBS, please make sure to verify the window-capture
options. Most notably, there is a “Swap red and blue” option that is
necessary for some setup, and it's easy to miss it.
You might find the following free software programs useful for editing
your video recordings:
- [Kdenlive](//kdenlive.org/en/)
- [Blender](//www.blender.org)
- [Pitivi](http://www.pitivi.org)
Per GNU Project’s [Guide to
Formats](//audio-video.gnu.org/docs/formatguide.html), we prefer to
receive prerecorded videos in formats unencumbered by software patents,
such as `video/webm` ([WebM](https://www.webmproject.org/)-encoded video
files, with `.webm` file extension) and `video/ogg` (video files encoded
with the Theora video codec, encapsulated in an Ogg transport layer,
with `.ogg` or `.ogv` file extension). However, if for one reason or
another you are unable to send us your prerecorded video in one of the
above formats, you may submit them in other common formats, like MPEG-4
(`.mp4`), and we will convert them to our preferred formats on your
behalf.
*Prepare recorded video in 720p (1280px by 720px) or higher, in the
WebM format if possible.*
# Compression
If you would like to compress your video before uploading, the following shell script may be useful:
Q=32
CPU=8
ffmpeg -y -i "$1" -c:v libvpx-vp9 -b:v 0 -crf $Q -an -row-mt 1 -tile-columns 2 -tile-rows 2 -cpu-used $CPU -g 240 -pass 1 -f webm -threads $CPU /dev/null &&
ffmpeg -y -i "$1" -c:v libvpx-vp9 -b:v 0 -crf $Q -c:a libopus -row-mt 1 -tile-columns 2 -tile-rows 2 -cpu-used $CPU -pass 2 -g 240 -threads $CPU "$2"
If you put it in a file called `compress-video.sh`, you can execute it
from the command line with something like `sh compress-video.sh
input-file.webm output-file.webm`. It will compress the file in two
passes. During the first pass, the frame count will increase, but the
speed will be 0. After the first pass, it will display proper progress
information.
<a name="tech-check"></a>
# Tech-check
We ask that speakers who plan to participate in live Q&A sessions schedule
a short tech-check in the weeks leading to the conference; this is to ensure
that you can perform all the common tasks you’d need such as sharing your
screen or toggling your microphone.
We use BigBlueButton for our video-conferencing needs, and a quick way to
familiarize yourself with it is to run it in a test-room:
<https://test.bigbluebutton.org/>
If this is your first time at EmacsConf or if you run into any problems,
please get in touch with us and we’ll sort things out together! In these
cases, since we’ll need to schedule a 1-on-1 tech-check with you, we ask that
you email the closest volunteer to your timezone in the list below (or zaeph
if none of the timezones is a good fit). You can also visit us at
[#emacsconf-org on Libera](irc://libera.chat/#emacsconf-org).
We will likely schedule those 1-on-1 tech-checks with you on Saturdays or
Sundays, but we would be happy to try and work out another time if that
doesn’t work for you.
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<td>Volunteer</td>
<td>Email</td>
<td>IRC Nick</td>
<td>Timezone</td>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Leo Vivier</td>
<td><<a href="mailto:zaeph@zaeph.net">zaeph@zaeph.net</a>></td>
<td>zaeph</td>
<td>CET (UTC+1)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Sacha Chua</td>
<td><<a href="mailto:sacha@sachachua.com">sacha@sachachua.com</a>></td>
<td>sachac</td>
<td>America/Toronto - usually Sat/Sun 9-10AM EDT</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Wanna help out? You can add your name and contact-info here!</strong></td>
<td><<a href="mailto:your@email">your@email</a>></td>
<td>…</td>
<td>…</td>
</tr>
<!-- <tr> -->
<!-- <td>Corwin Brust</td> -->
<!-- <td><<a href="mailto:corwin@bru.st">corwin@bru.st</a>></td> -->
<!-- <td>corwin</td> -->
<!-- <td>US/Central (UTC-6)</td> -->
<!-- </tr> -->
<!-- <tr> -->
<!-- <td>Amin Bandali</td> -->
<!-- <td><<a href="mailto:bandali@gnu.org">bandali@gnu.org</a>></td> -->
<!-- <td>bandali</td> -->
<!-- <td>US/Eastern (UTC-5)</td> -->
<!-- </tr> -->
</tbody>
</table>
If you’d like to help out with the tech-checks, feel free to add your name and
email to the above list and email <<a
href="mailto:zaeph@zaeph.net">zaeph@zaeph.net</a>> to plan the logistics.
Thank you so much for helping with EmacsConf 2022!
# Frequently-asked questions
## Can I present live?
Tech issues kept happening during EmacsConf 2020, so we’d really
prefer that all talks have prerecorded videos. There will be time for
live questions and answers, though, so if you can record a short video
covering your main points, you might be able to go into more detail in
live Q&A.
## I have so much I want to share. Can I record a longer video?
The conference program has so many interesting talks. We wish we
could fit everything in at full length! (Maybe EmacsConf month?)
Please think of your video as a short teaser that can get people
interested and point them to where they can find out more. You can
email <emacsconf-submit@gnu.org> links and other notes to add to the
wiki page for your talk. If you’d like to record a longer video *in
addition* to the short one for the main conference, please feel free
to send us that too.
Additionally, even though it is tempting, please refrain from
fast-forwarding your recording to make it fit within the format; on top
of being obvious, it hurts your intelligibility. Trimming out the
silences and the filler words can help sometimes, but a better solution
for you might be to write, record, and edit your voice-over; then, you
can record your video to go along with it.
As a last option, you may send some questions for the host to ask you
during the Q&A so that you can address extra points that couldn’t make
the cut.
## I can’t figure out how to record the video. Can I just present the talk?
We might be able to help you record your talk using the BigBlueButton
web conferencing system before November 4. Please email
<emacsconf-submit@gnu.org> with some times that might work for you and
we’ll see if a volunteer can meet up with you to record it.
## Do I need to follow some visual guidelines for the presentation?
- Dark text on a light background is more legible than the opposite
(especially for people who are visually impaired), and more contrast
is better than a low-contrast theme. This stands for both your
slides and your Emacs theme.
- If you think your fonts might be too small in your slides or in Emacs,
they might very well be. [You can change the font-size in your
Emacs](https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/SetFonts#h5o-6), but you can
also play with the size of the captured window during your recording.
- Try to minimize the screen-flashes that occur when you switch between
windows, especially if their themes do not cohere (light-to-dark and
the reverse). If you can edit your recording, fades and other
transitions are a neat solution to this problem.
## How do I show my keystrokes on screen?
In Emacs, you can use
[interaction-log.el](https://github.com/michael-heerdegen/interaction-log.el)
(in MELPA) to display the keystrokes and the commands they run in a separate
buffer. For a system-wide solution, you can look into
[screenkey](https://gitlab.com/screenkey/screenkey).
## I’m not used to talking to myself. Can I present the talk to someone?
We might be able to help you record your talk using the BigBlueButton
web conferencing system before November 4. Please email
<emacsconf-submit@gnu.org> with some times that might work for you and
we’ll see if a volunteer can meet up with you to record it.
## Can I see the other proposed talks?
Once we’ve emailed all the speakers about their acceptance, we’ll put
up the talk wiki pages. That way, you can see what else is going on
in the conference and maybe coordinate with other speakers in order to
minimize overlap and maximize awesomeness.
## What if there are lots of great questions during Q&A and we run out of time?
You can continue answering questions on the collaborative pad or IRC,
and we’ll copy questions and answers onto the wiki page afterwards so
that you can answer them in your own time after the event.
An extended live demo or Q&A session might be possible if someone
volunteers to broadcast it on an alternative stream. If you or a
volunteer is interested in helping with this, please feel free to
contact us at <emacsconf-submit@gnu.org>.
## More questions?
Please email <emacsconf-submit@gnu.org>. We’d love to hear from you.
Thanks for contributing to EmacsConf 2022!
<!-- <a name="tech-checklist"></a> -->
<!-- #### Tech checklist -->
<!-- - Can you speak and be heard? Is there echo? -->
<!-- - Can you hear the organizer? -->
<!-- - Can you share your screen? Is the screen readable? -->
<!-- - If you plan to show your keystrokes, is that display visible? -->
<!-- - If you want to share your webcam (optional), can you enable it? Is it visible? Will there likely be distractions in the background? -->
<!-- - Can you view the collaborative pad? Will you be comfortable reviewing questions on your own (perhaps by keeping it open beside your shared window), or will you need a volunteer to relay questions to you? -->
<!-- - Can you share contact information (ex: phone number) so that we can get in touch with you in case of technical issues or scheduling changes? -->
<!-- - Do you need help finding your way around IRC so that you can check into `#emacsconf-org`? What is your IRC nickname? -->
