[[!meta title="Notes and tips on preparing your talk"]] [[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2019, 2020 Amin Bandali"]] 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 of the organizers directly (e.g. ), or write to one our organizational mailing lists: the public list, or the private 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. [[!toc levels=4]] ### Code of conduct First and foremost, we ask that you review our [[code of 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. We would be happy to chat with you if you are unsure whether your talk or presentation style meets the guidelines laid out in the code of conduct. You can email Sacha Chua at to chat more about this. ### Before the conference #### Prerecording talks For EmacsConf 2020, much like the last EmacsConf, we highly encourage and ask you to please consider prerecording your talk(s), *especially* for lightning talks, where the allotted time is quite limited and any potential technical issues that cannot be resolved quickly will greatly detract from the presentation. Please send us your prerecording(s) preferably by **November 14** (two weeks before the conference), or by **November 21** (one week before the conference) *the latest*, to allow us enough time to do any needed processing (e.g. format or codec conversion) in preparation for the event. Please **send your prerecording(s) via email to **, either in form of attachments (if reasonably small), or direct link(s) to download from elsewhere. If you need assistance with this, please write to about it. To make prerecordings, 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) 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) You can see more related tips from last year's [[**tips**|2019/tips]] page. 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-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 try to convert them to our preferred formats on your behalf. *Prepare recorded video in 720p; WebM formatted if possible.* > The conference broadcast will be in > [720p](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/720p) (1280px x 720px, > progressive) using the [Webm](https://www.webmproject.org/) video > format. The closer to this format submitted video files arrives in, > the less work for volunteers. #### Office hours for video call tech-checks For EmacsConf 2020 live talks/sessions, we have been evaluating a number of free software video-calling/conferencing tools, namely BigBlueButton, Jitsi Meet, and GNU Jami for the video calls with speakers delivering live presentations. At this point, BigBlueButton seems to be our most likely choice for this year, and we would like to do tech-checks with speakers to make sure they are able to use it to deliver their live presentation(s) and/or live Q&A. We ask that speakers who plan to participate in Q&A sessions and/or plan to present live schedule a short tech-check with us in the weeks leading to the conference, in order to quickly check their ability for joining video calls and performing common tasks such as sharing their screen. The office hours will likely be on Saturdays or Sundays, but we would be happy to try and work out another time if that doesn’t work for a speaker. To schedule a short tech-check, email one of the people listed below or visit with us on [#emacsconf-org on Freenode IRC](irc://chat.freenode.net/#emacsconf-org).
Volunteer Email IRC Nick Timezone
Corwin Brust <corwin@bru.st> mplsCorwin US/Central (UTC-6)
Leo Vivier <zaeph@zaeph.net> zaeph CET (UTC+1)
Bhavin Gandhi <bhavin192@geeksocket.in> bhavin192 Asia/Kolkata (UTC+05:30)
Karl Voit <EmacsConf@Karl-Voit.at> publicvoit CET (UTC+1)
Your Name <your@email>    
Amin Bandali <bandali@gnu.org> bandali US/Eastern (UTC-5)
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 to plan the logistics. #### 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? ### Updating your talk information page Feel free to add links and other information to the individual page for your talk. You can find your talk ID by going to the [[schedule]] page, following the link to your talk, and noting the two-digit number at the end of the URL. To edit the talk information, follow the instructions at to check out a copy of the repository, edit `2020/info/YOURTALKID.md`, commit, and push your changes. Alternatively, you can e-mail one of the organizers (ex: [sacha@sachachua.com](mailto:sacha@sachachua.com)) and we'd be happy to make the change for you. ### During the conference #### Live presentations If you will be presenting live, Amin Bandali will e-mail you with the link to join the BigBlueButton room for your individual talk. Please keep this link private. Please check in with us at #emacsconf-org on IRC maybe 15 minutes before the approximate time of your talk, or earlier if you're available then. One of the organizers will join you in the individual talk room and confirm your audio/video/screen-sharing setup. We'll probably collect questions in a collaborative pad (URL to be announced). If you have space on your screen, you may want to have the pad open on the side so that you can keep an eye on the section for your talk either as you are presenting or during the time you want to use for questions and answers. When it is time for your talk, Amin will join your room and give you the go-ahead. *Use headsets for live presentations, including questions and answers* > To help reduce echo, if possible please use a headset instead of > external speakers during live presentations including during Q&A. > Headset microphones tend to have some form of noise-cancelling built > into them, which might be helpful for decreasing the ambient noise > captured by the microphone. If you have one, it might be worth > trying using it instead of a laptop's built-in microphone. We will copy the questions from the collaborative pad to the wiki page after the conference, so you can review them when you're available. You can answer via the collaborative pad, or by updating the wiki page or e-mailing us after the conference. For more information about IRC and the Etherpad, check out https://emacsconf.org/2020/ closer to the conference date. #### Pre-recorded presentations If you'd like to be around to answer questions on the day of the conference itself, please check in with us at #emacsconf-org on IRC maybe 15 minutes before the approximate time of your talk, or earlier if you're available then. Since pre-recorded talks might be moved around to help us deal with technical issues, we can tell you more about the exact time on the day itself. We'll probably collect questions in a collaborative pad (URL to be announced) and then copy them to the wiki page after the conference, so you can review the questions while the talk is being played or afterwards when you're available. You can answer via the collaborative pad, or by updating the wiki page or e-mailing us after the conference. You might also want to participate in the conversations at `#emacsconf` on IRC on the day of the conference. For more information about IRC and the Etherpad, check out https://emacsconf.org/2020/ closer to the conference date. ### After the conference Once the recordings have been processed, we will post the recording of your talk and any questions and answers to the individual talk page. If you would like to include additional links or information, please feel free to update the page, or e-mail us and we'd be happy to update it for you. Thank you so much for being part of this!