How to prepare and write a tech conference talk
There are a few things which frame my experience and capabilities in preparing > and giving conf talks: I’m an introvert. I really love public speaking. But I get ~extremely~ nervous beforehand (more > on that and how I (try to) deal with it in part 2). I’m not a software developer. With one exception, my talks are usually not > technical, meaning that they usually center around human-related topics. This > also means that there are some things you may be confronted with that I don’t > have to deal with, like working demos, displaying code samples, or similar. Also, I’m a white, cis, able-bodied woman who doesn’t have to do care work, so > I usually have more or less enough time on hand for my preparation.
Comprehensive list.
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Renting Conference Venues and the Mistakes I Made.
“As the banquet manager began rearranging our carefully laid out AV equipment 30 minutes before the doors opened I knew we had made a major mistake in picking the venue.”
I found myself in the situation above not so long ago and it was certainly not fun. Watching our plans and run of show ripped apart broke the heart. It was one incident of many in what was a fraught relationship with the venue. The warning signs were there and a combination of enthusiasm and limited choice landed us with a venue we probably should have passed on. So to avoid such a traumatizing experience here are a few tips I have picked up over the years to help find you that perfect spot.
Big Corporations = Big Paperwork
The venue may be highly reputable but keep an eye out for a truckload of rules and regulations. I have dealt with some major venues and the larger they are the more paperwork there is. An example of this is when I worked with a large hotel chain and by the end of it we needed a team of legals to sift through all the paperwork. Sometimes the smaller lesser known venue is the way to go, especially if you are just starting out.
Remember, you’re the customer!
Unfortunately, with the increase of events, conference space is scarce on the ground and at times it feels like you are the vendor and not the customer. Try and keep the venue working for you and make sure to have plenty of backup options and let the venue know you have them. In the past, I have arrived with printed quotes from competitor venues and I am never shy to show them. If the venue has a bar and you expect your attendees to make use of it then you should ask for a discount. A quick calculation can tell you how much they will make and in most cases a percentage can be deducted from the rental fee. At a recent event, I presented bar revenue stats from previous events and managed to have the entire venue rental fee written off so having a track record certainly helps in this respect.
Hidden Costs
Ever got stuck with €3,500 electricity bill after an event? I did, it wasn’t fun. By failing to read some fine print I ended up on the hook for the cost of lighting the floodlights in the very large venue car park all week. Lesson learned in a big way. Be aware of what is and what is not included in your rental fee, who is liable for security costs, how many bar staff are available, does the venue fee cover cleaning, who does the cleaning, can I hire my own or do I have to use venues, the list goes on and on and on.
Exit Clause
I have spent many an hour waiting for the staging to be cleared out of a venue, a lot of venues have strict penalty clauses so make sure you are on-site and not in the bar toasting your events success. It can be a real anti-climax packing everything up but it’s better than paying for an extra day rental. Make sure your third-party vendors are aware of your timelines and insert clauses where required to cover your liability.
AV OK?
Acoustics are very important and one of the first things on your checklist, there are few things worse than not being able to hear the speaker and it’s a surefire way of losing the room quickly. When I look at a venue I always ring round to the local AV firm as they are normally the best source of information and well worth a call as they have probably kitted out the room in the past. If the venue is providing the equipment double check its quality and add to it if required.
Think Big, Plan Small
We all think we will sell out, unfortunately, according to recent stats less than a quarter of events come close to full capacity. It is a lot better to have a sold out event rather than a half empty venue, all you have to do is look at the most recent Olympics to get the picture. Ambience is an important factor for production so try and err on the side of caution.
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10 Things you can do to Foster Diversity and Inclusion at Your Next Tech Event.
The title says it all. Some great tips for being more inclusive.
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What I learned speaking at events as a CEO for the past 2.5 years
Of all the channels we’ve tried, I’ve found speaking at events and conferences to have been the most interesting experiment for us. While speaking wasn’t the biggest source of sales for us last year (we saw 47% of our sales come from inbound marketing, while 38% came from speaking opportunities) — it’s where our greatest learnings have come for me as a CEO, and for our business.
I’ve always wondered about this, and it’s fascinating to see Claire quantify it like this. Also, it’s always nice to see a Tito event linked as an example!
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Sponsorship Sales Sluggish? Seven Suggestions for Success
At Tito I speak with conference organisers every day and one of the main talking points is sponsorship sales. Be it a well established tech event or a one off charity function, get a big sponsorship client on-board early on and you can ride the momentum all the way till opening day. Get it wrong and you’ll be flying home cattle class with nothing but shattered dreams and a suitcase full of unused lanyards. With that in mind here are a few tips I have picked up over the years that will help you land that perfect patron.
1. No más to PDFs
For my mind placing a sponsorship PDF on your site does not set the pulse racing nor engage the prospect. It feels impersonal and gives me the vibe you are not willing to go the extra mile. Same goes for embedded forms where the user must fill out a form like a regular Joe. Your potential sponsor is a VIP. Treat them as such by publishing the name and email of your sponsorship lead, a good example of this can be found here from the team behind Voxburner and the successful YMS conference series.
2. Get me a real doctor
Sponsorship sales is a job for the grown ups. Handing over prospects to junior staff will lead to nothing more than a burned lead list. I have found there is a certain level of experience required to speak with C-level type prospects so organisers should be hitting the phones and stalking LinkedIn profiles. Only professional sadists enjoy making cold calls but unfortunately it is part and parcel of running a successful event. If you are expecting the sponsor to open the cheque book then the organisers should be directly involved. Embrace the challenge, it is only going to make you a stronger person, plus you’ll finally appreciate Glengarry Glen Ross.
3. You can have any color, as long as it’s black
Perusing the sponsorship landing page should be a stress free experience so try and keep the sponsorship options nice and simple. I get confused when I see lists of package levels from platinum level, gold level all the way down to pig iron level. By curating your options the sponsor can focus on the core offerings of your conference. Ideally you will have a tonne of secret add-ons that personalize the package and make the sponsor feel like a million bucks.
4. Logo on your website, no dice
Following on from the above, it is time to get creative with how the sponsors interact with your attendees. Banging a logo on your event website is great but for me I am interested in something more. Think how your sponsor can engage with the attendee, preferably by getting their product/service in a real use case. It conveys a sense of legitimacy and character for your sponsors rather than the in your face hard sell some organisers pitch sponsors at. Heroku pulled this off with great success very effectively by gifting credit to attendees to add to their accounts, whether they were existing customers or not.
5. When it comes to data analysis, I Excel
For organisers with a couple events under their belt a bank of attendee data is there to be analysed. There is no need to be overly clever, I will always be interested in the standard metrics such as demographics, social media footprint and potential reach. Testimonials of previous sponsors alongside ROI stats goes a long way to sealing the deal. The organisers at NEXT Conference layout wonderful visuals which sum up their data and who their attendees are.
6. It’s cool to be in-kind
Sponsorship is not always all about a cash injection or giveaway. Your typical conference involves an army of third party vendors and there may be a cross over of target markets well worth exploring. With Tito I am always open to discussing sponsorship opportunities and find it a cost efficient marketing play. It also means I can support fantastic community led conferences that need a helping hand, same too goes for charities.
7. Noah’s Arcade presents Wayne’s World
Quality not quantity is the mantra here. Although it may hurt your pockets in the short term it will serve you well in the long run. Your sponsors have to share common interests with the attendees otherwise they both lose out. Common sense yes but a mistake that is made time and again by organisers.
Karl McCarthy - Tito, Head of Expansion
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How to: Zapier Integration
In a follow-up to our post earlier this month on using webhooks to push information to Slack, here’s a way to share data with over 500 other apps using Zapier.
For those unfamiliar with Zapier, it’s a third party service that moves data from one app to another. It can be used for tasks such as copying data to a spreadsheet, populating a mailing list, or updating your CRM.
Zapier’s integrations are called ‘Zaps’ and are made up of a Trigger, and one or more Actions or Searches.
A note from Zapier’s documentation: Zaps do not import or export old data (they only operate on new items created after the Zap is enabled). Zaps are also not kept in sync (“two way syncing”) after the Zap is triggered.
As you would imagine, Zapier is a paid service, although depending on your requirements you might be able to use their free plan. More information on costs here: https://zapier.com/pricing/
Example
In this example we’re going to create (or update) contacts in HubSpot. HubSpot is a popular marketing and sales platform, and its CRM is free to use.
What you’ll need
- A Tito account with an event already set-up with at least one available ticket
- A HubSpot account, you can sign up here
- A Zapier account, you can sign up here
Note: In order to set-up the integration we’ll need to process a ticket in Tito. In order to do this without upsetting your numbers and incurring any charges you should set your Tito event to Test Mode (Customize > Test Mode > Enable Test Mode for the whole event). For paid tickets in test mode, if you have a Stripe account connected, you can use a test credit card to process the order:
Card number: 4242 4242 4242 4242
Expiry date: 01/2020
CVV: 123
Create a Zapier integration
Step 1.
If you haven’t already, create an account on Zapier, or log into your existing account
Step 2.
On your Zapier dashboard, click “MAKE A ZAP” at the top of the screen
Step 3.
Choose a Trigger App: In the searchbar, type “webhooks” and select “Webhooks by Zapier”
Step 4.
Choose a Trigger: select “Catch Hook” then “Save + Continue”
Step 5.
Pick off a Child Key: you can skip this, just click “Continue”
Step 6.
Test this Step: copy the generated URL to the clipboard
Step 7.
Create an Endpoint: Switch to your event in Tito. Go to “Customize > Webhooks” and click “Add New Endpoint”
Step 8.
Specify Endpoint and Actions: paste the Zapier URL into “Endpoint URL”, and deselect all the actions and just reselect “registration.finished”. Click “Save”.
Step 9.
Jump back to Zapier and click “OK, I did this” and you’ll see the message “Looking for the hook, this might take a sec…”
Step 10.
Jump back to Tito and place an order for the event. For paid tickets, if you are in Test Mode you can use the Stripe test card: 4242 4242 4242 4242 Exp. 01/20 CVV 123
Step 11.
Jump back to Zapier and you should see the “Test Successful!” message. Click “Continue”. If the hook times out, just rerun it and place another order in Tito.
Step 12.
Choose an Action App: search for “HubSpot” and you get two options “HubSpot” or “HubSpot CRM” — select “HubSpot”
Step 13.
Select HubSpot Action: choose the “Create or Update Contact” action. Click “Save + Continue”.
Step 14.
Select HubSpot Account: connect your HubSpot account to Zapier
Step 15.
Set up HubSpot or Update Contact: Here you map the fields, so the first one would be “Contact Email” mapped to “Email”. Map all the fields you need. If fields are missing then you’ll need to set them up in Tito, place another order and re-run the Test Step in “Catch Hook” so they are made available. When you’ve mapped the fields, click “Continue”
Step 16.
Test HubSpot: click “Create & Continue”
Step 17.
You should see “Test Successful!” 🎉
Step 18.
Click “Finish”, name your Zap and switch it on.
Step 19.
You can jump into HubSpot and see the test contact that was created.
Getting attendee data into Zapier is a little trickier, but I’ll do a follow-up post on this soon.
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The Tito Profile Series, Volume 1, Interview 1: Marc Thiele
As our customer base grows, it is becoming very clear to us that our customers have a lot to share with each other (and everyone else) about their approach to building events, business and improving their communities.
To celebrate this and to share the fruits of any insight from these interesting folks, we’re running a short interview series of some interesting Tito customers. We have commissioned an initial run of 6 interviews by Aoife Reaper-Reynolds, and we’ll be publishing them here over the next few weeks.
The first interview is with Marc Thiele, who became a very early Tito customer a few years ago. Marc’s conference “beyond tellerrand”, has gone from strength to strength not only to achieve a solid reputation in the design community, but has become a successful business in its own right for Marc.
We’re excited about launching this profile series, and we hope that you enjoy it and find the profiles valuable.
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Posting new registrations to Slack
Slack is a messaging app for teams. We love it here at Tito (I’m sure many of you do too) and it forms an integral part of both our internal and external communication.
Using our webhooks, it’s super simple to post to a Slack channel whenever someone registers for your event. Just follow the steps below:
Step 1.
Jump into Slack and select “Apps & integrations” from the main menu.
Step 2.
From the App Directory, type and select “Incoming WebHooks”.
Step 3.
On the Incoming WebHooks page, select “Add configuration”.
Step 4.
Choose an existing channel, or create a new channel to post to, and click “Add Incoming WebHooks integration”.
Step 5.
Scroll down to the Integration Settings and fill in the relevant information. Here are some suggested settings:
Descriptive Label: A bot to post new Tito registrations from FriendsConf
Customize Name: FriendsConf
Customize Icon: download a Tito icon here
Click “Save Settings”, and finally click on the “Copy URL” link to copy the Webhook URL.
Step 6.
Jump into Tito, and into your event.
Step 7.
Go to Customize > Webhooks and click on “Add New Endpoint”.
Step 8.
Paste your Slack Webhook URL into the “Endpoint URL” field, and deselect all of the Included Actions, then reselect “registration.finished”, and click “Save”.
Step 9.
You’re all done! You can put your event into Test Mode (Customize > Test Mode > Enable Test Mode for the whole event) and place a registration to test the integration.
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Tito WWDC
If you’re in and around the SF area during the week of WWDC this year, be sure to check out some of the awesome fringe events. Tickets to AltConf and Layers are still available.
In Apple’s words:
In addition to WWDC, a variety of other exciting developer events will take place throughout the week in San Francisco. Follow the links below to find even more opportunities for learning, fun, and networking.
It’s our particular delight that 4/5 of those links eventually lead to Tito. <3 Thanks to Rob, Jessie, Jim and John for choosing Tito!
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Downtime Incident Report, March 25 2016
This morning at 5am, Tito became unavailable for all customers. We were made aware of this at around 8am, investigated, pushed an update and resolved the issue by 8:45am.
As a service that has enjoyed 100% uptime in the last six months (and 99.99% uptime in the last year), this was very frustrating. We have had outages in the past that were out of our control, where our downtime was caused by a third-party service (along with many others), but this time it was due to a configuration issue on our end.
The background
In 2014, one of our caching (redis) servers went offline for maintenance and we didn’t have auto-failover. Since then, we implemented a master-slave redis setup with auto-failover via Amazon’s Elasticache service.
What happened?
For both their redis and memcached offerings on Elasticache, Amazon offer a “master” DNS endpoint that gets updated automatically if there is a failover event. Tito is set up to use that master or “Configuration endpoint” for memcached, but the redis setup looks slightly different. When it was set up originally, our assumption was that the write master endpoint would stay the same in the event of a failover. Unfortunately, we failed to realise at the time that Elasticache provides a “Primary Endpoint”, and pointed Tito’s redis configuration to the write master.
At 5am this morning, Elasticache initiated a failover event that resulted in the write master being replaced by the read slave, the slave being promoted to write master, and the old master being replaced with a new slave. Since Tito was pointing to the old master, which was now a read-only slave, any attempts to write failed, causing the downtime.
Updating Tito to use the “Primary endpoint” for redis solved the issue.
What steps are we taking?
There were two main issues here.
1) The configuration issue itself 2) The three hour response time
For the issue itself, Tito is now pointing to the correct endpoint, and should a failover event occur in the future, there would be minimal, if any, downtime.
For the second issue, we were lucky in a way that this happened at 5am, which is the quietest time of day for us, and usually the time we run any database-related patches or restarts.
As Tito grows, it will become more manageable for us to detect and address issues like these to the point that they go mostly unnoticed. In this case, 3 hours is disappointing, but hopefully acceptable given our six month track record.
We’ve worked hard to ensure that Tito is a solid platform and that when things do go wrong, that we have planned for it and configured for it. Unfortunately this time, our configuration let us down.
If you have any questions about any of this, please feel free to send them to [email protected].
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