Excellent, you're giving a talk at the Golang Amsterdam meetup. The community needs people like you!
Talks can be about all kinds of topics, as long as they are related to Go. Perhaps about some thing about Go you (dis)like. A library or program you wrote in Go. Or your experience switching from another language to Go (or vice versa!). How to do a certain thing in Go, like benchmarking, debugging, etc.
We always try to keep the meetup interesting for both beginners and advanced Go users. Beginners may have barely written an "hello world", advanced users may be debugging performance problems deep in the runtime. Keep this in mind for your talk. Don't assume everyone will know as much as you. But you don't have to be a Go expert. The story of a beginner in Go can be very valuable!
A typical meetup has a few short lightning talks (5-10 minutes), and one or two longer talks (20-30 minutes). If your talk does not fit in this category, don't worry, we can always work out an interesting schedule.
We typically show a timer for the speaker. It shows the number of minutes you have been talking. The background changes from green to red the more you get to your allotted time. Don't worry if you go over/under time though. Don't rush your talk. It is typically best to have a topic that you can skip if really needed. Of course it helps to practice with the timer. See timer.html, make sure your device doesn't go into sleep mode!
Speakers often initially prepare more content than fits in the time period. A 5 minute lightning talk really is very short. With 1 minute per slide, that amounts to 5 slides. This also means it's relatively easy to get started with speaking with a lightning talk. Just think of a topic and you've filled 5 minutes before you know it. The challenge is usually to not stretch it beyond 10 minutes!
People will have questions about your talk. It's best to leave a few minutes for questions after a lightning talk, and about 5 minutes for full talks.
Most speakers prepare slides. Showing some actual Go code is appreciated too of course. Be sure to send your slides at least one day before the event to the main event organizer. It is typically the person listed first as organizer for an event. If you only have slides, and don't need to show/edit/compile code, you can use the organizer's laptop during the event. The organizer will have everything ready for you. This makes switching speakers quick and effortless. If you do need your own laptop, this is fine too. Please test before the event starts that your laptop can connect to the projector properly, so switching speakers is smooth.
Please arrive early at the event! At least one organizer will always be earlier than the official "doors open" time, to set up. By being early, you can check the equipment. If issues pop up, you'll have time to fix them. And we always enjoy having a chat with the speakers!
Keep in mind that last minute issues may change the order of the talks. If you would like to go first, last or middle, please let the organizers know!
Giving talks can be scary. Especially the first time. Some advice: practice, practice, practice. But don't memorize exactly what you're going to say: it's hard to recover if you forget what you want to say exactly (which can happen with a bit of healthy stress). It's easier to put the main points on each slide and be able to talk about those points. Don't put too much text in there: no full sentences, just keywords are best.
Recording yourself is also a great way to see what you can improve. It may be awkward, but you'll catch your "ehms" and mannerisms, though it still takes practice to get rid of them.
Most of all: your speaking doesn't have to be perfect. We're all friendly fellow gophers interested in what you have to say.
There are tons of resources available online with advice on speaking in public. Many have gone before you! If you would like help/advice/practice, feel free to contact the organizers.
Please fill up the form I want to be a host and we will reach out to you as soon as possible.