Gary Hockin had been working on a book for anyone out there looking to share their experience or ideas at a tech conference but didn't end up finishing it: "Conference Speaking for Everyone". He did want to share some of the content from the book to at least help would-be speakers deal with one of the main parts of conference speaking: Submitting to a Call for Papers.

What even is this? This is a full chapter from my started-but-never-finished book called Conference Speaking for Everyone. I’m posting this finished single chapter that’s been sitting on my laptop for nearly a year to a) Get some feedback and hopefully some impetus to finish the book, and b) Put what I hope is some useful information into the hands of the people who need it.

In the example chapter he covers topics like:

• how speakers are accepted to speak at a conference
• what kind of topics you could potentially speak about
• tips for writing session abstracts/summaries

He finishes up the chapter with a mention of expenses around the speaking (if selected). The policies from conference to conference vary, so he recommends being sure you completely understand them before agreeing to speak.