The Rest of Us in Tech
Webinar Interview Info Sheet
Beta Episodes
(Revised 6/20/2018)
Thank you for volunteering to give a talk! I just wanted to provide some advice and suggestions for how the recording process works before we start. And if you have any questions, please reach out: sarah@restofus.tech.
To pick a day, please go to https://calendly.com/restofusintech/
About The Rest of Us in Tech
Statistics show that the tech industry is over 80% men, and usually they are white, straight, and any other fairly “normative” trait. But what about the rest of the people in tech? Why does it always feel as if no one knows they exist?
The idea for this show came from a few different experiences. First, I love having great conversations with other people in tech. Second, I love hearing about what projects, organizations, and events people are out doing. Finally, I love the idea of being able to share the work of “the rest of us” and increase visibility.
About the Webinar Series
I noticed with conference talks there’s this wide discrepancy between talks that are recorded and published online and talks that aren’t. It widely varies by conference, but it also seems the number of talks by underrepresented groups are vastly smaller. I want to change that number by allowing others to give talks streamed live, then post the recordings online later. By posting these online, people can use them on resumes as well as get more visibility from conferences, meetups, and other events. It will also show that “the rest of us” can deliver just as great talk content.
What I Need From You Before Streaming
I’ll need only a few things from you ahead of time:
- A bio about yourself, like one you might read concerning a speaker at a conference, for instance. (If you need help with this, contact me.)
- The title of your talk, the abstract from it, and an approximate length.
- A list of things you’re going to be involved with in the near future (ex: upcoming conferences, events, meetups, other projects, etc.)
Setting Up Your Recording Space
While slides will be the main thing streamed, it should be assumed that your video will end up in the recording as well. Here’s some ideas on how to prepare your background a bit better:
- Make sure your background isn’t too cluttered with stuff. It makes it hard to focus on the person on screen.
- Don’t have anything out you wouldn’t want the internet to see.
- Try to make sure lighting is in front of you and not behind you. Light behind you casts shadows on the camera, making you more silhouette than person.
- Have some water or other drink handy. You might want it after talking for a bit..
- Tidy yourself up a bit, but you don’t have to be a perfect supermodel. You’re wonderful just as you are!
What to Expect at on the Recording
Note: This is subject to change as it’s in beta and the process hasn’t been ironed out yet.
I will use some combination of talky.io (for your webcam video) and zoom.us (for your webcam and full-screen video capture).
I will want to connect with you about 20 minutes before streaming. This will help us ensure both your and my equipment works. We’ll make sure your slides show up as well as your camera.
When the streaming starts, I’ll do an introduction (video on me) and read your bio. I’ll pass it off to you to do your thing! Treat this as if you were actually giving it to a group of people, even if you can’t necessarily see them. When it’s done, I’ll take back over, close it out, then stop the stream. There will be no live Q&A (yet?).
When it’s over, please stay on as I would like to go over the process and how it worked. (Think like a retrospective.)
Post-Production
Post-production is where all the final things come together before posting online. We won’t do too much since it was live streamed anyway. We might:
- Add in the intro and outro music
- Removing any long pauses or noticeable “ums” or filler words
- Cut any problems if something messed up in the recording.
- Correct any audio level adjustments and filter some background noise.
Thankfully, you don’t have to do much of anything! This takes many hours though, and may cover the course of several days. If you want to listen to the final product before it “airs,” I can let you check it out first.
Final Things
If you mentioned anything, or have online copies of slides, code, diagrams, or anything else, please let me know so I can mention them in video descriptions and on the website.
And please SHARE! Let the world know you were on the show! You are always welcome to share the webinars, retweet our tweets, tweet your own tweets, share the website/YouTube links however you want, and always to reference the show or myself too!
Questions?
I’ll be happy to answer any questions you have, or discuss more about how we want the show to go. I want the show to help make you and your work more visible, so I’d love to know how to do it best.
And thank you! 🙂
Sarah Withee
Email: sarah@restofus.tech
Twitter: @RestOfUsInTech , @geekygirlsarah