From Nervous to Ready: Preparing your First ELT Conference

by Aurore Trouvé

Who doesn’t like a good conference? Glenn Standish wrote about the joys of hosting a conference in Issue 54, but what about those who attend – and those who go to speak?

To me, conferences are the perfect venue for discovering new ideas, connecting with colleagues, and having conversations that stay with you. I often leave feeling overwhelmed but grateful for everything I’ve learned, and ready to share with everyone at my school. However, I never imagined I’d be a conference speaker myself one day.

I was fresh off the DELTA last year, wondering what my next challenge could be, when it dawned on me: what about sharing my passion on a grander scale? The idea frightened me as there is a significant difference between delivering training for teachers you know, and speaking in front of teachers and experts you don’t. Nevertheless, I thought it could be a good way to overcome my stage fright. So, without really thinking about it at the time, I applied to present a workshop at the Eaquals International Conference.

The idea behind this article is to share my experience of the whole process to support anyone who is considering applying to a conference for the first time. For each step, I came up with ideas to improve and work on different aspects of my workshop. I hope they can be useful to you too.

Before the conference

When you apply, you’ll have to choose a title, write an abstract, and write your bio.

First things first, think about what you would like to share with your audience – and keep in mind the conference’s theme, if there is one. It should be something you already feel comfortable with, maybe a topic you feel like you have mastered.

You might have to choose between giving a talk or running a workshop. Have you ever created and presented professional development sessions or workshops for your school? If the answer is yes, then it might feel easier to start with a workshop. Workshops are a good place to start, as they are a natural progression from what you’re used to, and tend to involve fewer people. Talks require finely honed public speaking and presentation skills, which you might already have – but if you don’t, or you don’t feel completely confident with them, go for the workshop option. Do you have something in mind? Good. Time to get writing!

To write the title and the abstract, put yourself in the reader’s shoes. Titles are usually ten words long at most, and the length of the abstract can vary from one conference to another. You want your abstract to appeal to both the selection committee and the conference attendees.
Prepare your talk/workshop by starting to write down what you want to share about the topic. I used a mind map to help me brainstorm and then I expanded the best ideas on paper. The key concepts from that mindmap also helped me organise my abstract. What really guided me was reading abstracts from previous conferences.

To write your bio, think about these questions: Who are you? What are your qualifications? What are you passionate about as a teacher or trainer? Modesty is good, but so too is directness – if you’re hoping to deliver a workshop on teaching Young Learners, it would be good to sell that side of yourself in the bio by mentioning any relevant experience or qualifications.

All set? Hit send!

But wait – before you hit send, go and do something else for at least an hour. When you come back, your eyes will be fresh enough to notice that embarrassing typo in the abstract… All right, now that you’ve corrected it, do actually hit send!

You’ve just received an email and hooray, they’ve chosen your presentation! Now comes my favourite part: creating the presentation itself!

Make sure your slides aren’t too text-dense – keep the writing to a minimum (it’s not easy to listen to someone and read a paragraph of text simultaneously, and at a conference we want the audience to listen!). I find having a large font forces me to keep the text to a minimum, while also ensuring that anyone sitting at the back of the lecture hall will be able to see what I’m showing.

How many slides should you have? Sandy Millin explains in a video how she divided her slides according to time constraints. Essentially, depending on how long you have (let’s say 40 minutes), take 5 minutes out for questions at the end and divide the rest by 2. That’s the number of slides you should have. A forty-minute workshop could stand the inclusion of 16 or 17 slides. Just be careful if you’ve planned a workshop with activities – you’d have to adjust accordingly.

When you feel your presentation is about ready, it’s time for the next stage: practise, check, change, enhance. Give it a trial run. By testing it with a group of teachers, you’ll have an idea of what you need to improve and change. I had to drop slides and modify some activities to fit the timing. If you have the opportunity and can get your participants’ approval, record your practice run. The Keynote speaker, Vinh Giang, recommends reviewing the recording the next day and checking different aspects:

• Close your eyes and listen only to your voice. What do you like? Does anything grate? Are you using pauses for emphasis and intonation appropriately?
• Switch off the sound and just watch. Are you smiling? How do you use body language? Are you fidgeting? Are you rocking back and forth on your heels? Exaggerated or repeated gestures can be distracting for the audience, especially the same hand gestures.
• Transcribe your speech so that you can see how often you use filler words like ‘erm’ and ‘uh’ and ‘sorta like’. If there’s a noticeable number of such expressions, work on getting rid of them.

Practise alone, practise with friends, practise the outline of your talk, practise without your slides. Practice doesn’t make perfect but practice with reflection can get you pretty close!

How do you get more comfortable with public speaking? The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie gives timeless practical strategies to become a more confident and efficient speaker. I found it particularly useful to learn how to use my voice. The second book I read was The Charisma Myth written by Olivia Fox Cabane. Charisma is powerful and it can become a useful quality when facing an audience – and yes, it is something you can develop.

The week before the conference, I had the chance to participate in a course to become a speaker run by Daniel Xerri and Odette Vassallo in Malta. This allowed me to gain more insights into what it takes to become an ELT speaker and bridged the gaps between how I started preparing for the conference, what I had read, and the questions I still had. If you have the possibility to follow a similar course, I’d absolutely encourage you to try it.

The Day of the Presentation

It is difficult not to feel anything but nervous on the big day, but here are a few tips and tricks that could help you feel more relaxed:

• You might think it’s a myth, but meditation does help to reduce stress, improve focus and be more present among other things. Integrating mindfulness into my daily routine was highly beneficial in this situation. If you don’t meditate, you could start with small steps such as box breathing (inhale for four seconds, hold for four seconds, exhale for four seconds, hold for four seconds and repeat this four or five times).
• I learnt this from Fox Cabane’s book. The day before and/or on the day of the conference, try picturing your talk positively: what could happen (maybe your audience will love your insights and participate throughout; your audience might even laugh at your jokes)? Write your ideas down in as much detail as you can. This strategy will help you become more self-confident and, at the same time, reduce your anxiety. And who knows, those things you wrote might just happen.
• Another tool from Fox Cabane is to create a playlist for the energy you’d like to have. In the minutes leading up to the event, listen to this playlist to put you in the right state of mind.
• Visit the room you’ll be speaking in, if possible, and attend a talk there. How much space do you have? Have a look at the equipment.
• While it would be lovely to have a friend or colleague at your event, it’s unlikely they’ll be there. That’s why it’s good to find yourself a conference buddy early in the event, someone you attend talks and workshops with – because if they come to your session, you’ll feel reassured by the presence of at least one friendly face!
• Prepare your links and passwords in advance. Unless you plan on bringing your own laptop with you, this element is key to avoiding adding stress.
• Finally, you’ve practised, trust yourself: you’re ready.

It’s time! Breathe in, let’s go and apply everything you’ve learned! What if something goes wrong? What if you forget what you wanted to say mid-sentence? As Vinh Giang says, making a big deal out of it will make people remember your mistake. So, unless you trip over on the stage, just smoothly move on to the next thing.

Time to Reflect

Before asking other people for feedback, ask yourself some questions to assess your session’s success:

• How did you feel right after?
• Was your talk/workshop tailored to your audience?
• Was your audience engaged throughout?
• Did everything go as planned? If not, what did you do about it?
• Were your voice, pace, and gestures appropriate?

You can now ask your trusted friends for constructive feedback.

Looking back, stepping onto that stage was scary but highly rewarding. It allowed me to share, connect, and grow.

Are you still debating whether to apply to deliver your first talk? Take the leap. Even if you’re not ready now – you soon will be!

Bibliography

Carnegie, D. (2018). Art of Public Speaking: The Original Tool for Improving Public Oration. Clydesdale Press.
Fox Cabane, O. (2013). The Charisma Myth: Master the Art of Personal Magnetism. Portfolio Penguin.
Giang, V. (2024). 3 Steps To Quickly Improve Your Communication Skills. [YouTube short video]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/759ltCNvZNM [Accessed 31 January 2025].
Millin, S. (2022). IATEFL 2021 – How to present at an international conference. [YouTube video]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFTi9lTwor8&t=445s [Accessed 19 January 2025].

Author Biography