For weeks, I had been preparing my presentation. I’d written out my entire story in full, prepared the first draft of my slide deck months ago, and had done a thousand revisions since. Tomorrow was the day. I would be on stage at a WordCamp!

Already nervous for tomorrow, I leave my hotel room to attend the speaker and sponsor dinner to mingle and meet old and new friends. Obviously, conversations with other speakers quickly focus on our presentations. To my surprise, more than one speaker said they’d build their slide deck tomorrow morning, as they were “only speaking in the afternoon”.

Okay. I may have romanticized this memory a tiny bit because I felt guilty for only having my slide deck ready about two weeks before the event. But still…

Fashionably late

I quickly learned that ‘doing last-minute slides’ and not rehearsing talks is common in the WordPress community. Sometimes, it even seems like the more well-known the speaker is, the later they will build their presentation and slide deck. Being extremely late with your presentation and slide deck is fashionable at WordCamps and almost a status symbol. 

At one point, I even heard someone literally say, “Wait, you practiced your talk? What are you, a first-time speaker?!”. 

When everyone says it, you start to believe it’s true. I also started doing the same thing, not properly preparing a talk to be perceived as cool. Spoiler alert: the end result sucked. Big time.

Everyone needs to practice

If you Google ‘public speaking training’, you’ll find a gazillion online and offline courses on improving your public speaking skills. All of these courses have one thing in common: they require you to practice!

And rightfully so, because as the saying goes, “practice makes perfect”. Or, at least, a lot better. That’s not unique for first-time speakers. That’s not unique to people who present in a language different from their native tongue. With every rehearsal, your presentation will get better. You’ll find the passages you don’t know off the top of your head yet, you’ll find the missing image, and you’ll find where the flow of your presentation breaks. 

There’s a lot to be gained from properly preparing your presentation.

Let’s look at TED Talks

TED Talks are considered the ultimate level of public speaking by many. They’re known for their strong storytelling, visual and verbal clarity, focused format, and their focus on ‘ideas worth spreading’. And it’s a well-deserved and carefully curated reputation.

A separate section of the TEDx speaker manual focuses on rehearsals, and there is a requirement to practice at least once on the final stage. Every speaker also has a coach who helps them refine the content and the delivery of their talk. And the only way this coach can help you is if you… Exactly, if you rehearse in front of them.

Does this make TED speakers newbies? On the contrary, this is why they’re professionals. This is why TED talks are viewed millions of times. These speakers know what they’re doing and have rehearsed every word, every gesture, and every pause. A TED talk is up to 18 minutes of pure professionalism. And that should be considered the standard at WordCamps!

The role of WordCamps

Preparing a talk the TED way takes time. You need time to develop your idea, you need time to write your pitch, you need time to write your outline and script, and you need time to rehearse. As most speakers in the WordPress community don’t do public speaking as their full-time job, they’ll have to carve time out of their week to prepare. And that takes time.

Let’s be optimistic and say that every phase takes three weeks to complete on average. That means we need around four times three weeks, so 12 weeks, to prepare properly for a talk. Now let’s be optimistic and say that the first three weeks are spent before being accepted as a speaker. That leaves us with nine weeks to prepare a talk from the moment it was accepted at a WordCamp. 

Let’s look at a few examples.

WordCamp Toulouse is held on May 23rd, 2025. They published their call for speakers on March 7th and closed it on April 11th, 2025. Even if they had informed all speakers on the day the call closed, speakers would have had only six weeks to prepare.

WordCamp Jinja is held on May 24th and 25th, 2025. They published their call for speakers nice and early, on February 17th, 2025. However, the deadline for speaker submissions was April 19th, 2025. So even if they had informed all selected speakers on the day the call closed, speakers would have had less than five weeks.

Flagship event WordCamp Europe will be held from 5 to 7 June 2025. Their call for speakers opened on 11 November 2024 and closed on 31 January 2025. I got my speaking confirmation on February 27th, 2025. That’s 14 weeks to prepare! Well done, WCEU! 

WordCamp Montreal is scheduled for 26 and 27 June 2025. It published its call for speakers on March 29, 2025. At this moment of writing, the call for speakers is still open. This means that if they were to inform their speakers today, they’d have just five weeks to prepare.

Flagship event WordCamp US will be held from 26 to 29 August 2025. Their call for speakers opened on May 19, 2025. It closes on June 20, 2025, which is just 9 weeks and 5 days prior to the event. To give speakers their nine weeks of prep time, they must inform the accepted speakers by June 25, 2025. Let’s hope they’ll make that!

Let’s do better!

Offering higher-quality talks at our events is one of the ways we can improve our events’ reputation and draw new audiences. But in order to get there, we’ll need to improve the way we view our speakers. We should collectively start celebrating speakers who really put in effort and come to the stage well-prepared. 

We should also improve the timeline we give our speakers by opening and closing our calls for speakers sooner. Let’s ensure we give speakers at least nine weeks of prep time, offer them help in preparing, and celebrate those who rehearse.

I hereby promise never to speak on a WordCamp stage again without having properly rehearsed my talk. Will you join me?