Tech Events
Publicspeaking
Technology
Women In Tech

So You Want to Speak at a Big Tech Event

Kavisha Mathur

5 min readJul 17, 2026

Everyone wants the Google I/O badge. Or the GHC stage. Or their name on a DevFest banner. Very few people want to do the boring, unglamorous work that actually gets you there.

If you are looking for the frameworks, resources, places to apply, topics to speak on etc and want to skip reading then here are all the resources!
Do check this out: https://chaotech.in/seattostage

Here’s the real order of operations

1. Start with a CFP, not an invite

Nobody is going to discover you. You have to submit.

Most big-name conferences look impossible to crack, but almost all of them have a Call for Proposals that’s open to literally anyone.

GDG chapters, DevFests, community meetups, regional summits these run CFPs constantly, and most get way fewer submissions than you’d expect. People assume it’s invite-only and self-select out.

I realised this after a few of my talks myself. I was lucky to be getting opportunities from my 1st or 2nd degree connections, but when those started thinning out. I came across CFPs.

Write the CFP like you’d explain it to a friend, not like you’re writing a resume. Title that says what the talk actually does. Description that answers “why should I sit through this.” Learning objectives that are concrete, not “attendees will learn about X”say what they’ll be able to do after.

Submit to five things. Get rejected by three. That’s normal, not a sign you’re not good enough.

I also try to submit multiple CFPs to conferences, because the chances maximise and you can do it too. Unless there is a cap from the organisers.

But keep atleast 3–5 handy that can be published to multiple places.

Where to actually find CFPs:

Sessionize — the biggest CFP aggregator, filter by tech/region, most global conferences list here
Papercall.io — another CFP hub, good for smaller/niche conferences
GDG Community events page — every local GDG/DevFest CFP, searchable by city
Google DevFest hub — see when DevFest season opens each year (usually starts around October)

2. Get into communities before you need them

CFPs get easier when people already know your name.

GDG chapters, Patchamomma-style community programs, local meetup circuits — these aren’t consolation prizes for the “real” stages. They’re the on-ramp. You speak at a 30-person meetup, someone from a bigger event is in the room, and suddenly your next CFP isn’t a cold submission.

Don’t wait to be invited into these spaces. RSVP. Show up. Volunteer to help run one if you have to. Community visibility compounds — it’s slow, then it’s fast.

I have been lucky that a lot of my opportunities have come as a second order effect of speaking or contributing or attending tech events.

You meet someone, talk to them and bam they could get you an opportunity.

Get Kavisha Mathur’s stories in your inbox

Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.

Remember me for faster sign in

Where to find these communities:

GDG chapters directory — find your city’s chapter, RSVP to events, ask how to get involved
Women Techmakers — community + speaking programs specifically for women in tech
Google Developer Experts program — longer-term, but worth knowing the ladder exists
Local meetup.com groups tagged “developer” or “tech” in your city — smaller, but this is exactly where you get your first 10-minute slot

3. Solve a real problem before you pitch a talk

The best talks don’t start as talks. They start as a problem you got annoyed enough to fix.

Example: I have a friend, who is passionately building for the blind and has a really cool IOT gadget. He has been building on his solution continuously and keeps getting the right resources and people, every event and hackathon he goes to.

If you’re building a talk from “what’s trending” instead of “what actually frustrated me,” it shows. Audiences can tell when a speaker is regurgitating a trend versus reporting from the field. Pick the friction you’ve actually felt — a bug that ate your week, a workaround you had to hack together, a gap in the tooling nobody talks about. That’s your talk.

4. Ship something before you explain it

A rough working demo beats a polished slide deck every time.

You don’t need a finished product. You need proof that the idea survived contact with reality. Build the MVP first, then build the talk around what you learned making it — including what broke.

On the Grace Hopper Stage, I gave a masterclass and Ihad a rough demo for the cybersecurity problem I was trying to teach people.

(The demo did not work because of technical glitches, but hey, atleast I had one)

5. Lead with impact, not your tech stack

Nobody remembers your dependency list. They remember who the thing was for and why it mattered.

Your stack is a footnote, not the headline. Structure your pitch and your talk around: who has this problem, what it costs them, and how your thing changes that. The tools come up naturally once people care about the “why.”

ADD AN INTRODUCTORY SLIDE! I skipped this so much. I would wonder why someone would care who I am, or where I am from, and what have I done so far. But slowly when I built a brand and showed people that I was willing to put in the work on and off stage, I realised that this impact matters.
You need to show who you are, and why you care about your voice being heard!

6. Keep a 60-second version ready, always

You will get pitching windows you didn’t plan for — a hallway conversation, a feedback round, a random DM. If your only version of the pitch is the 20-minute one, you’ll fumble the 60-second one when it counts.

Write the short version. Rehearse it out loud, not just in your head. It should sound like a person talking, not a slide read aloud.

My introduction is ever evolving and often broken, because when you get the opportunity to pitch, it often comes out of random.

7. Get feedback before you submit, not after you’re rejected

DM people who’ve already spoken at the kind of event you’re targeting. Most speakers are genuinely happy to read a pitch and tell you where it’s weak — but almost nobody asks.

One honest read from someone who’s been rejected and accepted a dozen times will save you three CFP cycles of guessing.

I get DMs from people even submitting their answers of who they are, why the deserve it, etc. Not just the technical answers.

None of this is a hack. It’s just the unglamorous sequence: build community presence → solve something real → ship proof → pitch the impact → keep asking for feedback → repeat.

The stage is a byproduct. The work underneath it is the actual skill.

Everyone has different reasons to be on the stage. Some its to build confidence, some its to share something they are proud of working on. Some its dressing up and showing up. Mine is ALL 3 :) You could have more reasons.
If you are looking for the frameworks, resources, places to apply, topics to speak on etc
Do check this out: https://chaotech.in/seattostage

Happy Building!