Zig SHOWTIME is a live-streamed show that airs on Twitch where (mostly) members of the Zig community present on a topic and take questions from the viewers. Every episode features two speakers.
Link to the first episode.
Here you can read more about the concept.
From your point of view, speaking should be an activity that you choose to perform for enjoyment, personal growth or a mix of the two.
We often hear that becoming a better communicator is an important "soft skill" to have, but it's rarely the case that companies really support that effort. Speaking at events like Zig SHOWTIME can really help.
From the point of view of the community, we need to make it easier for people
interested in Zig to be excited and learn more about the language.
Zig SHOWTIME is an opportunity to have fun during the live stream,
but also create something useful thanks to the fact that
all talks are archived on YouTube.
If you're not an experienced speaker, chances are that your estimate of your own speaking ability is imprecise. People tend to stress over their flaws and underestimate their strenghts much more than the public usually does.
As the organizer of the show, I'm happy to have new speakers present even (and especially) if they're not at the peak of their public speaking ability. To become a better speaker you need experience, and I'd be happy to support your growth if that means that as you improve, you will also give better talks in this show. In other words, from my point of view it's a rational investment.
If you feel you would not be accepted by the public on the grounds of not being a native speaker / gender / sexual orientation / race / ..., rest assured that the Zig community is welcoming to all kinds of people, and I'll be present throughout the whole presentation.
To be a speaker first of all you need to have a pair of headphones an a decent microphone. The need for a good mic is self-evident, while the need for headphones (earbuds or any non-speaker device) is because during the Q&A part of your talk you will need to hear the question being posed to you without producing audio feedback and the usual noises that you can find in company meetings.
While not strictly mandatory, it's also recommended to have a webcam of some sort (some speakers have already used their phones for that purpose in the past) so that the public can see your face, especially during the Q&A. If you don't want to share your face, or you don't have a webcam, we can definitely find an alternative solution.
Finally, you will probably share slides or some code. For that you will need a connection that can support that video stream. As of now, we're using https://laplace.madeby.monster/.
Clearly Zig SHOWTIME focuses on talks around Zig, but we're also open to talks about topics that are adjacent to Zig, like {systems, embedded, low-level} programming, WebAssembly, just to name a few. If it's something that's worth knowing for a member of the Zig community, we want to hear about it.
As for Zig-specific topics, we are interested in learning about your Zig project, be it a game, an application, a library, or even a PR that you sent to the main project. On top of that we also don't mind talks that explain some of the basics, like stack vs heap, how manual memory management works, etc.
There's also room for other less-conventional topics or formats (e.g. livecoding). I only ask that you try to package your talk in a 20-minute sesson (30 at most). If you want to tackle a problem that requires more time, please break it down into two separate talks. We love returning speakers, while — as you can imagine — people's attention spans are farily narrow, especially when watching content on a screen.
Fill the form linked at the bottom of this page. As soon as I can, I will get in contact with you to schedule your talk. In the Google form you will be asked for your availability on either Saturday or Sunday at varying times. These are just indicative times, when it will come to schedule your talk I will work with you to make sure we can find a date and time that works for you (and the other speaker).
The show doesn't air always at the same time. We change it depending on the needs of the speakers.