A free chapter for anyone who has ever wanted to give a conference talk but had no idea what to talk about. Ten practical techniques for generating ideas, shaping them, and turning them into something worth standing up for.
You want to speak at a conference, but you have nothing to say
It is one of the most common reasons capable people never give a talk.
They have been in their industry for years. They have solved real problems, built real things, navigated real challenges. They have genuine insight, earned the hard way. And yet the moment the conference call for speakers opens — or someone casually asks whether they'd ever consider presenting — the same quiet conclusion arrives.
I don't have anything new to say. People already know this stuff. Someone better qualified should do it.
This is the Curse of Knowledge at work, and it is almost always wrong. You have a unique voice, a unique perspective, a unique set of stories. Nobody else has lived your career, encountered the people you have encountered, solved the problems you have solved in the way you have solved them. The question is rarely whether you have anything worth saying. The question is how to find it.
That is what this guide is for.
Editor's note — where this sits
This guide sits in the Wiring layer of the Idea to Value system — the layer concerned with how communication moves between people. It is a complete chapter taken from Zero to Keynote, the full book on giving talks that actually land. Think of it as the entry point: generating the idea is the first step of the journey the book walks through from zero to standing on a stage.
The Idea to Value system — five layers
The mapDirection & orientationWhere we're going and where we are
The physicsHow ideas move to valueThe system that turns ideas into value
The wiringCommunication & meaningThis guide
The engineHuman creative intelligenceThe full range of intelligence applied to work
The flywheelHabits & compounding practiceSmall actions that build lasting capability
What's actually in the chapter
Ten techniques for generating talk ideas — some obvious, some sneakily effective. A practical toolkit for anyone who has wanted to speak but can't find the topic, or has a rough topic and can't find the angle, or has plenty of ideas and can't work out which one is actually a talk.
The chapter covers how to build a commonplace book — the practice of capturing ideas, observations, and stories as they arrive, so you're never starting from nothing. How to use the challenge-and-wait technique to let your subconscious do the heavy work. How to mine your own experience for the stories you've discounted as obvious. How to treat industry trends, change, and failed experiments as talk fuel. How to build talks from alternatives to the mainstream view. How to use beginner's mind as a source of fresh insight. And how to turn the things the experts discount into some of the most memorable talks in your industry.
Several of the techniques come with stories from the field — including the one about the self-declared "No.1 expert in the country" who interrupted a talk to call the speaker an idiot, and how that moment became the seed of a longer argument two years later.
The ten techniques
The wiringTen ways to find the talk that's in you. Use one, a few, or all of them — whichever unlocks the idea worth standing up for.
01 · The hopper
Build a commonplace book — a running repository of observations, stories, and seeds.
02 · Mash
Combine unrelated ideas to find the angle that hasn't been done before.
03 · Challenge & wait
Set your subconscious a question and let it do the real work.
04 · Observations
Watch people, situations, and outcomes — most talks start here.
05 · Your own experience
Mine the things you've discounted as obvious — they rarely are.
06 · Industry trends
What's moving in your field — and what view of it is yours alone.
07 · Change
What's shifted around you or inside you — and what you've learned from it.
08 · The future
Paint a possible future — done well, these talks are some of the most memorable.
09 · Alternatives
Other ways work — and the talks about them often land hardest.
10 · What experts discount
What the established voices dismiss is often exactly what the audience needs to hear.
Who this is for
Anyone who has ever been asked to speak and panicked. The honest answer to "would you like to give a talk?" is usually yes. The honest answer to "what would you talk about?" is usually a long pause. This guide fills that pause.
Aspiring first-time speakers. People who want to get into speaking but feel under-qualified. The guide directly addresses the Curse of Knowledge and why the "I have nothing to say" instinct is almost always wrong.
Experienced speakers looking for the next idea. People who have given enough talks to know the hardest part isn't the delivery — it's finding the next thing worth saying. The commonplace book practice alone is worth the download.
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Ten idea-generation techniques
Wiring layer
An honest note about this chapter
This is one chapter, taken directly from the book Zero to Keynote.
The chapter is complete in its own right — you can read it, apply every technique inside it, and generate real talks without ever opening the book. It's not a tease. It's a proper working chapter released freely for anyone who wants it.
What it doesn't cover is everything that comes after you have the idea. Writing the talk itself. Structuring it. Rehearsing it. Dealing with nerves. Landing the submission. Actually standing on the stage and delivering with confidence. That's what the rest of the book is for.
If the idea-generation part is all you needed, the chapter is yours — no further purchase required. If you finish it and want the rest of the journey, the book is where it lives.
If this chapter lands with you
The full book
Zero to Keynote
The complete guide to giving talks that land
The wiring
This chapter is the first step. The book covers everything that comes after — how to structure the talk, rehearse it, deal with nerves, land the submission, and stand on stage with confidence. Practical, warm, earned from years of speaking at conferences around the world.
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Print £12.99
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Related work
If you've ever attended a conference and wondered whether you'd make it through the evening socials, the attendee companion to this guide goes next:
→ How to Survive a Conference — the light, practical field guide to getting the most out of an event from the audience side. The attendee version of everything Zero to Keynote covers from the speaker side.