Melinda Seckington
Speaker Coaching + Employee Evangelism + Workshop Facilitator | Founder at Learn Build Share
London, United Kingdom
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Melinda is an engineering leader and conference speaker with over 10 years experience of working with and managing teams of developers & managers and conference speaking. Since 2014, she has helped engineers, designers and product managers with their public speaking skills, through speaker coaching, workshops and talks about public speaking. She also works together with engineering leaders and engineering managers on how to build up internal employee evangelism & culture within their teams.
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Disney Driven Development
What can tech teams learn from a theme park? More than you might think. Disney is known for crafting magical experiences: not just in their parks, but in the way they approach design, storytelling, and creating spaces where people feel valued and inspired.
In this talk, I’ll share lessons from Disney that we can apply to our work in tech. Whether building a great internal developer culture, designing memorable events, or fostering engaged and supportive communities, the principles Disney uses to create unforgettable experiences can help us craft environments where people feel connected, motivated, and excited to contribute.
Drawing on my own experiences as both a tech professional and a Disney fan, I’ll highlight practical ideas for creating a sense of wonder and purpose in everything you do. You’ll leave with actionable insights to bring a little Disney magic into your work and make a meaningful impact.
Developing Resilience
Within tech, things change constantly. Technologies change, companies change, priorities change - in most roles you need to learn how to adapt and roll with whatever comes your way. Things will always be in flux and a key skill is learning how to deal with change and become more resilient to it.
Especially with the current state of the industry, it’s become even more important to build your own resilience and learn to become more adaptable. As managers, we need to be aware of our own emotions, reactions and behaviours, understand how we can be more resilient to change and how to help build that resilience in the people we manage.
This talk will examine the psychology behind emotions and resilience, how to recognise and evaluate your own state, and how to come up with techniques to help deal with the hardest stuff.
Refactor Yourself!
Have you ever tried building up a new habit or changing an existing one? It’s a hard thing to do, and we often fail at making new habits stick.
We find it hard to improve the design of our own behaviours, but when it comes to our code, we do know what to do. We know how to refactor to make sure that the code we have is improving without changing any unexpected behaviours. So how about we apply the same techniques to ourselves?
In this talk, we’ll look at the psychology of creating new habits, how this relates to refactoring code and how we can combine the two to drive change to our own behaviours.
Level Up: Developing Developers
As video games have become more and more complex, game designers put way more time into creating environments where players are engaged and willing to put the time and effort into learning and mastering these skills.
As engineering leaders, we can learn a lot from how games are designed to make internal experiences better, since it’s a similar type of environment we want to create: an environment where people can learn and master skills. We should make it easier for developers to understand what options are available to them, allow them to make time for learning and provide structures and processes for them to develop the skills that they want and need for future roles.
This talk will look at how to use competencies and career development frameworks to help level up developers, what types of processes you can introduce to support personal development and how anyone in a product team should be using opportunities like these to get a better understanding of what skills they should focus on.
Empowering Employee Evangelism: Make Your Team Badass
Hiring good people can be hard. Keeping good people can be hard. It’s made easier though if you can set your company apart as a place that people want to work at. But how do you make the community aware that that’s the case?
Employee evangelism represents a powerful strategy where employees become advocates for their company, team, and work, actively sharing their knowledge with the broader community. It’s all about raising awareness about the company – and comes from the engineering team directly. But how do we ignite engagement and encourage contributions from engineering teams? How can we empower them to discover their voices and personal brands while simultaneously building the company's brand?
This talk explores the strategies for empowering employee evangelism within your teams. It will share methods for embedding a culture of learning and sharing, offering tangible examples to inspire and guide your team in embracing this.
Building Your Personal Brand: How To Stand Out In The Current Job Market
In this increasingly competitive job market, it's no longer enough for software engineers to rely only on their technical skills. To truly stand out and advance your career, you must cultivate a distinct personal brand that showcases your unique skills, values, and expertise.
But where do you start with this? What are the key things to focus on if you’re starting from scratch? From optimizing social media profiles to creating impactful portfolios and engaging in networking activities, this session will provide actionable steps to help engineers effectively showcase their capabilities and attract new opportunities.
This talk is tailored specifically for software engineers seeking to differentiate themselves and excel in the current job landscape. You’ll gain valuable insights into the principles of personal branding and learn practical strategies for crafting a compelling online presence. Furthermore, we will explore the importance of networking, mentorship, and continuous learning in building and sustaining a strong personal brand.
Add a little MAGIC
Are you feeling stuck, overwhelmed by self-doubt, or uncertain about how to pursue your dreams? Many of us face these challenges: the fear of public speaking, the pressure to meet expectations, or simply not knowing where to start. If you’re an aspiring leader, a quiet voice longing to be heard, or anyone looking to unlock your potential, this talk is for you.
Drawing from my journey in overcoming my speaking fears, I'll share personal stories and practical strategies to encourage you to face challenges and go after what you truly want. Together, we'll explore how finding your motivation can kick-start change, how taking small actions can build real momentum, and how grit and imagination can carry you through the tough parts.
In this talk, we’ll dive into MAGIC, a framework designed to help you explore and pursue your goals and dreams. It will encourage you to reflect on your dreams and provide actionable steps to bring them to life.
If I Can Do It
Working in tech can feel like stepping into an endless maze of skills to learn and challenges to tackle, with new problems around every corner. For me, it also meant battling a constant whisper of imposter syndrome, convincing me I didn’t belong or wasn’t good enough. Over the years, I’ve learned to turn down that voice and channel my energy into something more constructive: reflecting, refactoring, and growing—just like I would with my code.
In this talk, I’ll share my own journey in tech, from doubting my abilities to finding confidence in my unique skills and experiences. I’ll take you through the mistakes I’ve made, the lessons I’ve learned, and how I’ve built a practice of regularly stepping back, reflecting, and iterating on myself.
You’ll walk away with strategies for recognising your strengths, embracing your imperfections, and turning your own doubts into fuel for growth. Whether you’re just starting out or feeling stuck mid-career, this talk will inspire you to take a closer look at where you are, where you want to be, and what steps you can take to get there.
If I can do it, so can you.
The Art of Talk Design
Everywhere you look, stories surround us, and everyone has something that’s worth sharing with others. As tech speakers, we need to understand how to structure our talks so they can have the best effect on the audiences we are trying to reach. How do you discover the right angle and the right story for a talk? How do you frame your story?
Within tech we know how to approach building a new product: we research our user base, we figure out what and for who we’re trying to create something for and we make sure we constantly iterate on what we’ve come up with. So why aren’t we taking the same approach for our talks?
This talk will examine how to get in the right mindset of examining your talk ideas, and will introduce a framework of how to design and iterate on your talk. It will focus on several exercises and questions to help you create the best talk for the story you’re trying to tell.
The Art of Story Design
Once upon a time… A couple of years ago… Did you hear that thing about… Let me tell you a tale… We live in a culture that lives and breathes stories, and we use and rely on them every day. Stories are part of the fabric of our lives.
As developers, we need to understand how our stories have an effect on others, how we can best tell stories to our audiences and how we can share stories about what we do.
This talk will explore the mechanics of storytelling and demonstrate the ways we can tell better stories. It will showcase several techniques and storytelling structures to help you craft more impactful talks, blog posts and conversations.
The Art of Slide Design
Who doesn’t love a pretty slide deck?
Alongside our voice and our words, our slides are an important instrument in our presenter’s toolbox. And we should learn to use them as effectively as we can. Our decks are one of the key ways to get our point across to our audiences, and we need to learn how to be as effective as we can with our slide decks.
The choices you make in your slide design directly influences what impact your story has on your audience. We can get a better understanding of slide design, by looking at design theory and understanding how we can use design principles to create more memorable and helpful presentations.
In this talk, I'll share various principles of slide design, so that you can create more compelling slides and help your audience absorb the information you’re presenting. It will examine how you can use fonts, colours, animations and more to support the story you want to tell, and create more impactful presentations.
The Art of Communication Design
In product teams, communication is at the heart of everything we do: aligning with teammates, sharing insights with stakeholders, or understanding user needs. Yet, how often do we pause to think about how we’re communicating and what impact it has?
This talk will explore how you can be more intentional in your communication. We’ll explore how to navigate different communication channels, tailor messaging to diverse audiences, and consider personal preferences to ensure your message lands effectively.
You’ll also learn about the psychology of core needs and how understanding these can help you adapt your communication style to better resonate with your team and stakeholders. Through practical exercises and frameworks, you’ll leave with tools to design a clear communication plan and strategy: helping you create meaningful impact and stronger connections within your product team.
Melinda Seckington
Speaker Coaching + Employee Evangelism + Workshop Facilitator | Founder at Learn Build Share
London, United Kingdom
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