Speaking
My experience
I started speaking in 2011 at user groups in Europe before branching out into conferences a couple of years later. Since then I‘ve spoken at a wide range of different events globally and online, including various flavours of LeadDev, CTO Craft, Adobe MAX, DevRelCon Japan, and Fronteers (amongst many others). As well as giving ‘standard’ talks I’ve also keynoted, and hosted events as MC.
My talks have spanned a range of topics over the years, but I mostly aim to mix practical takeaways with inspiration. You can get a feel for the kind of things that I talk about in some of the below videos and links. In addition to conferences, I’ve also spoken at schools, universities, and private corporate events.
If you'd like to ask me to speak at your event please have a look at my speaking FAQ page, or get in touch.
Organiser testimonials
“I've had the absolute pleasure of working with Sally on our last two conferences, Render and The Lead Developer. On both occasions she has not only delivered a fantastic talk, but has also gone above and beyond to help us out as conference organisers. Her talks have received excellent feedback from our delegates, with top quality content, clear takeaways and an engaging and lively presence on stage. Sally has also worked with us as a compere for Render conference. She was fantastic to work with, and helped bring the conference to life between the talks. I can only hope that we will have the opportunity to work together again soon!” Jo Lankester, Managing Director, White October Events
“At the Shropgeek (R)Evolution conference, Sally delivered one of the best talks I've seen. And, I've seen a lot of talks. She presented clear, well-thought out ideas in a way that took us with her. She was clear and imaginative, and any conference would be made better by her speaking. So, go and book her. Now – I'll wait.” Zach Beauvais, Shropgeek (R)Evolution
Talks
Past, present, and future talk details
Embracing diversity in tech – Building an inclusive & diverse culture that values differences
Keynote panel discussion at CTO Craft Con: Culture and the CTO.
🇬🇧 November 2023
Seacon panel discussion
Panel on hiring, retaining, and promoting talent
🇬🇧 October 2023
Creating inclusive career ladders
Progression frameworks and career ladders are now commonplace in many organisations, bringing much-needed structure and clarity to role expectations, progression, and promotions. However, getting the right framework in place for your business and team members can be challenging, and can actually do more harm than good if factors around diversity, equity, and inclusion aren’t well-considered. In this talk we’ll cover some common pitfalls, and will go through a practical set of prompts to help you make sure your career ladder can work well for everyone. I’ll use some real world examples that have come out of my work creating progression frameworks for both engineers and engineering managers in different types of companies. Talk given at LeadDev London 2023
🇬🇧 June 2023
Understanding accessibility: A guide for engineering leaders
I hosted this LeadDev panel, where we cover nuances around how building inclusive products is not only a smart business decision but also a crucial step toward remedying inequality in the industry. There were also practical tips around practices and standards, and measurement.
💻 February 2023
How can, and how should, technology influence business decisions?
An episode of The Pod Presents: Primarily Context-Based podcast where host Hywel and I have a lengthy chat about the relationship between technology and business decisions.
💻 December 2022
CTO Craft Con 2020: Psychological safety
A fireside chat as part of CTO Craft Con 2020 where I spoke to the lovely Zoe Cunningham. Looking at all things psychological safety, we talked about how to foster a culture where people are allowed to take risks and fail safely without fear or judgement and that by allowing them to do so can reap rewards in terms of engagement, innovation and commercial success.
💻 December 2020
Making Better Decisions podcast
A chat with host Joe Leech about making product and technology decisions in a very challenging domain... death! Plus the importance of culture, when your decision making goes wrong, and more.
💻 December 2020
CTO Craft: Hiring and Managing Engineering Teams in a Post-COVID World (panel)
This free panel discussion brought to you by CTO Craft will look at hiring and retaining diverse talent, people management and fostering an inclusive culture as we adjust to the new normal.
With co-located teams, majority remote working and onboarding issues, we’ll be discussing the impact of Coronavirus, the new challenges around support, building alignment and increasing diversity and inclusivity and finding strategies to help.
💻 September 2020
LeadDev Live: hosting the Demo track
Joining a new, online only LeadDev Live event as a host for one of the three tracks.
💻 August 2020
Mental Health Awareness Week panel
Part of a Monzo panel talking about mental health, with a theme of "kindness".
🇬🇧 May 2020
Level-up Engineering podcast: Engineering Culture
Speaking to host Fanni Karolina Tóth from Coding Sans, we discussed engineering culture broadly, as well as talking about some of the specifics at Monzo.
💻 March 2020
Making standards work for everyone
A new talk for State of the Browser 2019: "You’re at a conference! You’re listening to interesting talks, getting inspired by being around like-minded folks, and preparing to take everything back to work on Monday. You’re going to change the world! Except… it’s not always that easy, is it? In this session we’ll look at standards in the context of practical tips to help take others along on that journey too. Using examples from Sally’s work at Monzo and beyond, we’ll discuss how to empower the people around you, and ultimately how and why we should be making a better web for everyone."
🇬🇧 September 2019
The Role of Technology in Supporting Social Inclusion
Talk given as part of Monzo's Investival event: "The technology that we use to create Monzo can also play a key part in our mission to make money work for everyone. In this talk, Sally Lait shares the work our web team are already doing, and what they want to start doing, to make the things we build enjoyable by all."
🇬🇧 June 2019
Tech Lead vs Engineering Manager - What's the difference?
Given at a People First Engineering Management: how Monzo does it event, held in the Monzo event space.
🇬🇧 March 2019
Changing the world with the web
Talk given at WebExpo 2018 in Prague, Czech Republic.
🇨🇿 September 2018
From zero to sustainability: getting developers to help you change the world
From nothing, to a goal of a self-sustaining developer community changing how a whole country interacts with sport & physical activity (and the technology that underpins this). Using a case study I'll share valuable lessons and practical tips for how DevRel can make or break transformation projects. Talk given at DevRelCon Tokyo 2018 in Tokyo, Japan.
🇯🇵 July 2018
Websites are a symptom, not the cause
A version of my Render keynote, tweaked to fit into the audience at Dev East in Ipswich, UK.
🇬🇧 March 2018
Making the leap from execution to strategy
A talk about my personal journey of moving from day-to-day development into more strategic-focused roles, and what this has meant. Given at The Lead Developer conference in London, UK.
🇬🇧 June 2017
Websites are a symptom, not the cause
A version of my Render keynote, tweaked to fit into a low-key night of talks on service design and digital transformation. Given at DXN in Nottingham, UK.
🇬🇧 May 2017
Websites are a symptom, not the cause
Case study-driven closing keynote given at Render, Oxford, UK. Using real-world examples this talk aimed to get attendees to think about root causes of problems, and how to identify opportunities and make things better.
🇬🇧 March 2017
All these moments will be lost in time: the web, the future, and us
A heavily sci-fi influenced and futuristic talk given at EmpireJS, New York, USA, talking about how we make digital projects more sustainable.
🇺🇸 May 2016
All these moments will be lost in time: the web, the future, and us
Given at ACE! Conference, Krakow, Poland
🇵🇱 April 2016
An introduction to open data
A talk aimed at introducing the concept of open data to those who may not be familiar, and to give them some examples of what it can bring to their work. Given at Fronteers, Amsterdam, Netherlands
🇳🇱 October 2015
All these moments will be lost in time: the web, the future, and us
Given at R(E)volution, Shrewsbury, UK
🇬🇧 September 2015
Choosing the "right" CMS (and other things)
A talk about how to select technology, and the things that you should be thinking about when doing so. Given at Front-end London, London, UK
🇬🇧 May 2015
With great power comes great (development) responsibility
Talk about making development choices, and how we need to think more broadly about concepts like accessibility and performance when we think about overall user experience. Given at From the Front, Bologna, Italy
🇮🇹 September 2014
Frakking effective planning: not just for Cylons
Scotch on the Rocks, Edinburgh, Scotland
🇬🇧 June 2013
An introduction to the modern web for the creative professional
A talk given on new HTML5 and CSS3 features at the Adobe Create the Web tour, London, UK
🇬🇧 October 2012
Building dynamic mobile applications with ColdFusion
Adobe User Group, Brussels, Belgium
🇧🇪 May 2011
Building dynamic mobile applications with ColdFusion
Adobe User Group, Paris, France
🇫🇷 May 2011