Today I was asked to decide on a handheld or "madonna" microphone for a conference I have to speak at in 2 weeks. Its time to come clean, I never thought the day would actually come, i'm far too terrified to actually go through with it. I just wanna write code in my dark little corner and be left alone. I wonder can I get out of this or is it too late

You'll manage just fine. Keep in mind the audience doesn't want you to fail, so they will cut you some slack. Worst thing that can happen is that you bore a bunch of people and then they leave the room. Some of the remainders may even kind enough to offer constructive feedback for your talk. In the end, you'll grow by the experience independent of the outcome.

(I still feel the dread before giving presentations. The fear of not being good enough and that I would only talk about trivial stuff. I just learned to live with it.)

@k0pernikus oh please, of course they want me to fail. We all know they will be waiting with pitch forks and torches, thats common knowledge for conferences.

They also did NOT need to tweet out that they've sold record tickets this year ... I mean come on ... they are just trying to induce a heart attack at this point

In the worst case scenario you puke on yourself, faint and fall through a glass wall.

In the best case scenario you are offered 10 bitcoins by each member of the audience and then being proclaimed as the ultimate king of BMX slalom parkour riding. 4 of the most beautiful women of the world pick you up (they are also very physically fit) and carry you through the halls of the building while everybody cheers your name and stars your github repositories.

I say the risks worth the glory.

If you ever are going to be touching a computer or do anything that might require two hands, a Madonna mic is the way to go. TBH even if you don’t expect to be doing anything like that is still use a madonna mic