Timeline for a Talk

@emmajanehw

www.trainingintheopen.com

www.gitforteams.com

Background

• Nearly 30 years experience giving presentations.
• Over 100 conference sessions delivered.
• Three books written (Drupal and Git).
• This talk is 100% opinion. (Dis)agreements welcome!

Agenda

• The Phases: (rant), Brainstorming, Draft, Polish
• Preparation: Preconference, Day before, Night before, Morning of ...

Brainstorming Phase

(warning: this section is mostly a rant about doing outcome-driven presentations)

Brainstorming Overview

• Record learning outcomes for the session.
• Set agenda for the topics with the key ideas.
• Write the session description based on work to date.
• Write a blog post; or series of blog posts about your talk.

Learning Outcomes == Test Driven Development

(sort of)

Sample Learning Outcome

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

use Bloom's Taxonomy

to create testable learning outcomes for their conference sessions.

Working Backwards from My Outcome...

• My presentation must include an overview of Bloom's Taxonomy.
• I need to provide examples of good, and bad learning outcomes.
• I should test my audience to ensure they have achieved the desired outcome.

Sort Of

We're actually doing cheater learning outcomes because I'm not specifying the accuracy or the precision of the outcome when tested. They're more like a user story / learning outcome hybrid.

Bloom's Taxonomy

It's Not Always the Same

And It's Been Updated

There Are Also Made-Up FactsAbout Bloom's Taxonomy

Example of a Bad Learning Outcome

By the end of this session, attendees will know Bloom's Taxonomy.

Can You Fix The Example Below?

By the end of this session, attendees will know Bloom's Taxonomy.

</rant>

Draft Phase

• Write the first draft of your slides, incorporating comments from the blog posts you've written.

Polish Phase

• Start saying your talk out loud.
• Fix the slides to match your story, adding imagery where relevant.
• Decrease the amount of text on each slide.
• Add resources / reference links.

Accessibility Checklist

• Colours: colour blindness, contrast.
• Size: Ensure all text is no smaller than 1/10 the height of the slide.
• Motion: Remove unnecessary animations.
• Humour: We are an international conference with a code of conduct. Give respect.

Practice Phase

• Screen cast your practice sessions.
• Record any "live" demos.
• Double check the session description.
• Pack your day bag for your presentation and make sure everything fits!

Preconference Phase

• Do one more full run of your presentation.
• Remind your supporters of the time / room for your presentation.
• Simplify your speaker notes.
• Optional: print your speaker notes for easy review.
• Get a good night's sleep.

Phases: In Summary

• Preparing for your talk can begin months in advance.
• Design useful outcomes for your attendees.
• Focus your presentation by testing the ideas in various formats.
• Use blogging as preparation for your talk.
• Pratice saying the words out loud (to yourself, and/or others).

Final Preparations

(This assumes a multi-day conference. Your time line may vary.)

Day Before

• Go to the room where you'll be presenting.
• Introduce yourself to the AV team if they are around.
• If possible, do a tech check in your room.
• Make sure the room # is the same on all versions of the schedule.
• Drink lots of water and make sure you are hydrated.
• Upload your slides.
• If you're an introvert, get as much quiet time as you can during the day to ensure you're fully charged for tomorrow.

Night Before

Pack your bag for tomorrow and include:

• Fully charged laptop.
• Power cable for your laptop + power adaptor if you are not in your home country.
• Presentation on USB as PDF in case your laptop dies.
• Printed speaker notes.
• Water bottle (filled).
• VGA display converter thingy (for the projector).
• Remote control (if you have one).
• Clean shirt and trousers (for those of us who are prone to spilling coffee down our fronts)

You probably won't sleep tonight.Don't stress about that.Do the best you can to relax.

Morning Of

• Try to eat breakfast. Being stressed out takes calories.
• Hydrate with water, or fruit juice. A dry throat goes hoarse quickly.
• Check in with the conference organisers so they know you are on-site and ready to present.
• Smile lots. It may trick your body into thinking this is fun.

Half an Hour Before

• Final pee!
• If the presentation ahead of you is still going, either wait outside the room, or sneak into the back quietly.

(Literally) The Last Few Minutes

• As soon as you can, get onto the stage.
• Get your laptop plugged in and working with the projector.
• Get help putting your mic on if it's a clip mic.
• Navigate to your first slide, and start the presentation.
• More smiling!

During the Presentation

Let people know at the beginning of the presentation when you would like to field their questions.

• At the end of the presentation. Best for new speakers.
• During the presentation at specific points. Great if you're running fast.
• During the presentation at any time. Caution: don't get derailed!

More Tips on Audience Management

trainingintheopen.com/audience-management.html

In Summary

• Start with the audience in mind. Have empathy, and aim for outcomes.
• Leave yourself enough time to refine your thinking about the topic.
• Do more writing and brainstorming before you start your slides.
• Get feedback early in the process so that you can address common misconceptions / misunderstandings in your presentation.
• Leading into the conference itself: you're going to be nervous. Embrace this and control what you can control.
• The stage is yours. Get to know it, befriend it, and then own it.

Resources

Twitter: @emmajanehw

Resource: trainingintheopen.com/speakers-checklist.html

Slides: emmajane.github.io/speaker-training