Branding David

I have spoken at a few conferences now and each time is slightly different, but in speaking, I have learned a few simple things that you can do to make the best of your speaking opportunities. If you aren’t trying to speak at conferences and events, then you should look into it, and in that case, these tips will help as well.

Speaking is a great way to build up confidence, network with people, and prove expertise. Following these tips will help make it as stress and incident free as possible and remember, if they don’t like what you are saying, they can always leave, so focus on doing the best you can, and don’t worry about the audience.

Practice

The first thing you can do to make sure your presentation goes over well is to practice. I usually practice by myself a few times and then do the whole presentation in front of someone. It doesn’t hurt to record it or do it in front of a mirror, as you’ll then be able to catch facial expressions or body language that you might want to correct before doing it in front of an audience.

Organize

Most presentations that people don’t like usually suffer from an issue with flow. Making sure to organize your thoughts and transitions from slide to slide will allow you to go through the whole presentation in a nice, organized, and efficient way. Your audience will notice this and your presentation will seem better because of it.

Bring Notes

You should always have some prompts on hand to make sure you know what it coming next, as well as what key points you want to hit on. Don’t read off the slides, especially if they aren’t directly in front of you.

Have Stories, Tips, and Tricks

Going with the previous point, making sure to have some prompts for stories, tips or tricks you want to hand out is very helpful, and it also helps bring an understanding between you and the audience. This part is usually where people either win or lose a crowd, so be prepared. Trying to eloquently explain something off the cuff can be very difficult, and increase your stress thus increasing the tension in the room.

Panels are Easier!

If it is going to be your first time speaking, try getting in on a panel. Panels allow you to offload some of the burden of presentation on others, and depending on how many people are involved, your total responsibility for a session can be fairly minimal. It is also easier for some to answer questions on things they know, than present on a topic.

It also allows you to pass on questions that you don’t know the answer to.

Have Back-up Plans

Your computer might break, your notes might catch on fire, or you might just forget that key sample product. Make sure you have back-up plans for everything in your presentation. So many people assume that certain things and are shocked when they arrive, only to find out that there is no internet connection, they can’t use their computer, and that their supplies never showed up.

Be ready for anything and everything.

Brand Your Material

If you are going to be giving product away, handing out sheets of paper, or using a slideshow presentation, make sure to put your brand on all of it. At the end of your session, without having to pitch or sell yourself or your company, everyone in the room should be able to remember who you are, or what company you work for. This is of great benefit to the audience as it allows them to connect with you as long as they remember that key piece of information.

Conclusion

Speaking at events can seem daunting, but once you are on stage, and that adrenaline rush hits you, there are few greater highs. Enjoy the ride, plan as much as possible, and don’t forget to smile.

I have been to a few different conferences, and one of the biggest issues I have seen is how people put together their slides. It seems like everyone wants to write a novel or pack in as many words per slide as they possibly can, and in doing so, their slides become absolutely useless.

There is a simple rule to try to keep the number of words to around twenty-five per slide. Only around five bullet points, and one or two images. It makes it easy for people to read, understand, absorb and truly act on.

If you aren’t following the above rule, you are starting your presentation off on the wrong foot. Keeping it simple is always the best route, and with all of us suffering from various levels of information overload, please be kind and reduce the number of words, pictures and other distracting elements on your slides.

One of the most important things to many people after a session is complete at a conference is to get a chance to look over the presentation’s slides once again as it can be difficult to write down all of the important information as people present it, and it can make a nice reference later on if questions come up, and so I quickly made my WordCamp Toronto presentation’s slides available in PDF form on the WordCamp Toronto Wiki that was put together for the event.

I also wanted to make those slides available here, with or without my own personal notes so that you not only could look over what I had written for everyone to see, but what notes I had for myself during the presentation, as well as some links or products that I forgot to mention while the spotlights were shining.

How to Run a Blog Like a Pro
PDF – no notes
PDF – with notes
Zipped JPG Image Pack – with notes

Below is the video shot by my cousin Mark Wood, who also attended the event. He didn’t have a direct sound pick up, and this was shot on the Canon PowerShot S3 IS, but I think it still turned out amazing, so a big kudos to him for taking the time to record it for me.