4 ms·

As someone who has given numerous talks at conferences, 100% yes. This is all good advice. "What new skills do I want my audience to have, and know how to use,

As someone who has given numerous talks at conferences, 100% yes. This is all good advice. "What new skills do I want my audience to have, and know how to use, when they leave this room?" That's effectively the same thing as the way I look at it. "What actionable thing do I want people to take away from this talk?" I will add: Practice! You should have given your talk multiple times before you ever give it publicly, and you should have watched it. That means recording yourself and watching yourself and listening to yourself. Yes, this takes time. But it's important. Also: do NOT plan to do live demos or live coding. You can easily record these and present them and know they work. They are edited, there are no mistakes, and things happen. You can even make the joke that it was "live coding when you recorded it." Yes, if you have to answer a question with some live coding, fine. But it doesn't need to be live. No one wants to watch you typo stuff, complain about the network, etc. Just record it. If "recording it takes too much time" then doing it live is going to suck.

ghaff 3y ago
There are demo gods out there. Kelsey Hightower comes to mind. But, yeah, generally speaking, it's a high-wire stunt you probably shouldn't attempt to pull off--especially without a reliable smooth plan B. As someone who has presented a LOT, practice is useful. I always do at least a bunch of mental run-throughs. That said, a real run-through, which I don't always do, results in a better Take 2. So, yeah, do a real rehearsal when you can. (I won't practice dozens of time though. At peak I presented a lot and practicing for a given presentation that much would have been impracticable.)
beryilma 3y ago
> I will add: Practice! You should have given your talk multiple times before you ever give it publicly, and you should have watched it. That means recording yourself and watching yourself and listening to yourself. Yes, this takes time. But it's important. I would rather not give the presentation than do this. It is a cringe and self-embarassing experience. Once, I almost quit my job because certain types of high-level presentations at my company requires dry-runs and I refuse to do it. And I regularly give presentations at a few conferences a year with sufficiently good delivery.
- CoastalCoder 3y ago
  > I would rather not give the presentation than do this. It is a cringe and self-embarassing experience. I'm the same way, and honestly I don't understand why. I'm not sure it's embarrassment per se, because nobody else is in the room. But something about doing a dry run, in private, is so unpleasant that I can't make myself do it. Despite the apparent benefits.
  - beryilma 3y ago
    In my experience, dry-runs, at least in front of an insider audience, are not a real assessment of the content, nor the delivery. It doesn't feel natural as in front of the real audience. Any I rarely get any useful feedback anyway: always some stupid, non-consequential remarks that tend to turn everything to corporate speak with no allowance for personal style. Fad of the day at my company is evidence-assertion style. And I am sick of it...
  - Ar-Curunir 3y ago
    Do a dry run with your mentors, colleagues, friends, etc.

ghaff 3y ago

There are demo gods out there. Kelsey Hightower comes to mind. But, yeah, generally speaking, it's a high-wire stunt you probably shouldn't attempt to pull off--especially without a reliable smooth plan B. As someone who has presented a LOT, practice is useful. I always do at least a bunch of mental run-throughs. That said, a real run-through, which I don't always do, results in a better Take 2. So, yeah, do a real rehearsal when you can. (I won't practice dozens of time though. At peak I presented a lot and practicing for a given presentation that much would have been impracticable.)

beryilma 3y ago

> I will add: Practice! You should have given your talk multiple times before you ever give it publicly, and you should have watched it. That means recording yourself and watching yourself and listening to yourself. Yes, this takes time. But it's important. I would rather not give the presentation than do this. It is a cringe and self-embarassing experience. Once, I almost quit my job because certain types of high-level presentations at my company requires dry-runs and I refuse to do it. And I regularly give presentations at a few conferences a year with sufficiently good delivery.

CoastalCoder 3y ago
> I would rather not give the presentation than do this. It is a cringe and self-embarassing experience. I'm the same way, and honestly I don't understand why. I'm not sure it's embarrassment per se, because nobody else is in the room. But something about doing a dry run, in private, is so unpleasant that I can't make myself do it. Despite the apparent benefits.
- beryilma 3y ago
  In my experience, dry-runs, at least in front of an insider audience, are not a real assessment of the content, nor the delivery. It doesn't feel natural as in front of the real audience. Any I rarely get any useful feedback anyway: always some stupid, non-consequential remarks that tend to turn everything to corporate speak with no allowance for personal style. Fad of the day at my company is evidence-assertion style. And I am sick of it...
- Ar-Curunir 3y ago
  Do a dry run with your mentors, colleagues, friends, etc.