3 ms·

I gave my first talk this year, and I find this very backward. I gave a talk because I had something to talk about that I thought other people would be interes

I gave my first talk this year, and I find this very backward. I gave a talk because I had something to talk about that I thought other people would be interested int. I chose the venue/event those people would be at as they would benefit most from my talk. The 'Learn from your talk' segement is great, but what I wanted to 'learn' from my talk, was not only 'how to give a better talk', but I wanted to know from the audience what they're thoughts were on the topic. That one might be specific to different subjects, but the first two I'd hope would be obvious for any presentation.

mikeknoop 13y ago
This is a good way to think about it! I suspect most people get invited to talk and say yes (versus trying to find a venue) because that's what the venue model supports. Learning how to give a better talk is just a proxy for: how can I better communicate my ideas to the audience so they remember them? In 2 months no-one is going to remember any of the details about your talk but they'll remember the experience and if you have resources online, they'll seek those out.