Advice for a First Time Keynoter
This morning, in reviewing my email, I had a request for advice a first-time keynoter… With some trepidation, I typed up the first few things that came to mind. Here is what I wrote…what would you have said?
Hmm…there’s so much advice out there on keynoting, presentations, but what I’ve found works for me:
- Skip the who you are stuff…get into the meat of your preso immediately. Someone will introduce you anyways. For goodness sake, don’t spend more than 10 secs on your blog or twitter, or important links…leave that for a final slide that will hang up there during questions or while you’re talking to folks who mob you after the session.
- Sprinkle relevant videos liberally through your presentation but be mindful of the time it takes to play them. People want to laugh and be transported.
- The presentation isn’t about transmitting information, it’s an experience that the audience must enjoy. That means, allow the video or information/facts you share convey drama, then you offer solutions to it.
- Use lots of images that capture your thoughts, the story…they should be obvious if related to a point you’re speaking to or mysterious, in which case, you use them to make a point about perspective, idea, etc.
- Forget the backchannel (twitter) garbage. It’s a waste of time and unless you’re skilled, it’s tough to manage it all. Setup up a chat or forum where people can participate, assign someone from the audience to monitor that…then, at the end of the preso, acknowledge their role (do it at the beginning, too) and ask them to share 2 questions from the chat/forum that they think is important.
- Do the same with uStream on #5…or carry an extra laptop to broadcast yourself.
- Remember to tell folks you will be podcasting this but spend no more than 10 secs on it.
- Let your story and passion carry you away. If they do, who cares what the audience thinks? Invariably, I’ve found that if *I* am carried away, a significant part of the audience is, too.
If you’re going to be bringing in Second Life to your preso, try to do it through video recordings/screencaptures rather than having to depend on in-house wireless/wired connections. Make sure your entire presentation can happen off your computer and isn’t dependent on any internet connections.
That’s pretty much it…run of the mill stuff. I suppose, #8 is the most important for me, then #2, then #4, if I had to prioritize.
Of course, this kind of question just makes me want to question everything written above. (exasperated sigh).
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