By Claus Hetting, Wi-Fi NOW CEO & Chairman
“What should I present?” – I get this question all the time as a conference organiser and people also often ask me for general advice on presenting. Let me admit up front that I am not a presentation technique guru. But I have watched a huge number of presentations and here are some tips in relation to what – in my view – makes for a good WWC presentation. I’ve cut this into two parts: The WHAT and the HOW.
WHAT should I present at the WWC?
My answer to this is a bit of a copout: “Present what excites you the most about your subject”. Why? Because people are most ready to let themselves be seduced by the right mix of passion – meaning authentic emotions – and reason. And if presentations lack something, they usually lack passion rather than reason. Business and technology people are typically trained to be fairly dry – which is fine – but it is not always the best way to get a powerful message across from the stage.
At WWC events audiences tend to be both business and technology focused – but they are on average not bits & bytes types but rather technology professionals looking for technical and business insights. Think of this as TED Talks for Wi-Fi, if you like – or at least, this is our vision of what our events ideally should be like.
And let’s be honest about what people are looking for: Information and insights that can help them in their daily lives (work), in business, things that can help their companies grow – things that can help them be more successful, make more money, advance their careers, and so on. We’re all looking for that – aren’t we? I think yes 🙂
It is generally hard to present very detailed technical material because it requires people to sink their braincells into a a lot of details on the fly – so beware of this challenge. Most people don’t like to think too hard to understand something, they prefer having it served ready to eat. This is what any TED-style presenter should aim to do, in my view. Detailed technical topics are more suitable for workshops where more time is available for questions as well as for mentally digesting the materials.
Many companies deliver excellently designed and visually crafted presentations that are practiced to a tee. This is no accident and has to do with effort – and as such this does not necessarily require showmanship. Conversely, we’ve also had brave show-business type folks presenting on-the-fly with not much preparation and lots of ad-lib – and they’ve also been brilliant. That – however – does require talent!
HOW should I present at the WWC?
If you’re an old-school public speaking type trained at an Ivy League school in standing up and delivering or if you’re a stand-up comedian, then you can present without slides. Terrifying, isn’t it? And this is powerful. Because all the attention is on you and on what you say. But if you’re like the rest of us, you’re going to want to have some slides – at least to guide the discussion in some way.
There are many, many ways of using slides but in general, I would say less text and more graphics is better – and not too much on each slide, just a couple of ideas. This also very much depends – of course – on the story you are telling. For more technical storytelling more content is likely needed. As a minimum make sure your text is readable and not too small. Think kindly of the folks at the back of the room.
You can spend endless amount of time on preparing slides including making the graphics crazy slick and attractive. All this is great but remember that for the most part, people are more impressed with the content of the story than the quality of the pictures. Personally I admit I like attractive visuals but I’ve also been seduced and inspired by much less. In the end, the spoken message matters more.
Technical tips & tricks
Let’s face it – we’re all nervous. After years and years of doing this I’m still really nervous. Here’s my advice for relaxing on stage: Have the first two minutes (at least) of your presentation written out and practice reading it a couple of times. For some bizarre psychological reason, speaking to an audience or a camera sets off a million alarm bells in most people while for example answering questions (or reading) is a lot easier. Most of the nervousness will go away after a couple of minutes. It’s a question of getting used to the situation. So if you just read the first part out, you will cruise through the rest – even if you’re really nervous. I always do this on camera and – often – also for the stage. It works!
About microphones: There’s nothing worse than an audience who cannot hear you. Make sure your microphone works. Either hold a handheld mic close to your mouth (and not below your chest) or choose a Madonna-style mic, which will (if installed correctly) give you some freedom of movement. Make sure you speak slowly and clearly. If English is not your first language – it isn’t mine either – then you have to be even more careful with this. Understanding what you are saying is always number one.
Generally speaking, I’m not a big fan of including videos in presentations. If you really need to, do it – but in general, I don’t believe they are effective. Although it is true that marketing folks love to prepare videos – so it is tempting to use them. If you are going to do it, make them really short.
/Claus.
