TWHS#102: How I`m Actually Preparing For My Tech Show London Presentation

Hi Folks

This week I`ll be presenting a session at Tech Show London. It's a massive event. The session:

"Be More Valuable. Build Your Human Skills That AI Can't Replace".

So I thought I'd take you behind the scenes on how I actually prepare for an event like this. Not the theory. The actual prep work I've done before I get on the stage. It's a big article this week.

Submitting The Session

Months ago I submitted my session title via the call for papers. I've got a great relationship with the Tech Show London team, but I still needed to show them I had something great to talk about. So I needed:

• A relevant subject. I need to talk about something that people care about. If my topic isn't relevant I`m going nowhere.
• A punchy title. Short, descriptive and jump off the page at people browsing the show agenda.
• A great session overview. I need people to read the description and think this session will be a good use of my time.

This all happened way before Christmas and thankfully my proposal was accepted.

Keep It Fresh - Take A Risk

I`m taking a huge risk this year!

I wanted to make my session more interactive and engaging. I bought my wife a Jane Austen "Choose Your Own Adventure" book for Christmas and it gave me some inspiration. I want the audience to choose their own talk.

So, I've prepped 4 sub topics, but only have time to present 2 of them. I`m going to ask the audience to vote for their favourite topics and deliver the two most popular choices. The 4 topics are:

• Giving Feedback
• Active Listening
• Planning Presentations
• Storytelling

This could backfire, and I`m a bit worried how it will work out. But you've got to keep it fresh. Hopefully, it will raise the relevance and engagement with the audience. I hope it will make them feel a part of the session, not just observers.

AOREN

I always bang on about AOREN. Before I start crafting a session I always fill this out my AOREN template. So here it is for this session:

• Audience - who do I expect to be in the audience.
  • People working in technical Roles.
  • Leaders of people in technical roles.
  • People interested in personal development
• Objective - what is my objective, and what is the audience objective 
  • Audience - Learn some practical tips that will help them be more effective when they get back to work tomorrow.
  • Me - Genuinely help people that come to the session. Make them think of me if they want to develop these skills further.
• Remembered - What do I want them remember
  • Your human skills are becoming more important and valuable as AI does more technical heavy lifting.
  • And then 2 from the following 4 options depending on what topics get voted for:
  • Giving feedback is rocket fuel for performance. The WIT framework help you do it well.
  • Active Listening helps you understand complex problems. It also makes your listener feel heard.
  • The AOREN framework is a brilliant framework to help you plan presentations and meetings.
  • Storytelling is a great way to bring content alive. Share examples and anecdotes to make people remember you.
• Emotion - How will I create an emotional connection
  • Choose Your Own Adventure engagement style.
  • Stories and anecdotes throughout the session.
  • Engaging visuals and pictures.
• Next Steps
  • Landing Page with QR Code.
  • Landing page has links to Tech World Human Skills podcast, Sign Up To Weekly Microlearning, Book a Call With Me, Connect On Linked In.

I then built the content around this AOREN template.

Effective Visuals Aids

I`m not a graphic designer but here's the principles I use when designing the slide deck:

• Slides should amplify my narrative not distract people. Slides are not my notes.
• Screens are relatively small, so minimise words and use pictures.
• Use high contrast bright colours to pop off the screen
• Use consistent brand colours
• Less is more

Nail The Beginning

The first 2 minutes are the most important part of a presentation. Why? People are judging me and working out whether I`m worth listening to. I`m also at my most nervous and not in flow yet. So I need to nail it.

How will I nail it?

• Structure. It needs to have a short intro to me. It needs a hook. It needs to quickly highlight the benefits to people. I need to introduce the key messages.
• I need to practice it. I will run this through many times and spend a disproportionate amount of time preparing and visualising it.

By the time I've finished my opening section I`ll be full flow. I have practised the other components but much more time on the beginning

Drive Action

I need to drive action from the talk. The talk is pointless if it doesn't drive any action from anyone. Here's the next actions I want people to take:

• Use the tips I have shared, and be more effective because of it. Remember those tips came from me.
• Listen to my podcast.
• Sign up to weekly microlearning.
• Connect with me on LinkedIn
• Buy some coaching/training programs for themselves or their teams.

So I`ll try and make those next actions as frictionless as possible.

Well there you go. A peak behind the curtain. I hope it helps and serves as some inspiration for your next conference talk. Go on put yourself out there. You know you want to.

Cheers

BenP

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Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

• Leaders In Tech: Raise the impact of your team.  Make them more influential, memorable and successful with customers everyday.  The Technical Storytelling Professional Program enables them to create clarity, generate energy and drive the results you need.
• Individuals: Accelerate your career and build your reputation.  Develop the skills to help you present,  influence and explain in the tech world.  Check out the Technical Storytelling Essentials or Tech Community Speaker courses.
• Tech World Human Skills Podcast:  The latest episode is "Leading Through Incidents" with Richard Baker. Check it out on the Elevated You website,  Apple, Spotify, YouTube or Amazon Podcasts.