How to Prepare for a Big Conference Presentation | Elevated You

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