How to be a great conference speaker

Just got back from yet another conference where I was a speaker and organizer -- it's getting to be a habit! -- and was struck by what some of the speakers did right, and what speakers did wrong that adversely impacted both the attendee experience and, by extension, their experience in the front of the room.

As I watched, I started to take notes and reflected upon other speakers and conferences where I've seem the same mistakes again and again. So, without further ado, my notes and comments...

Show Up Early For Your Talk

I admit, I don't always manage this myself, but there's little as annoying to an audience than showing up 5-10 minutes early to get a good seat, just to have the speaker walk in the room when they're supposed to begin talking and start monkeying with their gear, asking for the AV consultant, etc. This is a matter of respecting your audience: show up 15 minutes early, get your gear set up, video working, mic hooked up, etc. Then if you walk in two minutes before your talk starts, at least you're ready to go.

Which reminds me: conferences hire local people to staff the rooms, run the audio and visual gear, interface with the hotel or conference venue, etc. Treat them with respect and recognize that they're good at their jobs, but they're not miracle workers. They also can't say "jeez, show up earlier next time, chump" even if that's what they're thinking. You'd be surprised how expensive a crew of four people plus wireless lavaliere microphones, receivers, speakers, mixing boards, etc., can cost on a per-day basis. Not to mention wireless Internet.

Carry Your Own Video Adapter

I don't care what kind of cool or weird computer you have, if you plan on hooking your own computer up to the projection system and displaying slides, showing Web pages, whatever, it's your responsibility to bring all the equipment, wires, dongles, and adapters you need to hook to a standard VGA display system.

This applies x10 for MacBook owners, as Apple keeps changing the VGA/video out adapter. I used to carry $100 worth of adapters so I could help people out regardless of what generation of MacBook they had, but got tired of it and now only carry the adapter I need. Odds are fairly good that there will not be anyone in the audience that has the adapter you need, and the AV people might not either. Then what?

This is an easy one, Mac folk. Take your computer into an Apple Store and ask them to help you pick out the right VGA adapter. Then buy it, slip it in your bag and carry it with you at all times. Problem solved.

Need Audio Out? Allocate LOTS of Extra Time

The vast majority of presentations at professional conferences involve video, but rarely have an audio component. If you have a movie to show, a funny video clip, or an audio sample, awesome. But get to your room extra early to set the audio up.

The problem is that most of the AV contractors just don't have much experience with audio so it really can take 10-15 minutes to get it working properly, without being too loud or too soft. You'll also need to probably tweak your computer settings to use the external output and adjust the volume so it's audible.

Reading between the lines here? It's your responsibility as a speaker to get your presentation ready to roll before it's time to start. That start time for your talk? That's when you're supposed to start actually addressing the audience, not fiddling with your gear. Don't be "that guy", be ready to go a few minutes before your time comes around.

Don't Reject a Microphone if Offered

Here's another one. You're a speaker at a small event and decline the offered microphone because you're sure you can project your voice adequately. Yes, but... but people come into talks after you start, the people who are further back might not be able to hear you that well, people with hearing disabilities might have amplifiers hooked into the AV system (and not want to be making a big deal about it) and your talk might also be recorded or otherwise captured.

Do everyone a favor, put your ego away, and just gracefully accept the mic and be hooked into the AV system. That's why conference organizers pay for those expensive wireless microphones and speaker systems in the first place. Just trust me on this one.

Keep Track of Your Time

Good conference organizers make sure that there's someone to give a speaker time cues (like "10 minutes left", "5 minutes" "TIME!") but really, it's up to a speaker to pay attention to time and to both start and end promptly. Lots of great questions? Either learn to push them to the end of your presentation or suggest meeting in the lounge after your talk to further explore the conversation.

Epic fail: "I'm out of time, which is frustrating, because I have so much more to share". Your job as a speaker is to manage that time and yes, leave them wanting more. Don't tease, educate.

Leave Time For Questions

Personally, I love when people interrupt my presentations to ask questions and challenge me, but I've also learned how to really aggressively manage my time and am quite comfortable saying "off topic" or "we'll get back to that". If you're not positive you can stay on track, allocation 75%-80% of your time to your talk, say "great question, let's get back to that at the end" and keep moving your presentation along.

Quite often, you'll wrap up and people will need a few minutes to process and think through what you've said, but have questions. This means that it's surprisingly common to say "Any questions?" and have no hands go up. Give it a second. Have a prepared question or two of your own so you can give your audience some thinking time.

And it's not a crime to end a few minutes early if everyone's really done with the topic, so don't force it if it's not happening.

Use Audience Members as Examples

If you know people in your audience who demonstrate something you're talking about (ideally a positive trend or trait!) then don't be afraid to give them shout-outs as you go. This is incredibly effective, demonstrates you're part of the community, makes them feel great, and also helps other audience members identify people they want to talk with after you're done with your speech.

As an extension of this, be as interactive and engaged with your audience as possible. If you're talking about brands, for example, point out someone who has a logo on their shirt, or a sticker on their computer. If you're talking about corporate responsibility, point to people from a company that demonstrates your concept.

I would, however, be very cautious about pointing out a bad example. "It's really important for companies to donate 20% of their profit to the Humane Society, which those losers at Company X", and here you point to two people in the audience, "do NOT demonstrate." That's probably not going to end well. :-)

Create Legible Slides

This is one of those "I can't believe we're still talking about this" topics: small text, dense graphs, lots of information, they all look TERRIBLE when they're projected onto a screen. Easy rule of thumb: no text smaller than 18-point, whether it's a graph's legend or whether it's bullet points.

I've written about how to compose good presentation slides before. My suggestion: always think big when you're creating slides. Some of the very best speakers I know use slides that have no more than 3-4 words on each one, or perhaps just a cute photograph to illustrate the point.

Your slides are not your talk. They are an adjunct and visual aid. Get it right already, speakers. There's no excuse.

Conclusion

It's a privilege to step in front of a group and share your thoughts, ideas and perspective on your industry or company. Take advantage of it, prep, present your ideas clearly and accurately, and you'll find that you'll get much, much more out of the experience and so will your audience.

Additional Reading:

• How to create GREAT Presentation Slides
• Twenty Great Tips for Public Speaking
• What Makes a Truly Great Public Speaker

I hope these tips and thoughts are helpful! Got more? Add 'em here as a comment.

Three reasons you shouldn't outsource your freelance work

This is a guest post by Zack Shapiro.

I have been using freelance websites for the past few years and truthfully, I've never had a great experience. I have never walked away with a good feeling after a product had been delivered thinking, "I'm freelancing again next time I need a project done!"

Why? Three reasons:

The language barrier

Chances are, if you're using mainstream freelancing websites, the cheapest client with the most experience that looks the most attractive won't have the same native language as you. Nothing against skilled workers from other countries but the language barrier that often comes up ads hours of work per day trying to communicate exactly what you want.

The wasted time is reason enough to pay extra and work with freelancers who speak your language and speak it well.

It's exploitative

Spec work websites ask for freelancers to do the work that you want with a very little chance for payment. The model seems great for those looking for cheap work and bids from a variety of freelancers but it sucks for the people on the other end of the equation.

It's like asking a group of architects to build you a house, which cost them time and resources, then you'll choose which house you want to live in and pay for. At the end, there are 16 houses and only one architect gets paid. How is that fair to them?

Authenticity concerns

How can you be sure that the work done is for you? I'm referring here to website design program coding than anything else.

I had an experience with a freelancer who, instead of designing the Wordpress theme that I paid him for, went out and found a theme that already existed. Then modified it a little and sold it off. After seeing it and before paying, I tried my hardest to make sure that he hadn't just bitten my theme off of another one. Unfortunately, I couldn't find it. And he had in fact used someone else's work and passed it off as his own.

Another freelancer told me that he would own the sole rights to my iPhone code so that he could reuse pieces of code for future customers. Needless to say, I didn't hire him.

How do you know the work they're doing for you isn't going to be resold to someone else in some form or another? You don't.

Work with someone you can meet with, someone you can trust. Sign some documents stating that the work done is only being done for you and that you get to keep the work that you pay form.

I'd rather pay more for a trusted freelancer than a cheap outsource. I want to feel good about the product that I pay for, however it gets done. That's why I don't outsource my freelance work.