You Should Be Standing Here: Learn How To Present a Session
You should know how to present a session. In fact, you should be standing up on the stage where I will be standing while presenting this session. It's not about becoming an industry expert, an MVP or an AWS Community Builder. No, it's about learning how to take an idea to your management team and convince them that you can help the business. It's about teaching new techniques to your peers. It's about expanding your own knowledge on a topic as you prepare a session, present it, and then answer questions. There are very good, career driven, reasons for you to learn to present. This session will go over how to put together a session. From choosing meaningful titles to putting together abstracts, you'll get the information you need to get started. We'll also cover how to put together a session, demonstrations, and more. We'll also cover how to rehearse to get ready for your session. Finally, we'll cover giving the session, handling questions, hecklers and more. You should be standing at the front of the room, giving your own session. Please, come here, learn why, and learn how. It will help you in your career.
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You Should Be Standing Here: Learn How To Present a Session
- 1. You Should Be Standing Here
- 2. Thank you, sponsors 💖
- 3. Agenda • Why Present? • Ideas & Stories • Title & Abstract • Structure • Preparation • Humor • Style
- 4. Grant Fritchey DevOps Advocate Microsoft Data Platform MVP AWS Community Builder About me @gfritchey grant@scarydba.com scarydba.com
- 5. • Convince your team • Teach your peers • Get a new job • Become an MVP!!! • Totally kidding Why Present?
- 6. • Easiest first presentation, teach a skill • Next easiest, explain the solution to a problem • For short presentations, focus on a single idea/concept/point • For longer presentations, think about telling a story • Don’t try to boil the ocean, meaning, you can’t cover everything about a given topic, so focus on a few important points Ideas & Stories
- 7. • The only thing some people read • Clarity is king • Cute/Funny can work, or can hurt • Understand your audience Title
- 8. • Clarity, clarity, clarity • Steal my structure • A) Define a problem or difficulty • B) Describe how the session will help address that problem • C) Tell how the attendees can immediately apply this at work • Or don’t, it’s on you • Grammar matters, as does spelling • Cute/funny frequently loses • Create multiple abstracts, even for the same presentation • Submit more than one abstract, on more than one topic Abstract
- 9. • Decide early on what and how you intend to present • My rough structure • A) Tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em • B) Tell ‘em • C) Tell ‘em what you told ‘em • All slides, one slide, no slides • Slides as guideposts vs. slides as documentation (this is more the latter) • Live demos, no demos, recorded demos • Presentation time is important • 20 minutes or less, you can communicate one (1) idea, focus • Remember, focus on your audience • You can mix demos and slides, or, do the slides, then do the demos Structure
- 10. • Are you doing demos? They’re first • Sketch an outline using any tool (I write mine down first) • Put the outline into slides • Expand the ideas there • Do the demos really work? • Don’t be afraid to rearrange as you go Preparation
- 11. • Rehearse • But not too much • Record yourself • Rehearse out loud (yes, my family laughs at me a lot) • Did the demos work in the rehearsal? More Preparation
- 12. • Have someone you trust review the slides and/or watch your recording • Take feedback as a gift • Practice using ZoomIt (if using demos) • Otherwise, make the fonts BIG • Did you reset after the demos? Still More Preparation
- 13. • Humor is extremely subjective • You can, no, you will, offend some people just by trying to be funny • Know your audience • Personally, I avoid risqué or ribald humor • Attacking others, especially in the audience is dangerous • Self-deprecating humor frequently works well • As with life, moderation Humor
- 14. • Style generally comes with experience, so don’t sweat it too much • Be comfortable • Few people can adopt a persona, so don’t try unless you know you can • Remember, your style should both support your message, and speak to your audience • Don’t worry about all those books and videos on presenting. You can break most of the “rules” and give a good presentation. Style
- 15. • The audience wants you to succeed • Questions, you can decide how you want to deal with questions, just let the audience know • If you take questions, repeat the question • For the audience • To be sure you understood it so you can better answer it • Hecklers/Ramblers/Stump the Chump • Remember, it’s your presentation • It’s OK to suggest something be taken after the session • It’s OK to say “I don’t know” • Relax • Breathe • Speaker slower than you think you should Presenting Points
- 17. Grant Fritchey DevOps Advocate Microsoft Data Platform MVP AWS Community Builder About me @gfritchey grant@scarydba.com scarydba.com
- 18. Questions?
Editor's Notes
- Big question mark | in Ipswich | Benjamin Reay | Flickr