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Ask HN: What are the things keep in mind while giving/preparing for a tech talk?

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Re: Ask HN: What are the things keep in mind while giving/preparing for a tech talk?

#161

Post by mindcrime »

gnur wrote: post #19

Always do at least 1 full rehearsal with a timer, preferably two full rehearsals where the first one you do keep a timer but also have a notebook (physical) present to quickly write down adjustments you want to make. Do a live demo, people love live demo's, but be prepared for when disaster strikes (it will), if possible run your live demo on a physical device with you during the presentation. Most places allow you t…

Do not use a linux machine

I have done a lot of presentations over the years, and to the best of my recollection, every single one has been done using a Linux machine, and this has mostly been a non issue.

I think a better adage might be "get there early so you have time to deal with technical issues, bring any potentially required adapters, and have your presentation on a thumb-drive in case you need to borrow someone else's machine to present in a pinch." I say, "on a thumb drive" as opposed to "in Dropbox" or whatever, because you may rarely find yourself in a position of not having net access in the location of the talk.

Re: Ask HN: What are the things keep in mind while giving/preparing for a tech talk?

#162

Post by mindcrime »

avian wrote: post #34
gnur wrote: post #19

Always do at least 1 full rehearsal with a timer, preferably two full rehearsals where the first one you do keep a timer but also have a notebook (physical) present to quickly write down adjustments you want to make. Do a live demo, people love live demo's, but be prepared for when disaster strikes (it will), if possible run your live demo on a physical device with you during the presentation. Most places allow you t…

> Do a live demo, people love live demo's It really depends on the topic of the talk. If it's something that can be demonstrated in a quick and straightforward way, do a demo by all means. But I've seen talks where people were forcing a demo into a talk about complicated concepts. There's little value in seeing someone type in a page of code, compile and run. Or seeing something run without understanding what is happ…

I would argue that the slides are there for the audience. Ideally, you need to be able to present your talk without seeing your slides. They are not cue cards for the speaker.

I would argue the exact opposite. I think you should desire to be able to do your talk without seeing your slides, because the goal should be to do the talk without slides at all. You want the audience focused on you and what you're saying, IMO. Slides are a (sometimes) necessary evil just to help keep the talk on track.

Re: Ask HN: What are the things keep in mind while giving/preparing for a tech talk?

#163

Post by mindcrime »

jackthetab wrote: post #158

Two things I haven't seen ITT yet: 1. After you tell me what you're going to talk about, tell me why I should be listening to _you_. Why are you an authority on this topic? Unless you're famous, I don't know you. 2. The talk should contain 50% or less of your knowledge on the topic. You want to keep some info "in your back pocket" to ad lib with.

After you tell me what you're going to talk about, tell me why I should be listening to _you_.

Interesting. I never do this, and probably never will. My viewpoint is that you've already made the decision to attend the talk, so me spending time reciting my bio is just redundant and a waste of time.

Re: Ask HN: What are the things keep in mind while giving/preparing for a tech talk?

#165

Post by adictator »

3stadt wrote: post #11

In my experience, one of the most important things is to keep your audience in mind. I recently gave a talk about how docker works internally. I knew that a good chunk of the audience was aware of the difference between docker and a VM, so in the beginning, I explained these differences via a more or less fun story. People who already knew the content were not annoyed, the rest got the information they needed. Anothe…

What was the fun story?

Re: Ask HN: What are the things keep in mind while giving/preparing for a tech talk?

#166

Post by radford-neal »

Have something to say. Something that you WANT to say. If you don't have that, cancel the talk.

So you want to say something. Say it.

Don't start your 20 minute talk by spending two minutes going over an outline of it, saying that you'll first present the problem, then review past work, then blah, blah, blah. I HOPE that the thing you want to say isn't "I've spent a lot of time organizing my talk like this..."

Don't start your talk with a funny anecdote about the driver of the taxi you took from the airport. I hope that THAT isn't what you want to talk about either.

Do start by describing the problem you're solving (you are solving some sort of problem, I assume...?). But only to the point where the audience can grasp what you're trying to do. Review past work only if the focus of your work is something like "I fixed the problem that the XYZ algorithm unnecessarily recomputes A...". You can mention how past work relates to yours at the end of the talk. It will make more sense then.

Get as quickly as you can to WHAT YOU ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISHED. I hope that's what you want to talk about.

Re: Ask HN: What are the things keep in mind while giving/preparing for a tech talk?

#167

Post by jxy »

timr wrote: post #148
jxy wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are we actually talking about tech talk? I can understand marketing talks where all you need is you and your words, accompanied with some useless images. It would be an utter waste of time if a tech talk turned up like that.

Smart people always vastly overestimate the technical interest level of their audience. Even in audiences composed exclusively of brilliant, technical people, the average level of commitment to whatever you're saying is damned near zero. Accordingly, you must keep your message exceedingly simple. Thinking is hard for everyone, and you have to persuade people to do it. It doesn't come for free. You may not like "marke…

That's why more and more talks are simply bullshit.

Re: Ask HN: What are the things keep in mind while giving/preparing for a tech talk?

#169

Post by jschulenklopper »

suls wrote: post #94

I came across https://speaking.io _after_ I presented for the first time at a larger conference [1]. In hindsight it's so obvious -- Zach Holman really talks about the things that matter. So if you still have time, please do your future-self a favour and have a look at it. Another point I found out _after_ I presented is to better avoid any caffeinated drinks -- apparently it makes your mouth dryer. Adding a bit of n…

Came here to say the same - https://speaking.io/ is very valuable in preparing, creating and delivering a (tech) conference presentation. Recommended resource!

Re: Ask HN: What are the things keep in mind while giving/preparing for a tech talk?

#170

Post by jschulenklopper »

gnur wrote: post #19

Always do at least 1 full rehearsal with a timer, preferably two full rehearsals where the first one you do keep a timer but also have a notebook (physical) present to quickly write down adjustments you want to make. Do a live demo, people love live demo's, but be prepared for when disaster strikes (it will), if possible run your live demo on a physical device with you during the presentation. Most places allow you t…

> Always do at least 1 full rehearsal with a timer, preferably two full rehearsals

Personally, for me to feel very comfortable in delivering the talk, I practice the whole presentation at least five, six times.

The first couple of those practice runs, I tend to adjust the slides and my talk, to iron out the wrinkles in either my slides, my words or the transitions/logic between the slides.

The latter practice runs are essentially to memorize the whole talk. I typically write out my whole speech in the speaker notes, but after two-three practice runs I don't need to look at them anymore.

The result is a presentation delivery that as an intronerd I'm very comfortable with -- even the jokes have been practiced and perfected -- and one that I could deliver practically verbatim the next day.

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