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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?

#24

Post by khazhou »

If you're projecting from your own laptop, shut down any apps that might give bouncing notifications. Really, just shut down all apps. And don't have your browser open with bookmarks tab and window tabs showing.

Don't spent 10 minutes on the introduction. A very common mistake is people step too slowly through the setup material. Just lay out the problem and GO. In fact, even throughout the talk, assume the audience is smart and can fill in the obvious blanks.

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

#25

Post by andai »

zwischenzug wrote: post #10

Best advice I had about giving talks (from a non-techie) was 'tell a story'. People like stories more than information. If they want information they can mine you for it afterwards.

A lady who runs a daycare once told me, it's easy to get kids to eat their vegetables, if you hide them in mashed potatoes (as a rule, kids hate vegetables and love mashed potatoes).

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

#27

Post by krzrak »

When rehearsing record yourself (i.e. with your phone mounted on the tripod or just against something). I realized, that before that I didn't do full rehearsal, just was repeating the talk in my mind or even if speaking aloud - I was sitting instead of standing, had lots of interruptions, etc. Then watch the recording. It's painful, but worth it. Observe your body language. Try to face the audience, not sit or stand with your back towards them to read the slides. Move a little bit, don't just stand there.

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

#28

Post by Cthulhu_ »

pmiller2 wrote: post #18
JD557 wrote: post #14

Make sure that your talk fits the timeslot. I find it helpful to go train the whole talk with a metronome (at a slowish tempo) to have an upper bound on how much time the talk will take.

Just as a guideline, I’ve found that about 1 slide per minute (with not a ton of text per slide) is pretty good. This has worked for me for topics ranging from graduate level math to programming topics.

But as an addendum, your talk should not depend on the slides - the slides should illustrate or add information, trigger people's visual memory for what you said during that slide.

If you write slides with bulletpoints and read them, then er, just, don't.

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

#29

Post by antirez »

fergie wrote: post #17
antirez wrote: post #6

Say at least something useful and new that most people in the audience do not know already. If this is not the case, better to rethink the talk from scratch. Audience should go aways thinking "I learned a few new things".

Whilst I personally agree that talks are better when you learn something new, there seem to be whole conferences dedicated to intentionally restating the same things over and over again. Its almost as if some people go to these events to have their ideas _confirmed_. Project management conferences I am looking at you!

I agree but I'm not sure this is intentional... I've the feeling that commercial conferences are just simpler to run that way: professional talk-giving persons always saying the same things over and over, with little efforts and without being part of any actual "research" in the field.
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