I love going to conferences, dare I say I am a conference
junkie, hence I attend and speak at around 10 conferences each year. The
conferences I go to are usually academic or technical in nature where the
speakers present their latest research, ideas and innovations. I also help
organise the biannual Workplace Trends
and annual Learning Environments
conferences for which I select the speakers, and also receive feedback from the
audience on the speakers.
After attending 100s of conferences across the globe over
the years I have concluded that, in general, there are two types of technical speaker:
1. those with fantastic content but have poor delivery, and 2. those that
present well but have poor content. Speakers with good content who can also
communicate in an interesting and engaging manner are the unicorns of the
conference circuit – that is they are rare and magical beasts. It always seems
a shame to me that the years of hard graft conducting original and valuable
research is ultimately lost amidst a poorly constructed and delivered
presentation. So here are my top tips for
a terrific technical talk.
