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Ask YC: Speaking at your first conference

6 points by PStamatiou ↗ HN
I have been invited to speak/lead a discussion at a tech conference in Italy this summer. It appears to be a large thing, turns out Aaron Swartz is also on the speaker list. I said that I'd go (after telling my summer class profs I'd be out a while). My "speaking" experience is comprised of various class presentations and pitching Skribit.com at a startup weekend and a handful of interviews. I'm not so much concerned about the talking as I am actually answering (hard) questions from the audience. What do you do to prepare? It's not until July so I have time.

Thanks

14 comments

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csmajorfive
Have someone you trust and who knows the topic well ask you questions from a variety of standpoints. Practice answering asshole, condescending questions meant to trip you up. Practice off-the-wall/off-topic questions, just plain hard technical questions, etc etc. I did this with my research professor before my first talk and it really paid off -- I got a really condescending question and managed to deflect it and get some laughs too.

Basically, just practice :)

makecheck
It can help to have friends in the audience. They can "ask" specific questions that you're already prepared to answer confidently (no one else in the audience knows who they are). This keeps you in a better frame of mind to deal with the rest of the audience's tough questions.
ezmobius
I like to write my slides and presentation the night before my speeches in the hotel at the conference. Helps keep it fresh. Say you have 50 minutes to fill... if you know your subject make about 30 slides and just be able to bullshit for 1-2 minutes per slide and you will do great!
jakewolf
do a live webinar beforehand and have us ask you questions. i'm sure you'll get the hard questions you're looking for.
fortes
Practice as much as you can, in front of people whenever possible. All it takes is 3-4 smart people to come up with at least 80% of the questions you'll encounter. Know those, and you'll be way ahead of most speakers.

For the main talk, I found it also helps to write out a full transcript of my talk -- even though I usually don't follow it, it forces me to organize something coherently, and gives me something I can easily send to others for review.

Best of luck, and enjoy Italy!

qthrul
Get an explicit understanding of what is expected of you from the event organizers. After the crowd, they are the most important people to satisfy if you want to be on the future short list :)

With that in mind, prior research on the crowd is great to have.

If you can get a DVD, Google Video, or other archive of the conference prior, you can get a good baseline on what might be expected of a speaker and how the audience reacts.

When you say "lead a discussion" if that means a panel or you acting as a moderator for others, it is good to know the personalities that will share stage. Definitely reach out to them for conference calls (if the organizer has not already) to map out what you plan to say and build quorum around time limits, pacing, and what you feel the crowd gets from the talk.

If you have access to similar audiences or students of those profs prior to the event you could offer to provide pre-event talks and collect surveys to grade how you performed.

Lastly, make sure you go easy on the food and drink prior to getting on stage ;-)

wheels
I feel like, as in many things, you learn to give presentations by giving presentations. Offer to give the same talk to your college's ACM or LUG groups a couple weeks before.

To me questions are always the meat of a presentation -- getting good questions means that you succeeded in getting people thinking. The most important thing is to know what you're talking about (a surprising number of presenters / politicians / whatever don't). If you know your topic reasonably well, you answer a question as far as you can and if it goes beyond what you know it's ok to say, "I don't know." You can use that too to sidestep questions that aren't really on topic and take away from relevant questions.

mixmax
Here is a comment I wrote yesterday, which might apply here as well:

I think that this is not the kind of thing you learn by reading a book - or sitting in front of a computer. It's a people thing. People have a knack for seeing through other people, whether they believe what they are presenting, like what they do etc.

These are the things I would recommend if you want to do a great demonstration:

- Love your product - nothing shines through like enthusiasm. Don't be afraid to show it either.

- Talk to people, study their reactions, smile to the waitresses, hook up with girls (or guys if that's your preference), start conversations with strangers on the bus. Like in all other walks of life if you practice interacting with people you will become good at it.

- Study great speakers when they do their thing - Start by looking at some of Steve Jobs keynotes. The guy is amazing. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are great at it too.

- Be prepared - Do your presentation until your girlfriend starts complaining that you talk in your sleep and she has heard more about you product while you sleep than she has heard about her other girlfriends sexlife. And that's a lot... Steve Jobs recites until everything is absolutely pixel perfect, and every eventuality is covered - and it shows. On their keynotes I heard that they have three independent AV systems. Just in case two of them break down.

- Read Dale carnegies "how to win friends and influence people - it's much better than all the modern crap. It's from the 1930's if my memory serves me correctly.

Good luck :-)

bkrausz
If you pick up the book (and I highly recommend it), order one from a while back. I hear the newer versions have edits to remove offensive parts (it was written 70 years ago, women didn't work, etc.), but I also hear these edits sometimes detract from the overall messages being conveyed.
stephenfleming
Practice in front of a live audience... even if just your roommates. Videotape yourself presenting and watch it (painful). I just put some points on presentation materials at http://academicvc.blogspot.com/2008/04/raising-capital-part-... and that might be interesting. Try to have a chance to test out the technology the night before... I know you use a Mac, so that eliminates a bunch of potential failure modes, but still..
phaedrus
As an undergraduate, I volunteered to present part of a another student's Ph.D. work at a tech conference. Like you, I was most nervous about questions because it wasn't my research and I wasn't even a grad student, so I was afraid that I would lose my credibility with the audience if they questioned me too closely. But I decided to just go in with confidence, and I learned all I could about the research I was presenting.

My talk was at the end of a long day, and due to a poorly organized conference, most of the potential audience had gotten fed up and gone home before I even got a chance to give my talk. In the end, I gave the talk to a nearly empty room and no one asked any questions.

jcder
are you really trying to ask what to do or just plugging the fact that you have invited to speak at some conference ie. enhancing your ego?
jcder
hehehe yeah, maybe follow some training classes, being confident that you can get them at 15$ a month :-)
wallflower
OK. Here's a subtle technique. For prior to your big presentation. People like people who they have met. Before your discussion, stand by the entrance and greet everyone (handshake). If you can't do that, introduce yourself to as much of the audience as you can (prior to the talk).

They'll like you better and your talk because they have had (albeit very brief) contact with you.