Guidelines for panel presenters
Steve Boback sent this around to the Blog Business Summit presenters. I thought it was pretty salient…..
Based on my experience, various critical posts made by attendees of previous blog conferences, and reading/listening to the transcripts and session recordings available from other blog events, I have some culled some guidelines largely based on comments from attendees at other conferences.
* AIM HIGH: Attendees will forgive sessions that contain a significant percentage of new or unfamiliar material. They will be merciless if you teach them “stuff I already knew”.
* PRAGMATIC INFO: The one main thing I’d like to emphasize is that we should all present information that helps people execute on better–more profitable business blogging NOW. Our audience wants tools and techniques that they can leverage asap when they get back to the office. For example, let’s not talk too much about what protocols, platforms, or standards SHOULD win various standards battles. Please focus on how to use (today) the ones that WILL win. Our audience doesn’t have time and $$ to spend on investing in “great” and/or “future” technologies and then end up being orphaned. As we have all learned the hard way, “best” does not necessarily mean “enduring”.
* HOW-TO FOCUS: This is a how-to event. At all costs avoid the tendency to fall into the trap of talking about how cool this all is, how we can all change the world, or any subject that veers out of the how-to arena. There is no shortage of conferences that will pontificate, self-congratulate, and debate for hours on how blogs can liberate humanity and eliminate global warming. This is not one of them.:)
* AVOID THE ECHO CHAMBER: This conference is about bloggers teaching effective businesses-related strategies and tactics, not so much about bloggers talking to bloggers about blogging. That being said, bloggers that successfully provide sales/marketing/pr/collaborative benefits to businesses have a lot to tell those bloggers that aspire to do the same. One key note to remember–if something has already been said by someone on the podium, avoid repeating it.
* TALKING ABOUT YOUR PRODUCTS/SERVICES: It’s like salt on a steak. A very small amount carefully applied can be okay. More than just a touch and the whole thing tastes pretty bad. People hate paying for a commercial. A slide at the beginning and a mention at the end are about it, in our experience.
* CUT TO THE DEMO: Show. Don’t just tell. Get out of PowerPoint (or
whatever) and *demonstrate* what you’re talking about.
* REPEAT THE QUESTION: With questions from the audience, repeat the question. This is a constant complaint from attendees. It also allows you to recast a problematic question in your own terms.
* DON’T GET SIDETRACKED: Wait for questions until the end. If you get a specialized or off-topic question, don’t get sidetracked. Recast the question or ask the person to see you after the session.
* DON’T ARGUE: If you’re participating in a panel, don’t fight. Don’t be acrimonious. People generally like it when speakers disagree in an informative, interesting way. They hate it when they argue.
* CROSS REFERENCE. Please attend other conference sessions and refer to them in your presentations. It puts your content in context and avoids repetition. Give your attendees cross-refs to other sessions.
* STAY ON TIME: Start and end on time. We keep to a *strict* timetable, and we’ll have the hook ready. Attendees really like it when we stay on schedule. Also, do not end your session more than 2-3 minutes before the allotted time.