While I was at the recent EuroIA conference I wrote a few notes on what I’d ask people to do if they wanted to ‘present’.

I was partly inspired by my recent experience of BarCamp London, and the fact that I was surrounded by smart and creative people at EuroIA, but that it didn’t feel like this was being projected as best it could.

Here’s my list of ‘what makes a good presentation’:

1. be specific, don’t talk in generalisations, don’t be too high level. This is really unsatisfying and ultimately frustrating – particularly if lots of other speakers are taking the same ‘top level’ approach!
2. give real examples. Put your ideas in context, SHOW us what you mean, tell us the story that surrounds the example, the context. Help us understand how you know what you know.
3. details people, I want details! If you don’t have time to go into detail, then your topic is too broad. Pick a narrower topic and really explore it. It’s much more interesting. Sure, it might not appeal to *everyone* in the audience, but they’ll self select and go get a coffee and do some networking if your topic is not for them. For the people who *do* stay, your talk will be so much more valuable.
4. show me! if you’re talking about a project you’ve worked on, then show me your work! If you’re talking about something technical, then show us some code (yep, even if you’re talking to Information Architects). Be brave! Sure, this might open you up to some criticism, but that will spark interesting conversation, which is the reason we come to conferences, isn’t it?!
5. take a position. Don’t sit on the fence, don’t take the middle ground. Talk about something you have an opinion on, and something you believe in. Be passionate about it. Again – this requires bravery because no doubt there will be people with an opposing opinion. See item 4 re: interesting conversation.
6. be prepared and professional. If you don’t take your presentation seriously, then how are we supposed to. Don’t just wing it. Don’t just rehash something you did six months ago and trust yourself to remember it. Know what you’re going to say, prepare great materials (powerpoint, if you must) and rehearse. Present well.
7. practice, in front of people. Find some colleagues or clients or anyone who might be vaguely interested in what you’re presenting (dogs don’t count). Present to them. Ask them for feedback. Listen. Iterate.
8. be creative. Try something different. Don’t feel that you have to do a certain kind of talk (the academic type) to be considered credible. Think of novel ways to present your material, ways that might help convey your point more effectively. Ways that might break up the day for the audience. Take a risk. Even if it doesn’t quite come off, the audience will thank you for the variety.

Conference organisers can change they way they call for an evaluate papers by specifically requiring that presenters consider these kinds of approaches in their proposals. Or by mixing up the types of presentation structures they recruit for.

Can we come up with something beyond Presentation or Panel or Poster sessions and actually design new, more hands on, practical formats that we make presenters work to? Can we make sure that a Case Study is not just a Presentation in disguise?

Of course, there’s a place for formal academic style conference formats, but if your conferences is more about practitioners than academics, then let’s make sure the content is appropriate to the audience.

But hey, I’m no expert in conference organising or speaking. These are just a few notes I jotted down after the closing keynote of EuroIA.

What do you think?

(Also, check out Scott Berkun’s ‘how to run a great unconference session’ for the BarCamp version of this post.

Photo Credit: Arnold Pouteau @ Flickr

Technorati Tags: EuroIA2006

and three kinds of bloggers ‘gold’ – the network, the traffic and the ranking. Which of these you put most stock in depends on which blogging type you are. I reckon there are three kinds of bloggers. We all probably share traits of each of these types but see if you recognise yourself in one of these types:

1. Sharing Blogger – these bloggers share compulsively. They blog about subject matter that they’re passionately interested in and it helps them to further their understanding of these subjects. They then compulsively share their knowledge with anyone who gives them the barest hint of interest. The more interest or passion that their audience shows, the more they get into their blogging.

Before blogging, they were bombarding friends and co-workers with ideas, references and opinions by all other means (particularly email – these guys are notorious for bulk emails).

Can’t live without: Akismet, a well subscribed RSS reader, and a login to ACM.
Blogging Gold: The network – getting feedback (emails and comments) from others who are interested in/passionate about the same subject area(s) that they blog about.

2. Banking Blogger – this blogger will blog about anything that will generate traffic. It doesn’t matter if it’s Lindsay Lohan, the World Cup (football), some baseball team, or fashion – as long as it pulls the traffic and gets the Adsense revenue up, they’re happy. When they blog depends on when they’ll get the most traffic rather than when they have an idea. (They actually *know* when to blog for traffic).

Of course these bloggers have passions beyond the dollar… they more than likely have a blog about something they’re *really* interested in, but this is rarely the money spinner. These bloggers are fluent in the language of partnerships, affiliate programs, and networks. They design their blogs around the advertising and they know where you put an ad to maximise revenue.
Can’t live without: ProBlogger and Adsense.
Blogging Gold: The traffic – the more traffic, the more clicks, the more cash.

3. Hollywood Blogger – These guys (and they mostly are men) are blogging for fame and glory – the blog is their soapbox. They stalk the ‘a-list’ in every manner imaginable. You’ll see their comments scattered far and wide. They are constantly writing about the A-List, or what the A-List are writing about – either with stomach turning adoration or, often as a last resort having been ignored one too many times, controversially attacking the A-Lister – all in the hope of a link or too.

You’ll see these guys at conferences and unconferences everywhere. They’ve worked out how to game TechMeme, and they argue with Technorati about how their rankings are calculated. These are the bloggers most likely to opine about the A-Lists habit of linking to each other or not at all. Or about how they’re not getting the audience that they deserve. Or that they’re going to quit blogging.

They’re the reason that I even started thinking about this post.

Can’t live without: Technorati Top 100, TechMeme
Blogging Gold: The Ranking – which is achieved by gaining links.

So, why was I thinking about this post? Because in the last week or so there’s been more carry on about traffic and who deserved traffic. There’s a general assumption that we’re doing this blogging business for the numbers… but I think there are a lot of us out there who are much more interested in the conversation…. but perhaps that’s just me?

What do you think? Is it all about the numbers? The links and the traffic? Or is there something more about a blog, it’s ecosystem, it’s place in a network, that can make it valuable without getting the big numbers?

Image Credit: Econbrowser 

We’re talking about unconferences (what are they?), should a chick blogging conference be included as a stream in a larger Downunder Web Conference? (If so, which one). And, is Ben Barren the appropriate champion for Aussie women who blog?

Come, join the fun :)

See, this is why we need more women talking out in tech.

We’re just sitting here talking about how we’d like women in technology to be more visible, and ways that we can make this happen and suddenly Dave Winer, Ben Barren and Richard McManus are organising not just one but *two* more conferences!

Just what the world needs. :)

Seriously, whilst I think it would be great to have a web2/blogher doubleheader conference in Australia (it would be great to not travel a million miles to see someone as ‘famous’ as Dave speak) and I would love the opportunity to see and meet more chicks who blog, particularly those who blog about web2, let’s not get distracted.

Fact is, we don’t know where most of these women are and they’re probably not going to write a proposal to speak at your conference. And *that* is the nub of the problem.

Agree? Disagree?

Get down here to my earlier post and join in the discussion.

Postscript:

For those of you who nick over to Ben’s blog to read his post (and yes, I agree, Sophie you definitely need a blog). Check out this intriguing phrase in context and let me know what you think it means:

the potential ovatory auditionary experience

I’m not sure even Ben know’s exactly what it means, but I find it as disturbing (conceptually) as it is beautiful (linguistically).

Technorati Tags: web+2.0, women, blogging

Image Credit: The amazinging prolific Hugh McLeod at GapingVoid