XPSD Presenter Guidelines Differences
| Revision 17 was edited 20 weeks, 6 days, 1 hour, 33 minutes ago by cpe-66-75-23-141.san.res.rr.com.
To make things go as smoothly as possible, the XPSDOrganizers have compiled what happens before, during and after a presentation. It looks like a long list, but most of it is contingency and things run much simpler than it appears here. The items on the list are generally flexible and we will try to help presenters in any way we can.
We know that presenters have the difficult job, so THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR TIME!
Your Presentation
You are free to present in any way you wish. Here are some guidelines others have found useful:
- Keep it simple. One or two strong themes\messages are better than trying to cover everything there is to say in an hour.
- Start the presentation by giving the audience a short preview of what you will be talking about.
- Answer these 5 questions in the first 5 minutes:
- Where and when are we?
- Who are we in this setting?
- Why are we here?
- What do we want to see happen?
- And how do we get from here to there?
- Run through your presentation several thousand times. A dog is optimal as a psuedo-audience, cats are ok, don't know about iguanas.
- Do not be afraid to show the audience you are excited about the topic; make your presentation as unique and vibrant as you are.
The presentation:
- We meet at 6:00 PM, but ALWAYS start late to allow for security check-in and straglers. Expect the program to start at 6:15 PM.
- One of the XPSD moderators will announce the start of the meeting, make brief annoucements and the proceed with your introduction you provide us.
- There are
three four types of presentations you can give - short topic, roundtable, a lecture or a workshop. We normally conclude each presentation with 10 to 15 minutes of Q & A.
- A short topic is generally intended to explain a technical topic or highlight a new idea and last from 15 to 30 minutes. A new format provided by XPSD to help new speakers, ideas, perspectives and experiences get in front of our members.
- A roundtable is an open discussion where we can examine one or two ideas from a variety of perspectives for about an hour. The roundtable "host" provides a 10 to 15 minute overview of the topic(s) in order to frame our ideas and then starts the discussion with a provocative question.
- A lecture is more in-depth discussion of one or two themes or ideas and is expected to be about 60 minutes, but no longer than 75 minutes. This has been our standard for many years.
- A workshop should illistrate a concept or technical skill primarily through audience participation and ideally should not exceed 90 minutes. Workshops are fun and our members love them.
- If you are giving a technical how-to, get visual. Show how to do it, but also explain keystrokes, mouse clicks and the like, since they will only be able to see the screen.
- Comprehensiveness is usually not necessary in a presentation. We suggest using a handout for supplemental information and references to books.
- Our group likes to ask a lot of quesitons, so please allot time for quesitons during and after your presentation.
- After the Q & A, other XPSD business will be conducted such as the next meeting topic, where to go for the after talk social, etc.
About 2 weeks before the meeting:
- Please send a short biography about yourself to one of the organizers (see PreviousPresentations for ideas).
- We will also need a short description about your presentation (see PreviousPresentations for ideas).
- Both the biography and short description will be used in our annoucement.
A week before the meeting:
- Contact one of the XPSD organizers regarding any special equipment you may require.
- An annoucement will be made to our affiliated groups (see XPSDOrganizers page).
- Please do not assume a particular conference room or anything about the venue, it may change at the last minute. If venues change, we will do our best to notify you as soon as we know.
- If there is any doubt regarding equipment, it may make sense to try the equipment out at this time. This will give plenty of time to find alternate equipment or for you to change your presentation if necessary.
Two days before the meeting:
- A reminder announcement will be sent to our group and other groups we are affiliated with.
- Based on RSVP's, we should have a good idea of the expected attendance and will share that with you when we have a number.
- Please contact the XPSD organizers regarding any assistance you need, or will need, on the meeting night.
On the meeting night:
- Try to arrive at 5:45PM, in order to move quickly through security, we may set-up your equipment and work out any technical issues.
- One of the XPSD organizers will likely go over the order of the evening's events prior to starting.
- Meetings usually start with brief introductions by each of the attendees saying who they are, what they do, etc.
The week after the presentation:
- A soft-copy of your presentation would also be greatly appreciated but, only if you feel comfortable doing so and\or you are not bound by confidentiality agreements with your employer.