The document provides tips for speakers presenting at Ignite Seattle. It advises speakers to tell stories with 4-5 key points or beats within the 5 minute time limit. Speakers are encouraged to practice their talks while standing up and speaking loudly with a timer. They should use large readable fonts on slides and keep the visuals simple with photos rather than complex diagrams. The document emphasizes practicing the talk multiple times and allowing silence for the audience to absorb the information.
5. This is the stage at
Town Hall, where
you will be
speaking
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6. This is your confidence
monitor. It shows the
current slide. It helps
prevent you from turning to
look at your slides.
.
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7. It is small.
You won’t be able to read
from it. It simply cues you
to what slide is currently
visible behind you.
.
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8. The red carpet is the
best place to be.
You’ll look best for the
crowd and video.
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9. How To Prepare, Part 1
• Stories are better than data
• Have four or five beats
• A beat is a story, a key point, an
example etc.
• If it takes ~1 minute to make a point,
you have time for 4 or 5 in total
• Practice before you make any slides
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10. When you practice
• Stand up
• Hold something microphone like (a pen, a
toothbrush, a flashlight)
• Set a timer for 5 minutes
• Imagine a big crowd of friendly people
• Speak at FULL volume
• It’s ok if you get stuck at first. You will :)
• Revise your material if needed and try again
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11. How To Prepare, Part 1
• Moments of silence are good
• When you practice, give yourself room
to breathe
• Silence lets people catch up to what
you just said
• It’s good to have buffer, places where
you plan to pause. Should something
go wrong the buffer will help you.
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12. How To Prepare, Part 2
• Fonts and sizes
• Don’t compete with your slides
• Practice (10 times in a hour)
• Get exercise / Come early
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13. Large fonts please
80 pt
60 pt
40pt
30
20
15
10
If you are reading this I hate you
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14. Put important things here
Or here
But not down here where most
of the crowd won’t see it
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15. Keep it simple
People can’t read long slides
and listen to you at the same
time and if you fill your slides
with complexity it will split the
audience’s attention more
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17. Avoid complex diagrams.
Unless you’re simply referencing
how complex something is.
No brain can understand a
complicated diagram and listen to
you all in 15 seconds
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18. Photos/Images work best
Our brains process photos
quickly. They also give you as
a speaker flexibility for what
specific thing you say while
it’s visible.
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20. How to find photos
• Use photos that grant permission
• Creative Commons search at Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/search/
advanced/
• Provide a small url at the bottom of the
image for attribution
• Or use a stockphoto website
20
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21. The format is flexible
We require 20 slides each
visible for 15 seconds. But you
can show the same slide
twice (or more) if you want…
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24. Common mistakes
• Not practicing
• Not practicing
• Not practicing
• No breathing room / margin for error
• Too complex
• Lacking a fault tolerant structure (If you
forget point #2, can you still make
point #3)
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25. Summary
• Don’t compete with your slides
• Practice (10 times in a hour)
• Tell one story, with 4 beats
• Silence is ok
• Big fonts, simple photos
• Get exercise / Come early
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