People who have spoken at tech conferences: what's one thing you wish you'd known before your first talk?
(RT for reach please?)
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oh! a better one: don't take questions your first time. I don't recommend it because you get done with the tada! and then it just kind of tapers off from there. plus the best questions aren't performative, they're the ones that happen off the stage face to face
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I'm quite grateful that the organisers are asking people to leave questions until the break, so no organised Q&A!
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Actually I totally disagree! Q&A is the best thing in learning the real interest of the audience. What they ask tells you what is valuable in your talk. My co-speaker and I had about 10 questions on stage at NDC London last week - and they gave us the info that nothing else could
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Yes! Every talk I've given the in-talk questions have always been people trying to show me how smart they are or trying to discredit the idea or concept..."sure it does xyz but can you speak to how it relates to my technology I use at work we've had in place for years?" 😂🤣
#MostlyTrue but there are ways to prevent bad questions, master speakers answer them explicitly on their second last slide! What calls the #slapdownslide. Even more useful in policy debates.