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Thanks so much, Nathan. It means a lot to me to hear this feedback from you. It was actually my first time moderating a panel. So, this makes me really happy.

Funny thing about the Twitter lists demo. When it was happening – it was unplanned and I had no idea until it actually happened – I was thinking about it and the following things kind of went through my mind: we’re making good time, we can afford to do this. Not many people have access, so people will be interested, let’s see where it goes. Hopefully not so long that I need to forcibly cut anyone off.

Thankfully, that’s what happened. Robert gave a great demo and was a great panelist. Afterward, I really thought it was awesome that the Twitter Lists demo was sort of a side plot for the panel, an extra morsel, if you will. Because we delivered what we came to deliver: we covered all of our points in an appropriate amount of time and we had a good Q&A where we answered whatever people asked. I hope it delivered value overall.

Great post, Nathan. This is a really helpful one for people looking to speak.

I have one more tip to add: don’t be afraid to be different (style wise). A couple of days before the conference, I decided I didn’t want to look at Twitter during the panel. At all. I didn’t want to read from it during our presentation, I didn’t want to look at it during our presentation and I didn’t want it to interrupt us.

There were a lot of panels where the Twitter discussion or the back channel or whatever was a big part of it and that’s understandable. I would do it myself in the right setting, if I wanted (and did do it at Social Media Business Forum, a conference held shortly after BWE). I just felt it for this one.

My reasoning was that BWE has us there to speak to the people who are there. The best part of conferences to me is face to face networking. As such, I wanted to focus on delivering the presentation to the people we were looking in the eyes and on answering the questions of anyone who stepped to the mic and looked us in the eyes. If no one stepped to the mic, sure, we’d then open up Twitter. But, otherwise, I didn’t want to.

So, I told Wayne this and he was cool with it. I told Amber and so was she. I wasn’t sure how Robert would react, but he was gracious and agreed to it (he didn’t even open his laptop during the panel!). I was so happy with the way we stuck to it. The only question asked from Twitter was one that another person actually came to the mic to ask, which was awesome (to me).

Twitter is amazing and we all love it, but I think that… for one panel… the idea of not looking at it was a good thing. So, don’t feel like you have to do stuff just because everyone else is doing it or because you feel like you’d be scorned if you didn’t do it for not being “transparent.”

Hope this makes sense.

Thanks again,

Patrick

I think the do it free for a year is vital – I say yes to everybody and it is also the best learning experience that I could have got on how to get better at it. Keep up the posts.

The good one’s don’t fixate on the PPT screen. They look at the audience the whole time. One public speaking trainer told me that a truly effective speaker should need no visual aids at all–just a command of the topic and a memorable, engaging delivery. That may be a bit radical, but point well taken.

Another tip: leave your audience with a call to action. What do you want them to do when they leave the room? Could be “call your legislator.” Could be “learn more by going here…” Could be “tell your boss and colleagues that they should be looking at or doing (this)….”

And finally….stories. Load up a presentation with stories and anecdotes to impart the message. Audiences connect with real-world examples. Dry, rote instructions and bullet points are easy to hide behind and make for a seriously dull presentation.