I gave a panel presentation entitled “New Media, New Generation” at the Corporate Voices meeting in Washington DC on September 9, 2008. Around 40 director- and partner-level people (many in HR) attended from private corporations and nonprofit organizations. On the panel with me were Paull Young (Senior Account Executive, Converseon) and John Wolf (Senior Director, PR, Marriott). Things that went well:

• People loved the informal style of my hand-drawn presentation. They told me that the stick figures were both clear and engaging.
• People also really appreciated my energy, enthusiasm, and passion.
• I met lots of people and gave them tips on social media.
• I enjoyed figuring out a good structure for the presentation. The symmetric structure (new media = social media, new generation = net generation, and a 2×2 matrix) was easy to remember, and I figured out how to make the topics flow into each other.
• I told stories as part of my presentation, and those stories were easy to remember as well.
• Joining people for dinner beforehand and listening to a number of the other presentations gave me not only a sense of what people were interested in, but enough rapport with people so that I felt comfortable chatting.
• I remembered to record audio and video, and to ask someone to pay attention to the video camera. Most of the talk was captured on video – hooray! I’ve added the recorded audio to my presentation on Slideshare (see above), and I’ve synchronized it with the slides.

Things I can do even better next time:

• I can update my Talks page before heading to the presentation.
• I can ask the organizers for an attendee list so that I can get a better sense of who the audience members are.
• With a little more polish, I can make the presentation handout a good opportunity for more branding and help.
• I can work on pausing instead of using filler words like “right?”
• A proper video camera set up on a tripod near the front would give me better-quality video recordings.
• I can ask the organizers for tips on which airport I should use.
• I can ask my frequent-flyer friends how they make the most of travel time. Two hours is too short to really get into code. Maybe I should go earlier? Maybe those frequent flyer clubs are useful for something after all. Maple Leaf Club Worldwide (Air Canada) is CA$599/year. How much would I need to travel in order to make something like that worthwhile, and do I want to travel that much?
• I can bring a phone that isn’t on the fritz. =)

I’m still buzzing from the first client teleconference presentation I made. I gave a brief overview of Web 2.0 and universities.

Here’s what I learned because I did it well:

• Energy and excitement really helps. I focused on topics I was passionate about, picked highlights that I wanted to share, and told myself not to be intimidated by the collective IQ in an audience I couldn’t see.
• Standing up is good. It makes it easier to project more energy and pretend to be giving an actual presentation. This also makes it easier to gesture.
• If you need to use the handset, use your hand to hold it against your ear instead of scrunching your neck. This not only saves you from a sore neck, but also allows you to improve your breathing. If you have a noise-cancelling headset, use that instead. I don’t have one of those yet.
• If you’re running out of preparation time, practice your opening and closing, run through middle parts quickly, then go back and practice enough of your opening to give you a confident start. It’s important to make a good first impression. Not only does the primacy effect mean that people will remember the beginning of your presentation more than the following parts, but a strong start will give you confidence and make the rest of the presentation flow. A strong close that recaps important points and energizes people is also very helpful. Things in the middle will come to you once you get into the flow.
• Upload the presentation to Sametime Unyte instead of sharing your screen. Not only will this be faster for your audience, but you’ll also be less worried about random things popping up. (It’s still a good idea to set Sametime to Do-Not-Disturb or something similar, though.)
• Call in and start recording the Unyte presentation at least ten minutes before the start of your session. Things get really hectic right before the presentation. It’s easier to spend 10 minutes just waiting on the phone than to try to remember to set up all of your recording while the organizer’s announcing you.
• Check your social network for resources. Cattail was really handy. =) Also, thanks go to Stephen Perelgut for links and de-stressing!

Here’s what I can do to make things even better:

• Bring a glass of water. No stage doesn’t mean no stage fright.
• Create an activity template to make sure I remember to do everything. I’m starting to believe in Activities – I used it as a last-minute checklist for myself.
• Make sure I get a quick brief from the organizer as early as possible. I went down the wrong path with my first draft. Fortunately, the client rep briefed me last Tuesday, so I spent the rest of the day (and the night) hurriedly revising the presentation. It came out nicely.
• Reserve a room. I hadn’t reserved a room because I was planning to take one of the smaller non-bookable rooms, but all of those rooms were full. Moving to the “think bar” near the windows didn’t help. I should book a conference room. Even if the room is more space than I need, using that space is better than distracting more than six people. This will also minimize distractions from people asking me to quiet down. ;)
• Keep a library of materials. I need a good system for organizing slides, images, stories, and so on.

Happy! =D