DevBlog

In my last post, I discussed ways to improve your PowerPoint when giving conference presentations. But before you even get to that point, you need to plan what you are going to present.

Step one is to know your audience. Are they experienced with the technology you're speaking on? Do they understand competing or parallel technologies? What do you think they are looking for in this presentation?

Next you need to define the technical level for your presentation. Is it a high-level, 30,000 foot view or will it be deep dive? If going deep dive, you need to define some prerequisites that attendees should know so you don't have to spend time covering the basics. This sets the attendees expectations on what they'll learn.

Now it's time to work up an outline. This is your guide to what you'll actually present and can be used for the Outline slide at the beginning of your session. The presentation should cover three main points:

WHAT am I going to show you?

WHY should it matter to you?

HOW can you do it?

If you've answered these three questions, the audience should go away satisfied.

One last thing?Pick out one key point and make it the "If you don't learn anything else in this session, learn this one thing" item. This should be the most important concept in your session. It's not often easy to find one key thing, but it's important that you do.

My next post in this series will cover session artifacts.

// posted by Craig Berntson @ 12:51:00 PM