Lessons Learned: Planning for a Successful Talk
- John Wang
On March 20th, I had the privilege of being a speaker at Unconferenz. I also ended up hosting a couple of other talks throughout the day as well. I presented on the topic of Designing iPhone/iPad Apps and 3rd Party SDKs. The slides are available here.
I learned quite a few lessons as a speaker about giving a better talk.
Internet Access
I didn't run into any problems on Internet Access at Unconferenz, but I did make sure to ask the host if there would be Internet access provided. I also brought along a personal USB 3G Modem as a backup.
Power
Power actually could have been a problem. I currently use a MacBook Pro which about 2-3hrs of battery life. However, something to consider is the computer going to sleep mode while you're in the middle of a presentation. Also, the power outlet may not be somewhere remotely close to how long your power cable reaches. For this, I carry both my power adapter and also a 10ft extension cable. You may also want to be a kind person and bring a multi-outlet mini surge protector so not to take the only one or 2 power outlet available.
Backup Plan
Always have a backup plan. The one thing that I did not have at all was a Mini-DisplayPort to VGA adapter for my laptop to connect to the projector. That was a bad thing. Luckily, someone at the conference did have one and I was able to borrow it. There was also a computer in the room that I could have used as another fallback as long as I had my presentation on a USB Key or uploaded somewhere like DropBox on the web.
Contact Info
I ran out of business cards. That was a bad thing. Always bring lots of those. I was lucky enough that some people had iPhones with the Bump app to swap contact info and also some who were willing to either give me theirs so I could contact them or just quickly add me to either Twitter or Gmail email address.
Double-Check Everything, Maybe Even Triple-Check
I had uploaded my slides ahead of time in case anyone wanted to download them. Unfortunately for me, I misspelled the file name and the link was dead. I quickly corrected the link and made sure to tweet it back out. That was very embarrassing to say the least. Make sure your stuff is set before you announce it.