Disney’s UX Summit — My Experience
In May of this year, I had the privilege of being able to speak at the Disney UX Summit at the Disney Grand Californian Hotel. It’s been some time since the event so I wanted to sit down and write down some of my reflections to remember this amazing experience.
For some context, our Design Systems Team (Sarah, Miah, Henry, and Matt) were chosen to showcase what we’ve been working on as a team to a room full of talented designers. Designers ranging from Shanghai Disney, Disney Paris, Disney Streaming, ESPN, and more. We had around 2 months to plan how we would like to tell our unique story in a digestible manner and, let me tell you, planning for a talk at that scale takes a LOT of work. Not only do you have to juggle your day-to-day tasks, but prepping for what to say, finding the correct story beats, and making sure you have a cohesive presentation is a lot easier said than done. But our team got to work.
Dividing our tasks into 5 equal parts, we each took a piece of what we wanted to highlight and speak on. Fast forward to May and around 10+ run-throughs later and multiple iterations of the visuals we would be sharing, it was finally time for our presentation.
Here are some tips that I think helped me calm my nerves to be able to get through standing on stage for 25 minutes.
1. Hype yourself up
It’s amazing how you can brainwash yourself into thinking that you can take on any challenge by simply telling yourself words of affirmation. I told myself “Let’s use this opportunity to TEACH and make sure you do it while having FUN not fear.” Being my own silent motivator helped me to believe in myself and what I was going to be sharing about. When you have the mic, remember you‘ve got the floor for that short moment, make the most of it.
2. A solid stance, deep breathes, and smiling
After watching a few Ted talks on “How to be a confident speaker,” one tip that I learned was before saying your first words, stand with a firm stance, look into the audience, pause, smile, and then begin. Why is this helpful?
a) Standing with a firm stance can help ground yourself to help alleviate any jitters / nervousness that can show on stage.
b) Deep breathes can help calm down your nerves and will help you speak at a slower pace rather than racing through your speaking points.
c) Smiling can help with the tone and direction of your talk. Simply by smiling, your voice tone can incite excitement and positive emotion to the topic that you will be speaking on.
Remember that the audience will not always remember WHAT you said but HOW you made them feel. Make sure it’s a positive emotion they leave with.
3. Remove Filler Words
Whenever I practiced and caught myself using words such as “um, like, you know, yeah…” I would try to take a pause instead. If you’re unsure how often or even IF you use filler words when you speak, try recording yourself to see if you notice any public speaking habits that you’re unaware of.
4. Practice, Practice, Practice
This is pretty straight forward but the last tip is to practice like there’s no tomorrow. Practice while you’re driving, in the shower, whenever you have some free time, practice until you’re tired of practicing, that’s when you’ll know you’re ready. As the saying goes, “Practice makes perfect” OR in my case, “Practice makes for a smoother experience”. Regardless, this is probably the most vital tip that all must do whenever they have an important talk coming up.
Phew, that was a lot. If you have a presentation coming up or if you HATE public speaking, remember you’re not alone. It takes a lot of work, time, and effort but we can all work on improving together.
Please leave any other tips that you have for presentations and feel free to watch my journey on prepping for the Summit down below! I’ll talk to you all soon! 👋
