Six things you need to know if you are talking at Hacks/Hackers London

Here‘s how to make the most out of your talk

Hacks/Hackers London is a community of journalists and technologists focused around a monthly meetup

Congratulations on being invited to give a talk at Hacks/Hackers London! This is a brief guide to help you make your talk a success. Whether you are giving a public presentation for the first time, or if you are a veteran with an already well-rehearsed keynote, we hope you’ll find useful tips and information here.

• Hacks/Hackers is a community of journalists, technologists, entrepreneurs, university professors and students. We are a friendly, intellectually curious, and varied group of people who come to the meet-ups to learn, to be inspired, to find out the latest industry trends, to get under the surface of a company, project or idea, and to network with our peers.
• You will have about 15 minutes for your presentation, followed by 10 minutes of Q&A. This means you won’t have time to cover everything. Instead, you should focus on one thing that you want the audience to remember about your talk, and build out the rest of your talk from there.
• As with most talks, it’s a good idea to steer clear of jargon and avoid getting too deep into the technical weeds.
• Tell your story, but avoid turning your talk into just a marketing/sales pitch. Hacks/Hackers is a great platform for spreading ideas, but please put yourself into your audience’s shoes: How would you feel if you came to a meetup and the speaker spent the whole time puffing up their accomplishments?
• Be honest and open, and ideally share at least one insightful thing about you or your company that the audience won’t have heard before.
• One of the most-asked questions at Hacks/Hackers is: How did you measure success? It’s sometimes also phrased as: What impact or result did this have?

Still feeling stuck and want some examples to draw inspiration from?

• If your talk is about cool projects you have done: check out Masuma Ahana’s talk

• If your talk is about your start-up: check out Caspar Woolley’s talk

• If your talk is about a new technique or way of working: check out Clara and Nassos’s talk

Want to join Hacks/Hackers London? Check our website for future events and info about our guest speakers. You can watch the talks from previous meetups on our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter.