The rectangle behind you

Going the extra mile

If you have a bit of time, or it’s a special occasion, it’s worth trying to go the extra mile. Some ideas I try:

Customize the slide deck depending on location

Customize your slide deck depending on your location. You know how at any concert, the crowd goes wild every time the vocalist shouts out How are you doing San Franciiiiiscooooooo!? Audiences love recognition. Add a little inside joke, reference to the place where you’re talking, maybe same colour scheme or font as the conference itself…

Prepare extra slides for Q&A

If my talk has a questions-and-answers session at the end, and I have some leftover material, I sometimes package it together for some bonus slides I can spool up during Q&A.

Improve things from last time

If I give the same talk again, I consult my after-talk notes to see if there’s something I can improve. Maybe I have some new ideas from audience reactions; maybe there was something I wanted to improve last time, but I was too lazy?

The rectangle behind you, a series of articles about interactive presentations.

By Marcin Wichary (@mwichary)