Speaker Prep Day

Welcome to Speaker Prep Day!

This workshop will help you build, prepare and deliver a talk. Bring a talk you’d like to work on.

We’ll choose things to do from the list below. If you’d like to work on your practicing, on getting to great ideas and interesting abstracts, or anything else; we have more. Talk to us.

These exercises are open source. Find them on github. This page will stay here for future events. You’ll find links to older pages below.

James and Bart

Click on any title to reveal details.

Schedule

We’ll run from 13:00 - 14:30, and 15:00-16:30. We’ve got an idea about what we’ll do, but we’ll be led by you. Let’s see where we go!

• 13:00-13:40 40 min workshop on making memorable content
• 13:45-14:30 40 min workshop to visualise your talk structure
• 14:30-15:00 Chat
• 15:00-15:40 40 min Hear My Talk (exercise)
• 15:45-16:30 40 min workshop to polish your presentation

Core Exercises

Speaker tricks; delivering a great performance

Small group – 3-8 people, 30-60 minutes.

Process

5 mins to prime…

think of

• What part of your talk needs a trick?
• What’s a trick you want to try?

(If individuals aren’t in a position to ask these, try: what leaps out at you when you search for speaker tricks / use a book?)

Keep this to one side, on purpose: What’s a trick you’ve used and want to share?

20 mins or more to go round the group :

“My thing that needs a trick is … what have you done that might help?”

OR

“I want to try … have you done that?”

Put forward, see who’s got something, invite two of them to reply.

Timebox.

5-10 minutes at the end to share stuff you’ve tried and liked.

Build a gallery / collection of tips while doing this.

---

Note: go-round – try least-experienced earlier?

Note: To help move from topic to topic: suggest that questioners can ask individuals for contributions, seek 2 answers per Q. Moving from topic to topic covers more ground, but requires speed.

Note: To avoid the group being domainated (however unintentionally) by one or two people, try to respond to direct requests rather than interject. If you’ve got a great trick to share, write it down and add it to a pile to put up later.

Facilitators – help with the pile of info, the shift of focus, and the timings.

Making your key content even more memorable

Scheduled workshop. During the workshop, we will work together to:

• Individually identify our key content – then do a 30-second pitch to the group. Will you primarily inform, inspire, entertain, persuade, give an experience – or something else?
• Consider all the ways we’re putting that message across. Consider when in our talks we’re setting out that message, what suport for each occasion.
• Consider your audience – who will use your message, and what emotional reaction do you hope they might have.
• Consider different media – statement, picture, story, slogan, joke, example, counter-example, logical argument, sincere appeal, warning, vision.
• Sloganise one core message - short phrase using alliteration and rhymes.
• Exchange slogans

Making it Interactive

An AMA with Bart and James about getting your message across with interactive elements

Examples of topics we think we can help with

• Useful patterns and what kinds of content they work for
• How to prepare for an interactive session
• Tech and its troubles
• How long do things take?
• Finding something to interact with
• Giving participants stuff to take away from an interactive session
• Being over-ambitious…

Visualising your talk structure

45 minute group session.

• Brief introduction to circle map, storyboard, (proportional) timeline
• Roundtable: how have you structured your talk
• Summarise some structures: Story / Problem – Solution / 10 points / points and expansion / exercises
• Sketch your talk. What text. What timings? What connections
• Map your talk over time. Perhaps intense – relaxed, theory – practice, problem – solution, different stories, where the light bits are. How does your structure serve your message?

Share your preparation checklist

What do you do to prepare?

Build your own checklist to share – or have a look at our gallery, and change it.

We’ll put checklists and sources on github at the end of the day.

What to Follow Up after a Talk

Browse our list of things that you might do to follow up. Add your own!

• Take contact details of anyone who talks to you after the talk.
• Offer materials for emails
• Invite people to meet you in the pub / expo / wherever to talk further
• Offer stickers with your catchy slogan, talk to people wearing your stickers
• Put your twitter handle on each slide, invite new followers, interact with any new followers over the conference.
• Initiate contact with anyone who tweets your talk.
• Invite feedback and comments.
• Make an interactive exercise and invite people to use them.
• Put materials on GitHub and invite contributions
• Set up a Slack / WhatsApp / regular Skype to take your talk further
• Give participants something they can use, offer your help as they put it into practice
• Offer to give the talk as a webinar for people’s workplaces
• Review how the delivery went
• Make a note of ideas about how it might go next time – what you’d change
• Consider how your material might work for a different audience

Build something to invite contact in one or mare ways.

Hear My Talk

Process

This exercise gives you instant, real feedback on your delivery and content

We’ll need 2-4 speakers who are prepared to do very condensed talks and to get feedback. If you’re up for it, you’ll do the same very short talk, 3 times. We will record your talk on your own phone.

First time – 3 minutes. You go away, watch the talk, make changes.

Second time – 3 minutes. You ask the audience for feedback.

Third time – 2 minutes Lots of applause

At the end, we have a swift go-round talking about what was great about the talks, and perhaps what became great.

Audience rules

This is not a PowerPoint karaoke bearpit. Please: * Be observant * Be fair * Be lovely

Polish your presentation

45 minute workshop

• reflection: why doe you want to polish your talk?
• reflection: what needs polish – suggestions: rhythm and structure, humour, slides, supporting material, demos, flow / transitions between topics, start, conclusion, exercises
• consider the purpose of your polish for your audience
• talk round – what are you going to polish, and do you want to pair up
• work
• round the table on the poish that has been acheived

More Exercises

Getting to a Great Abstract

A 30 minute exercise ending up in a worthwhile short abstract for your idea.

Process

• Have a chat about your idea and existing abstract
• Prime your mind with a couple of checklists or our gallery of fantasy abstracts
• Write something down!
• Ask for review, comments, advice
• (optional) Add your abstract to the gallery and ask for public comments
• Set milestones for next steps

---

Great abstract

• catchy title
• idea that has potential
• indicates that thought and work has gone into communicating the message
• /brief/ problem statement
• real examples
• demonstrates experience
• clear takeaways
• relevant to event
• easy to read, draws you onwards
• non-trivial
• has substance – more than a tease, less than a paper
• more than just the bright side – pitfalls, failures, antipatterns, pathologies
• within word limit (and more than a couple of sentences)
• offers interaction or demonstration

---

Poor abstract

• claims expertise / authority
• problem excludes content
• poorly written, poorly proofread
• unstructured or incoherent
• buzzwords
• single tool
• happy paths only
• One true mthod / “I’m right”
• Emotionless
• Tired topic

What makes a 'great talk'?

You can use this exercise to share your principles, to share your insprations, or to analyse some fine talks.

Whose talk has inspired you

How did it inspire you?

Share your example, and we’ll add it to our list.

Analyse a talk

Watch a great talk (we have a list).

What are you watching for?

How does it manifest?

How can you help yourself, and others, to be brilliant in a similar way?

Add your principles to the gallery.

Principles

What, for you, makes a great talk?

Consider your princiuples by finding specific examples of actions you take.

Consider your princiuples by remembering specific examples of things someone did while speaking that inspired you.

Put down the principles, and add them to our gallery.

Greatest fails

A roundtable discussion, sharing stories of how your own talk went wrong – and what you did about it (immediately and in the long term)

Probably over a break.

Perhaps aiming for a list of “Simple ways to avoid the pit”.

Improvisation Exercise

Presents

• Stand in a cirle. Imagine you could give anything to one person in this group. Who would you give it it? What would you give?
• One person – decide on a present for someone else. Silently, give that person your present.
• That person – receive the present with delight. Say what it is. Then, give a diffetent present to someone else.

Purpose – to delight and surprise with misinterpretations. To get the group to play togther. To enjoy the random.

Line by line story

• Take turns
• Use (at least some) of the information in the previous line.
• Make your partner look good.
• Stuck? Refer to shared history. Be specific. Raise the stakes. Continue the plan. Agree and expand.
• Hint: Avoid questions, unless rhetorical.
• Hint: No need to think of anything before the most recent line. No need to aim for the future.

Purpose – to listen and to respond.

Ask a testing question

• Write a generic question that involves a story (not an opinion or a plan). Examples: How did you get started in testing? Tell me about a bug that got fixed. What have you done today? How was your journey to Potsdam? Tell me about your first conference.
• Exchange questions (JL and BK to introduce ringers). Exchange again. If you don’t like your question, exchange with James or Bart.
• Get into 2s or 3s.
• Each of you, answer your question in 20s. Beforehand, pick a mood for your story – “You’ll never believe it”, suspenseful, “There was nothing I could do”, “Which was great!”, suspicious, lucky, doomed. Try to tell your story with that mood.
• Try to tell someone else’s story back to them, with a different mood.

Purpose – practice storytelling with differnt emotions

References:

Impro for Storytellers

Do Improv

Tasty Cupcakes

Practicing and Rehearsing

A roundtable (or a chat with James and / or Bart) about how you are preparing to perform.

We’ll talk about strategies, tricks, and you can use us to help you commit to the actions you need.

Speaking across cultures

Come have a chat – we’ll schedule a round table if there’s lots of interest.

Cool & Cruel Q&A

From a selection of abstracts – some of the people in the room, some fantasy abstracts. Looking at examples of horrible Qs from morning session.

• What are some horrible questions
• Individually, taking a selection of abstracts each
• - What is the question you’d dread, if this was your abstract?
• - What is the question you’d ask, if you were a bastard
• Collectively, abstract by abstract
• - What’s the best way you might answer?
• - What’s the worst?

Dealing with copyright

How to find great free pictures (and more) Looking out for copyright issues

Add your sources to share with your colleagues!

Dealing with Q&A

Workshop your nightmare questions with us. We’ll help you to find great answers!

Add some principles to our list.

---

Here’s a list of horrible generic questions

• Why didn’t you use *technique / tool *
• Whoever says this is a terible idea
• Isn’t that whoever’s idea
• What’s the purpose - what’s it good for?
• Have you actually done this?
• Why would I believe you – what qualifies your opinion?
• Where’s the data?

---

Here are some reasons to take a question later

• off-topic
• repeated
• not a question
• failure to understand each other’s context
• very long question
• can’t be answered in the available time
• needed long dialogue to understand necessary context
• exposes the questioner to ridicule

You might feel that, as the person on stage, one of your jobs is to honour the crowd – and these kinds of questions prioritise the interest of an individual.

Dealing with Disaster

What disasters?

Workshop in groups – set group size and tasks to allow 5 mins work, 5 mins debrief. Q1: What disasters might happen (3 mins) Q2: Classify those – aim for a small handful of classifications (2 mins) Debrief: Each group to tell the room 1) your classifications 2) a couple of examples per

Facilitators write up to allow visibility to all.

Fill in the gaps: Give the room the chance to offer situations that don’t fit any existing classification. Facilitators should offer situations whose broad family haven’t been considered (i.e. if the room’s only got tech issues). See examples below if uninspired.

Facilitators assess classifications – why are these classifications in use here? Are teh classifications focussed on source, situation, response?

How to deal with it?

Prime the room to consider: * response vs reaction * who’s frustrated by by the problem, who has the power to fix it, who feels ownership / will be embarrassed by it * resources that can address it: organisers, allies, younger you.

Form groups again. Different ones? Pick things to work on, based on classifications / examples. 5 mins to workshop responses / ideas 5 mins to prep a 1-minute summary

Deliver summaries – facilitators to write up a flipchart sheet for each Open floor to conversations, add to flipcharts.

Facilitators to post on walls / add to this on GitHub.

Awareness: some people may find it worrying to consider what could go wrong.

——

Example classifications and some approaches to dealing with it

Things that the presenter is bothered by, can fix – ie technology failures

• Have you got an alternative, and are you prepared to switch?
• Can your message do without the thing that’s gone? Do you need to restructure? Tell rather than show?
• Can you truncate the talk?
• Can you put the failed thing later?
• Do you have an ally in the audience who can work to fix while you continue?
• How can you prepare for common failures, or for high-impact failures?
• Can you choose more-resilient tech?
• Can you deliver your message without tech?

Things you can’t control or prepare for / Situational problems

• Stay calm
• Involve the organisers
• Involve the audience
• Q: Acknowledge, or ignore?
• Q: Is this your problem, the organiser’s, the venue’s?
• Q: you’ve got people’s attention – do you keep it and lead, or defer

How to cope

• What needs to be dealt with? The message, or the problem?
• Some things don’t matter.
• Be on the audience’s side – they’re on your side. Empathise with what they want / need – message / information, entertainment, leadership.
• Stay calm, recognise a proportional emotional response. Respond, rather than react. Be aware that you’re probably already over-alert.

Example disasters

• Someone in the audience becomes ill
• Someone storms out
• The audience starts to leave
• Your interactive workshop has too few people in it
• Your interactive workshop has too many people in it
• No one shows up
• You’re forced to delay the start by 15 minutes – but not the end
• The projector dies
• There’s no sound
• Something worked before the talk, and fails after the talk starts
• Your laptop dies and you rely on slides
• Your demo doesn’t work
• You need the internet. There is no internet.
• You get dreadful news just before you go on
• You forget what you’re going to say next
• You spill something
• Fire alarm
• An organiser interrupts
• Your phone goes off
• Someone emails you mid-talk, and their email comes up on-screen
• Your screen shows the audience sensitive information
• Hecklers
• Code of conduct issues
• You say something that you instantly regret
• You reveal sensitive information about your project / organisation / client

Sorting out a Talk

James and Bart both have talks coming up at ATD.

In this session, they’ll work together to get one of those talks up to speed. You’ll hear how they put together their own talks, how another person’s perspective can help, how new ideas arrive, are refined and discarded.

Using AI to help with an abstract

Potential exercise. 30 minutes, solo or in groups.

• Start up ChatGPT or an LLM of your chosing.
• Tell it what you want to talk about, ask it for an abstract (of length 300 words / three paragraphs) (of adjectives – serious / snappy / enthusiastic) (of style – interactive / lecture / workshop)
• Ask for several versions. Which appeals? Why?
• Do you understand what it’s proposing? Could you deliver it?
• Edit it to get it closer to your material.
• Edit it to make the abstract better – remove fluff, highlight content.
• Give the abstract back, ask the AI to tighten up, if there are questions it might ask, ask it for what it would expect to get out of the thing, or why it might go, why it might not. Ask what it would change. Ask what it would keep, if it needed to cut the length. Ask what it would expand.
• Don’t trust it.

Previously out at

Agile Testing Days 2018

Testing Cup 2019

Agile Testing Days 2019

Agile Testing Days 2021

Agile Testing Days 2022