Blog Articles

Share your Passion at Ignite DC

I've been doing presentations and training at work and outside the office for several years now. I guess I'm trying to fill my childhood dream of being a standup comic. I've acted as a teacher in classroom sessions, resident expert in brainstorming sessions, presenter at industry events and speaker at Toastmasters. I've learned valuable skills from all of these venues, and I am looking forward to another, Pecha Kucha. This is a media-driven presentation that has a few simple rules.

  1. 20 slides
  2. for 20 seconds each
  3. Presenter sits down.

 

 

 

I really like this format because it forces presenters to follow some best practices including

  1. Focusing each of their slides. You don't have enough time to read a block of text in 20 seconds, so make your slides visual and entertaining.
  2. The time limit is strictly enforced. This keeps speakers from rambling on. Most of my presentations end early because I've practiced and ensured that time doesn't run over. We have all been in meetings or presentations that we wished would end. I really don't want people to feel that way when I am presenting. I would rather end early for everyone, and be available afterwards for discussion with those people who would like to go deeper into a subject.

Ignite is a similar format (except the time limit for each slide is 15 seconds). Speakers are encouraged to think big and present "game-changing" presentations. This event will be held in D.C. on Feb 18, 2010. Speaker submissions are due Jan 10th for any interested parties.



Article Tags