Public Speaking Tip 5 : Deliver what you say you will!

Go to a conference and I can guarantee you will hear people complaining about sessions they sat through that bare no resemblance to the title or the abstract.

It’s not easy to come up with an eye catching title and abstract, but don’t fall into the trap of trying too hard, then failing to deliver on the day. It’s better that you are honest and don’t get selected, than promise people an enlightening experience and fall short.

The vast majority of the problems are not so much the topic, but the depth of the material. If you start calling something a “deep dive” or mention “internals”, you better have something a bit more hardcore than a few sentences out of the manual. There are plenty of people out there who can melt your brain when they talk about Oracle, and I’m not just thinking about the famous names who get on stage. There are a lot of really bright people who you will never see on stage and you will never know their names. Don’t short-change those people by promising something, then not delivering.

The opposite is true also. If you include words like “introduction” or “overview”, then you can’t start hitting people with in-depth analysis. The people that come to an introductory session will get nothing out of watching you prove how cool you are.

Remember, getting a room full of people who leave disappointed is far worse than getting a handful of people who really enjoy the session!

If in doubt, ask a few colleagues to help you rate the level of your content.

Check out the rest of the series here.

Cheers

Tim…

Author: Tim...

DBA, Developer, Author, Trainer. View all posts by Tim...