Speaker Guidelines

These guidelines are modified from an insightful post by Meng Wong.

I noticed that people liked certain talks. They fell into five categories:

1. Something awesome recently happened. Let me show you it. (Oh, and I helped make it happen.)
2. Something awesome is happening right now, but most people aren’t seeing it. I have a special perspective; let me show you it.
3. Something awesome but unexpected is going to happen. Let me show you why this will come true.
4. Here’s something awesome that you can do too.
5. You are unexpectedly awesome. I will show you why.

People disliked certain talks. They fell into three categories:

1. I just thought of something awesome, and I’d like it to come true, but I neglected to do any research so maybe it’s already being done but I wouldn’t know.
2. I read about something on BoingBoing / watched a TEDtalk / etc a few months ago, and you probably did too, but let’s pretend you didn’t so I can go on about it.
3. I’m awesome.

If you’re considering giving a talk, here are three simple rules:

This is not a lay audience. If you’re a professor, this is not your freshman class. If you’re a business exec, this is not your typical conference crowd. There will be people in this audience who know as much as you do about your subject. If you can expect your smartest friends to know something, this audience will too.

Remember, information is a difference that makes a difference. The best speakers are always either making an original point, or laying the ground for one. Please don’t insult the audience’s intelligence. They can read your slide ten times faster than you can talk it. If your slide doesn’t say anything new at all, skip it. And please, don’t overexplain.

If you’re at BIL, you probably scored an N on the Myers-Briggs. You’re good at detecting patterns. So is everyone else! Remember: show, don’t tell. Many speakers say, “here’s a pattern that I deduced, and I’ll talk about it in the abstract.” Abstract thinking is fine, but abstract talking sucks. Give examples! Here, I will give two examples. Garrett Lisi’s talk was beautiful because it invited the audience to study a screen full of coloured symbols, and arrive at the ‘a-ha’ themselves.