“There will be a live band on stage with you, as well as sign interpreters.”
One of the exciting things about conference speaking is all the ways it can be different – new places, new audiences, new talks to bounce off of.
One of the intimidating things is also all the ways it can be different, such as:
- Can I present from my own device?
- Does the venue have all the connectors I’ll need?
- What kind of mic will I have?
- How tall is the stage?
- Which software are we using for streaming?
- Are we doing questions? In the middle or at the end? Will there be an MC for that?
- Will I introduce myself or will someone do it?
I’m in the middle of writing up a speaker-orientation document which will go over all of that for the speakers I have coming in next week. I was talking to a friend, and she is the one who found out that there would be a live band on stage for her 15-minute talk. We both have a lot of follow-up questions, like “What kind of band? How big? Can I use a hand signal to get them to do musical stings?” (Ok, that last one was me).
What should I expect?
Conference organizers are doing a lot of things, and whatever they do is the way they learned to do conferences and it seems normal to them. For the most part, they also have a person or team doing A/V, and the A/V team has a lot of ways they can do things, but they also have standards they consider normal. As a speaker, however, you may run into a bunch of different “normals”, and it changes how you plan and prepare.
- If someone asks me to do a reading at a wedding, I assume that there is a fixed mic behind a pulpit, and I’ll be standing still and have somewhere to put my notes.
- If I’m at a medium-to-large software conference, I expect I’ll have a lapel mic, I’ll have a downstage monitor, I’ll be able to see my notes, and I’ll be able to advance my own slides. Odds are good that I’ll be able to present from my own device.
- If I’m invited to give a TED-style talk, I need to have the whole thing memorized and rehearsed, and I won’t be able to control much of anything.
- If it’s an Ignite-style talk, the slides will automatically advance, based on timing, and I’ll have a handheld mic.
- If I’m teaching a class, I may not have any amplification, and it’s ok to interrupt me.
These are all things I’ve done, so I have expectations. Those can still get thrown out of whack, but at least I can start somewhere. But when you’re a newer speaker, how do you know what to expect?
Ask.
You’re an all-star
If a conference organizer is mean to you about asking for the setup so you can deliver the best talk possible, send them to me, and I’ll give them a talking-to. But that’s pretty unlikely. They know that people are here for the programming, and you are the programming, so the organizer wants it to go well. If they can’t answer your questions, they may hand you off to A/V, and that’s fine.
I love the A/V people. They make me audible, and they do their best to make sure my slides show up, and they are just here to be excellent at their job. If you haven’t been able to get the information you need before the conference, go find the A/V people sometime during morning setup and ask politely, and they will almost always help. Many conferences have “tech check” spots before speaking blocks for just this purpose.
If you need something for accessibility?
Ask.
If you need stair-free access, or you absolutely must have your speaker notes, or you need to wear sunglasses on stage, that’s all workable if people know about it. I know a speaker who has a service dog trained to sit on stage with him. I’ve seen people in casts and braces give talks from chairs. I once gave an entire conference talk in a whisper, and we still made it work. Your disabilities should not be an impediment to conference speaking, if that’s what you want to do.
Get your game on
I’m the kind of person who hates being caught unprepared. I have a tiny little “speaker kit” that has HDMI adapters for my ipad and laptop, non-bifocal glasses, and a pre-paired presentation remote. I don’t often have to dig it out, but it’s a real comfort to have when I need it. But then, I did a lot of speaking. You may not need to invest the money to do that.
You deserve to feel like wherever you’re speaking supports you and your talk. Hopefully they tell you up front what they expect, or send you videos, or give you practice time. But if they don’t, I promise it’s reasonable to want to know ahead of time what will happen.
Go play.