The Job Of A Speaker Must Drastically Change For Successful Conferences Today November 5, 2013 by Jeff Hurt Today’s audiences expect more from a speaker than the traditional lecture. They want to be inspired, motivated, entertained and learn relevant take aways that they can apply immediately. They are not satisfied with sitting passively listening to monologues and panel platitudes. They want to actively participate in an education session. The End Of A Speaker-Expert … [Read more…] Filed Under: Speaker Coaching Tagged With: , adult learning, conference best practices, conferences, facilitator, industry speaker, presentation strategies, professional speakers, speaker tips
Conference Audiences Expect These Things [Updated] September 26, 2013 by Jeff Hurt Conference audiences of days gone by were satisfied with the gathering of colleagues, a mediocre experience and a few useful tips. Today’s audiences are more demanding and sophisticated. They expect to learn practical and useful information that solves their individual problems. They expect speaker presentations that are compelling and memorable. And they expect to be … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , audience expectations, conference best practices, conferences, meeting planning best practices, presentation strategies
Why Audiences Detest Presenters That Abuse Or Avoid PowerPoint [Revisted] September 19, 2013 by Jeff Hurt Revised and updated from original post about presentations and images published on October 25, 2011. Presentations are the business currency of today. PowerPoint is often the legal tender of those presentations. We trade and share PowerPoint presentations like baseball cards, stamps and money. And SlideShare is the largest online community for sharing great presentations! When … [Read more…] Filed Under: Speaker Coaching Tagged With: , conferences, presentation best practices, presentation strategies, speaker tips
Presenter Tips For Audience Discussions July 19, 2013 by Jeff Hurt “Nobody can’t teach nobody nothing,” says O. P. Kolstoe, author of College Professoring. We need better presenters, as our conference attendees often suggest. Or we need better attendees as our speakers often state. I think Kolstoe hit the bull’s-eye. As a presenter, so also a learner–the conference attendee. (paraphrased Joseph Lowman, 1995). If there is … [Read more…] Filed Under: Speaker Coaching Tagged With: , active learning, conference best practices, conferences, Education & Adult Learning, master presenters, presentation best practices, presentation strategies, presenter, speaker tips
Your Presentation Needs To Start With A Presenter Attendee Agreement October 2, 2012 by Jeff Hurt I start the majority of my presentations by making an agreement with my audience. I call it my presenter-attendee agreement. Why use valuable presentation time for the presenter-attendee agreement? Most people come to conferences and presentations with an implied agreement that the presentation is about and for the speaker, not the audience. In reality, the … [Read more…] Filed Under: Speaker Coaching Tagged With: , master presenters, presentation best practices, presentation strategies, presenter, speaker tips
Three Pitfalls To Your Conference Education Success September 11, 2012 by Jeff Hurt I was extremely irritated. In less than twenty minutes I visited four different conference education sessions. Each of them was a waste of my time. Two sessions were about content that I already knew, even though their session descriptions said they were for advanced audiences. One session had two bumbling, rambling presenters speaking jargon and … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education Tagged With: , adult education, adult learning, adult learning principles, conference best practices, conference education, conferences, meeting professionals, presentation best practices, presentation strategies, speaker tips
Overcomplicating Conference Content Confuses Attendees September 10, 2012 by Jeff Hurt Is your conference content like an encyclopedia, a textbook or a report? Does your conference promote content-centric or learner-centric design? Unfortunately, most conferences default to content-centric design without even knowing it. SMEs Do It Difficultly If your conference prides itself on securing subject matter experts (SMEs) to present information, then consider the following. Your attempt … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education Tagged With: , adult education, adult learning, adult learning principles, conference best practices, conference education, conferences, meeting professionals, presentation best practices, presentation strategies, speaker tips
Considering The Learning Journey At Conferences August 29, 2012 by Jeff Hurt Many years ago I taught school during the day and high school dropouts preparing for their GED exam at night. It was a grueling schedule. Yet, it was extremely rewarding. On The Road To GED Every evening, after a long day of teaching, I spent another five hours on my second job at Students For … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education Tagged With: , adult education, adult learning, adult learning principles, conference best practices, conference education, conferences, meeting professionals, presentation best practices, presentation strategies, speaker tips
What Do Yearbooks Have To Do With Presenters And Audiences? August 28, 2012 by Jeff Hurt During my three years in high school, I diligently worked on our school yearbook. I even served as assistant editor and editor of our yearbook. I enjoyed the design process including creating each two-page spread layout. I also spent many hours making sure that as many of my peers were pictured in candid shots as … [Read more…] Filed Under: Speaker Coaching Tagged With: , adult learning principles, adult learning strategies, conference best practices, conference education, presentation best practices, presentation strategies, speaker tips
Which Would You Rather Attend: A Speech Or A Movie? August 1, 2012 by Jeff Hurt Which would you rather attend: A ninety-minute speech or a ninety-minute movie? You’ve got to be kidding, right? The majority of us would rather go to a movie than a speech. Now, let’s put this into a conference context. Given a choice, would you rather go to a two-day film festival or a two-day conference? … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , conference best practices, conference education, conferences, participatory culture, participatory learning, presentation best practices, presentation strategies, speaker tips
