One or two well-placed jokes can be great if they’re a very minor part of the presentation.
When someone has their slides stacked with memes or spends large amounts of time on vacuous entertainment content, it always feels disappointing.
There was a period of time where our biggest local JavaScript conference felt like one big entertainment competition. Presenters were singing songs, playing guitar, showing several minutes of clips from TV shows, and telling jokes more than they were presenting anything useful. The conference was a hit for young people and juniors, but it became known as a big waste of time for everyone else.
That said, I'm not really a "keynote" speaker. I've been doing it for most of my adult life, in front of small and large (but never huge) crowds.
I've definitely had some bombs, but most folks seem to think I do an adequate job (the fact I'm not a rubber chicken speaker means that it isn't much more than "adequate." I'm fine with that).
Most times, I wing it, but when I'm giving an important talk, like a tech class, or topic discussion, I practice. The tip someone gave about recording themselves is good. It's also how I know how long it will take. I'll often use a prompter app, while practicing, but don't use it, while giving the talk.
I've found a bit of humor (especially self-deprecating humor) can "humanize" things, but it should be short vignettes, and know your audience. If I don't really know who will be out there, I generally don't use humor. Most times, I know my audience quite well, and humor is appreciated.
I have found that speaking in the vernacular is generally appreciated by folks. There are definitely some folks that don't like making difficult stuff easy to understand, but I'm just an ol' high school dropout with a G. E. D., so I don't really pull off the "talk purdy" kind of thing, so good.
I've found that Keynote/PowerPoint shows can be useful, but I seldom use "wall o' text" slides. I use a lot of images and animations, and pack my notes (not the slides) with what I'm saying. I will usually insert
-- CLICK --
I'll put details and technology rabbitholes into the supergraphics.
People have widely varying views about what a “conference” is, or should be:
It's very nice to have a few people come up after a talk with "I saw what you did there...". It's a great way to connect with people who are on your wavelength.
what works for me and is more time efficient is to get the introduction polished, then have a clear take away at the end. The middle stuff is better to go impromptu.
In general, the best speakers are those who a) know the material inside and out, and b) have practiced shit loads.
For one off talks, or decks that one doesn't use often, yes you're 100% right. When I'm in that situation I rehearse the talk over and over and over again to the point where I no longer need notes. My goal is to get to a point where I neither sound like I'm reading from a script, nor would I get thrown off if I get interrupted.
However for material that I've presented a bunch of times, I no longer need to rehearse. There was a period of my life where I could on the fly give a talk on a particular topic at a moment's notice. Ideally I'd have a bit of time to customize some bits to the specific audience/venue, and sure I'd rehearse those. But the bulk of it I could stitch together content in just about any order on the fly.
But if you tell me give some variation on your talk about $X, I can probably be ready in about 30 minutes. (And, in fact, I've dropped in a conference presentation in response to a 3am email because another speaker forgot they were supposed to be there.)
All of those previous presentations basically count as rehearsals. Depends on you, but if it's been a year or several since you gave one, it's probably a good idea to do at least a mini rehearsal before you do it again, but if you're doing one a quarter, once you're good, you should be good.
Intros and ends though I agree require careful thought to appeal to the right audience and give the right message.
I don't think this follows. There are many things I am an expert in that I'm not an expert in communicating about impromptu- I've been to many talks where the speaker is clearly an expert but was not prepared to speak.
I certainly think there are people for who expertise == ability to speak about it, but that's certainly not always or usually the case.
I remember the first time I went in front of a live audience to give a 2 minute intro. It was a meetup with ~60 people and all I had to do was go up and talk about a course I was selling.
On the train ride in, I scripted it out on paper and then re-read it like 30 times.
By the time I got off the train and closed the notebook I forgot everything and dreaded the walk to the venue. I got in front of everyone and tried to recall what I wrote, had a quick internal dialog with myself for about 3 seconds and mentally noted "you're a moron, just wing it". Then I winged it.
In the end it converted ~15% of the room on a tech topic that was ancillary to the main meetup's subject.
On that day I learned I can do well writing something out on paper but I can't remember shit when trying to deliver it live. I have to fall into category (A) and trust myself to deliver but really committing to that with no backup plan does make every experience interesting to say the least.
I've recorded around 300 videos since then and I still need to do the intro about 20 times before I get into the flow to do the rest of the video in basically 1 take. They are usually unscripted with no preparation, I just pick a topic and go.
Fascinating. What I learned from your anecdote is that massed practice didn't work, just as the literature on human memory predicts. Spaced repetition still sounds like a winner. Practice, sleep, forget almost everything, then repeat until it's go time.
I don't know why people don't seem to understand that.
If it's a topic that is low stakes and I know a shit load about, I'll practice for a day or two. If it's a topic that I know and it's high stakes, I may practice daily for two or three weeks.
Everyone who knows me professionally remarks about how relaxed I seem when public speaking.
That's because it's all intentional. Every pause. Every single thing. I seem relaxed, because I am relaxed.
I remember the first meme like presentations back in 2002 at work and I hated it. It's like stop learning, now you have to find this picture funny (maybe it was some star wars reference, and I haven't watched them), and we will get back to it. It was cringe!
Made me chuckle anyway...
It probably matters if it is related to the talk or not. A slightly related joke or funny picture at the beginning that introduces where you are going and then comes back with a deeper meaning at the end is very powerful.
I think it can work in limited contexts. I've given an internal talk about SRE using the "this is fine" meme, representing a current emotional state, then contrasted that with the reverse meme[1] as a visual metaphor. Perhaps this_is_fine.png works because it does not rely on outside cultural context.
I've also used HTTP status cat memes on a carousel slide, to emphasize that SREs commonly understand them, before contrasting that with a custom non-HTTP protocol I support. If people laugh or pay attention, so much the better.
> I think it's usually better when you've run through it so many times so that you can deliver it without any notes, but it's still concise and complete. I practice double-digit amounts of times for every talk.
Agreed that rehearsal really helps and more people should do that. I wish I could put that 10+ rounds of practice into presenting but I'm typically doing internal stuff not anything with an honorarium or ticket price attached. Yet it seems like some kind of badge of honor in the tech speaker circuit to start building your slide deck the night before. Trust me: we can tell, especially when your first five minutes are panicked searches for projector compatible adaptors you forgot to pack or test.
[1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/ReverseMemes/comments/dnlizu/the_th...
The best talk I ever gave was when the scheduled speaker didn't show, and the organizer asked if anyone would volunteer. I volunteered, and gave an impromptu talk with no prep and no slides, just a whiteboard. I simply threw out questions to the audience, and let their responses guide things.
It was the best presentation I ever gave.
Too bad the video didn't work, either, and there's no record of it.
P.S. When traveling to a conference, I carry along the slides from my previous presentations. This enables me to fill in for missing presenters. I also had a talk that didn't go over well, so I just picked out a previous one and did that.
I certainly think there is a balance.
If you're not confident about your talk or your ability to present it, folks should be disabused of the idea that adding some gifs or a "One does not simply" meme will fix that.
That said, I think of my talks as sharing interesting stories. When I tell stories, I often crack a few jokes along the way, and my presentations are no different. I feel like adding humour is often a way of giving people insight into your thought process.
Of course, everyone is different, and perhaps you are dead serious about your way of thinking about compilers or neural networks or whatever your work on.
The author does an excellent job, however, of underscoring the fact that jokes can rely on an in-crowd or shared experience that some in the audience don't share. It's important in all aspects of your talk to keep that sort of thing in mind, and make sure your humour isn't just some twitter in-joke.
Personally I'm not much of a reherser. I like to make a point with each slide, and as long as I know the point, I can "freestyle" the actual text.
The exception are high-speed sessions, where I have a slide, or two, per sentence. They have to be highly scripted and so I practise them a few times. But, while they're a lot of fun, I don't do them often.
For me, prep is much more about what to leave out. It's easier to do a 2 hour session than a 1 hour, and harder still to do 30 mins. Slides mostly help to keep me on track and not get distracted.
You might realize that you are either speaking too fast or too slowly. You might notice that you are using your squeaky voice, there are ways to improve it. You might realize that you assume some piece of tech is known to everyone even though it's pretty obscure. You might realize you need one more slide for transitioning to a new topic better.
I agree though with your other point, the recording can help enforce that there are no redos before a live audience.
Also, if you mess up a sentence or slide all the time, maybe your phrasing is too backwards, so you should probably simplify it to something that feels natural to you.
It's always amazing to me when I see a talk by someone who has clearly not practiced it very much. I think it's usually better when you've run through it so many times so that you can deliver it without any notes, but it's still concise and complete. I practice double-digit amounts of times for every talk.
My tip is to record yourself practicing. Don't watch the recordings, no need for that. The thing is that blinking red circle seems to psychologically qualify as an audience (to me anyway) and it focuses me in on the performance part of giving a talk. One effect is that if I mess something up, and I'm recording it, I start improvising my way back on course rather than just starting over. There seems to be more consequences if you record it. I dunno, helps me.