Presenter Development Program

The Presenter Development Program team is:

• Jason Clarke is the founder of Minds at Work, a dynamic collective of innovators addressing cultural and creativity issues within organisations
• Sally Newton an ATEM member and coordinator of the speaker development program at the first Professional Staff Conference at the University of Melbourne in 2014.

We’re looking forward to meeting you at TEMC 2017; we’re excited to hear what you have to say. If you’re new to our conference (or even our industry) you might be wondering why we chose you and not a more established presenter… it might even be undermining your confidence: are you sure we’re got the right person? We are.
Here’s why

Here’s why

There’s a lot of experts out there and over the years we’ve heard from just about all of them. The ones we invite back are the ones who keep thinking and learning; we like them because they’re constantly challenging themselves and us. They are always fresh.

WE LIKE FRESH.

• Fresh eyes on old problems
• Fresh minds on old issues
• Fresh ideas
• Fresh perspectives
• Fresh faces.
  That’s why we’re always on the lookout for people we haven’t heard from yet; people who aren’t necessarily experts, who aren’t necessarily big names, who aren’t necessarily from our industry.
• We think you have something new and original to say, maybe something we’ve never even thought of, something we really need to hear. It could have been the content – maybe we were struck by your insights and ideas or perhaps we really liked the way you expressed those thoughts. We might have been captured by your approach, your style or the mood and feel of your presentation. Maybe we like your particular perspective, your individual point-of-view.
• Trust us. We’ve picked the right person. If you’re still not sure, take this quick quiz:
• If you can answer YES to any of these questions you’ll know why you’re the right choice.
• If you answer NO to all of them then, ok… we’ve made a horrible mistake.
• Every YES is something you should use as the basis of your approach. Bet on it as the ultimate test of what to say and how to say it. Stay true to that and you’ll be great.

Design for the result you want

We want our audience to leave your presentation either inspired or empowered or enlightened or maybe even all of the above.

But what result do you want?

• What change do you want to bring about in your audience as a result of your presentation?
• What do you want them to do differently? Is there a behaviour or habit you’d like to change?
• How do you want them to think differently? What mindsets, attitudes, opinions, beliefs or assumptions are you trying to shift? Why does any of that matter to you?

This is the very first thing to decide, before you write a single word of your presentation.

Know your audience.

The TEMC crowd are an audience of learners, so they respond very well to people who are still in the process of discovering their topic. Whoever pretends to know it all has simply stopped learning.

At our core, we’re nerds. We like people who enjoy knowing and sharing stuff.Your audience will be curious, passionate people who believe in the importance of the work they do and are always keen to learn anything that will make them more relevant and effective change makers.

This group has been meeting for 40 years so they’ve probably heard it all – but they may not have connected all that information in quite the way that you have so they’re just as likely (if not more) to respond to a fresh context as new content. So join the dots for them in the way that makes most sense to you.

• Assume they are smart, busy people and you can’t miss.
• Respect their intelligence, their dedication and their time.
• Stay authentic. Say what you really think. And say it like you mean it.
• That’s what we’re interested in. Don’t try to be anything you aren’t.
• Be yourself. That’s better for us and easier for you.

A few tricks you might try

Start by identifying the most important messages first – what is it you absolutely have to say?

Try these fun exercises; what would your message be if:

• you had to convey it in a single tweet (140 characters)?
• you had only minute to get your message across?
• you had to communicate your message using only T-shirts?
• you were only allowed three words?

Take the very best results you get from any of these exercises and experiment with different sequences till you find one that really excites you.

That’s how the really great speakers do it. Short and to the point

Know exactly when to say what. (Technique 1)

To help you start experimenting with the order of your messages, why not practice with a bunch of simple statements you’re likely find in some form in most of the truly great speeches… pick a few that sound good to you and try them in a few different orders to see how they flow best.

Play around with different messages to see what flows best; how do any of these sound?

When you’re ready, try the same exercise with your own messages until you get a really nice sequence of ideas that would lead your audience to your conclusion.

Mindmapping

Here’s a few favourites

• WHAT, WHY, HOW.
  A classic of the genre. People won’t be interested in HOW to do beekeeping if they don’t know WHAT it is or WHY they should care. If you’re sure they already know what (is their definition the same as yours?) you can just touch on it briefly and spend more time with why. You can flip the order any way you like but in my experience, how always works better last.
  If you feel you’ll have time and you want to get a little fancy, you can break how down into who should do what by when and where. Sometimes I like to finish by examining the excuses people use to not do (say, beekeeping) with WHY NOT?
• ME, IT, THEM, US.
  We start with a small appetiser, perhaps a story of when and how beekeeping became so important to ME. Then the entrée explores what IT is and why more people should care about it like I do. The main meal is about the audience, THEM, a specific challenge or call to action. Get involved. Write to your local politician. Keep a bee. Whatever. The big finish is the dessert, the invitation to join a growing movement of people dedicated to beekeeping. Be part of the community, be one of US.
• BIG, SMALL, BACK TO BIG.
  You probably never stop to think about this, but we humans are almost completely dependent on bees to pollinate much of our food chain; we’d be in serious trouble without them. Unfortunately, the world’s bee population is declining rapidly for reasons we don’t yet understand – and according to scientists, the long term global impacts of bee colony collapse are truly terrifying. That’s a BIG start to a presentation.
  Now zoom into a single bee. Let’s hear some amazing facts about this tiny insect with the big job. Did you know a single teaspoon of honey is the lifetime’s work of twelve bees? That’s a lot of bees for such a tiny amount of food… that’s how fragile our dependence on this little critter is. Perhaps now’s a good time to talk about some quick, simple steps I can take as an individual to save my little bee buddies.
  That’s the power of contemplating the SMALL.
  But what difference can I make as one person? Not much. But imagine if we all did this and convinced ten friends each to join us? That’s a very different future, a world alive with the buzzing of bees. That’s a nice BIG idea to finish on, don’t you think?
• SMALL, BIG, BACK TO SMALL.
  Or in this case it might work better to start SMALL with a single bee, working tirelessly to make 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey; barely a few drops. How many bees gave their lives for one jar of honey? Let’s keep scaling up – it’s not just about honey. Think how much of the plants we eat depend on need bees to pollinate… maybe some UN stats in here might really tell the story.
  Now we’re zooming out to see the global situation; we’re getting BIG. Let’s stay there long enough to make the point but no so long that everyone gets overwhelmed. We’re going to need some small steps we can take to solve the problem, things that each of can do, starting right now.
  Buy different. Work different. Vote different. And we’re back to SMALL. Let’s circle back to where we started, with a single bee… it’s done so much for us. It’s time we did something for them.