Conference speaking tips: four key takeaways from Dallas

Last week, Andrew and I hosted a seminar on storytelling at a conference in Dallas.

We’d been invited to address more than 200 colleagues from the Amadeus Hospitality team.

We were excited.

But there was a lot that we had to get right. 

How would we interact on stage? What did our slides look like?

And how would we break down our five-hour slot to keep the audience engaged?

Here are four key takeaways from our conference in the Lone Star state.

1. Get to know the space beforehand

We arrived at the conference venue the day before to check three important things.

1. The layout of the stage
2. If our slides were correct
3. The audio setup for the event

It may seem like a hassle, but it eases some of the pre-performance nerves.

You know what the audience will look like in front of you.

You’re clear on how much space you have to move.

You’re familar with how you’ll be mic’d up.

And you’re certain that your slides are in the right order.

One extra thing I noted: check where the ‘next’ button is on your clicker.

I failed to look.

On stage the next day, I got it wrong twice when I changed my first slide.

A minor but totally avoidable blip.

I’ll know that for next time.

2. Be flexible with your material

As you can see, we were very specific on our timings.

We knew we had to hit deadlines throughout the day.

But, as you’d expect, agenda items overran.

Fun ad-libs and audience interaction ate up precious seconds.

So we had to be flexible with our material.

On the day, we shortened a couple of our theory sections.

I spoke about Pink Elephants for eight minutes rather than the planned ten.

Andrew cut his section on body language by half.

As a result, we hit all of our times across the five hours we’d been given.

Sure, we’d have loved to have hit every beat on each agenda item.

But keeping the conference on time is more important for the audience. 

Far better to be succinct than to eat into their coffee break.

3. Pause more often

We give this advice on all of our presentation skills courses.

Pause regularly.

This means taking a beat between sentences, and a few seconds between paragraphs.

There are two main benefits to pausing.

1. It helps your audience absorb what you’ve said more fully
2. You give yourself more time to think where you’re going next.

And at our Dallas conference, it also allowed the laughter to filter through the room.

One of the goals of our storytelling seminar was that people enjoyed themselves.

It was designed to be a fun day.

We did that through telling personal stories, sharing anecdotes and relevant examples.

Sure enough, certain lines got big laughs.

Everything from accusing Andrew of nepotism to my impression of a thick Caithness accent.

I had to be comfortable letting the subsequent pause sit with the audience.

And fight the urge to burst into my next section.

4. Go big or go home

That’s Andrew standing stage left wearing a pink cowboy hat.

Willingly.

The conference was entirely cowboy themed. 

We were in Texas, after all.

This encompassed everything from the conference’s title to the name of each talk.

The vast majority of attendees embraced it.

And, as a result, it made the event a lot of fun.

Both Andrew and I shared how uncomfortable we were wearing the cowboy hats to start with.

It was all very un-Scottish.

But by the time an hour or two had passed, we’d forgotten we were wearing them. 

It’s something I believe every conference organiser can learn from.

Audiences would much prefer your conference to be memorable and fun.

Otherwise it runs the risk of being dry, drawn-out and dull.

Conference speaking tips

Learning to host or speak at a conference takes skill and practice.

Andrew and I put a lot of work into getting ours right.

The audience in Dallas gave us a standing ovation at the end of our session.

That was really lovely.

Yet there were still things we identified that we can do even better next time.

If you’ve got a conference speech coming up and want to practice, email us.

We’ll help you craft your speech and slides so they engage an audience from start to finish.

With or without cowboy hats.

Colin Stone is Communications Lead at Pink Elephant.

You can read more about him here.

Photos in Conference speaking tips Dallas blog by Pink Elephant Communications.
Conference speaking tips blog by Colin Stone.
Conference speaking tips blog edited Andrew McFarlan.