Re: [UG-ADMINS] Speaker Tips?

Hi Sandy!

You pretty much hit everything we tell speakers at AtlantaPHP, but we
also include "Make code examples high contrast (dark text on a light
background instead of colored text on a dark background)". This got to
be such a problem repeatedly that we started requiring a copy of the
slides a week in advance for preview purposes - we allow edits up
until the meeting of course, but this catches any big issues early.
This also avoids the "crank out the slides 3 hours before the talk"
factor.

Chris

On Tue, Aug 6, 2013 at 1:33 PM, Sandy Smith <[email protected]> wrote:
> I recently put together some tips for speakers at DCPHP, and it seems to have helped the last few presentations go more smoothly, especially from a technical point of view. We have lots of first time speakers as well as people who don't know the space (we have a 27" TV instead of a projector).
>
> Do you use something like this? Any suggestions/improvements?
>
> "1. Test your presentation in 800x600. Many laptops can only manage that on these screens.
> 2. If you're displaying code, only display 3-4 key lines and keep the font big. It's hard to read from a distance. Switching to a text editor almost never works.
> 3. Bring an SVGA adapter for your laptop. That's what projectors and TVs commonly take.
> 4. Bring a backup of your presentation in PDF on a thumb drive. That way if you have trouble connecting, you can go on someone else's laptop and not worry about font differences.
> 5. Go for brevity and large fonts. Ridiculously large fonts still look small. See a Steve Jobs presentation: he has a HUGE screen but often only has a couple of words taking up the whole screen. This helps prevent reading from your presentation, which is an instant snooze-fest for the audience.
> 6. Do not rely on having a Wi-fi connection. While we try to have one, it's always a problem point and Murphy's law says your presentation is the time it will conk out."
>
> -Sandy
>
> --
> Sandy Smith - http://musketeers.me/
> php[architect] magazine: http://phparch.com/
>
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