Creativity cannot be computed

Demystifying Public Speaking by Lara Callender Hogan

Lara’s superb book on public speaking is now available in its entirity for free as a web book!

And a very beautiful web book it is too! All it needs is a service worker so it works offline.

A Book Apart, Demystifying Public Speaking

Lara’s new book really is excellent. I was lucky enough to get an early preview and here’s what I said:

Giving a talk in public can be a frightening prospect but with Lara Hogan at your side, there’s no limit to what you can accomplish. This book is your shield and sword. Speak, friend, and conquer!

The Layers Of The Web

Here are the slides from my opening keynote at Beyond Tellarrand on Thursday. They don’t make much sense out of context.

Create Landmark Timing Slides - Notist

This is something I do in my presentations. I have speaker notes scattered throughout the slide deck with the “beats” of the talk—10 minutes, 20 minutes, etc.

If I hit one of those slides and I’m ahead of schedule, I can go on a few more tangents. If I hit one of those slides and I’m behind schedule, I can cut to the chase. Either way, having those decision points spread throughout the talk really helps to keep things smooth.

One thing that can really help in the delivery is knowing if you’re running fast or slow before you crash into the end of your talk. That way you can make adjustments as you go along by glossing over smaller points to speed up or expanding more on your ideas to slow down.

How to write a talk - Notist

Rachel describes her process of putting technical talks together:

This method of creating a talk is the one that I find gets me from blank page to finished slide deck most effectively.

She also acknowledges that many other processes are available.

If you are stuck, and your usual method isn’t working, don’t be afraid to try a different approach even if just to get the ideas moving and take you away from staring at the blank page! You might discover that some types of talk benefit from an alternate starting point. There really are no rules here, other than that you do end up with a talk before you need to walk out on that stage.