How to impress a conference audience

As a MC and moderator for tech and startup conferences, I've obviously come across more speakers and conference keynotes than most. Over the years, I've seen inspiring speakers captivate the audience, while delivering real value.

But I've also seen speakers boring the audience to death by sharing the obvious. Both types have helped me to create a personal short list of do's and don'ts when speaking at conferences.

This is for you, if you're speaking because...

...you're at a conference to get clients - let's say it's a mobility conference and your company offers smart logistics solutions.

... you have a booth in the exhibition area and your boss booked a slot on the conference stage.

...you're representing one of the conference-sponsors.

Meaning: you probably don't aspire to become a thougth leader, but you certainly want to leave an impression. There are countless Youtube videos on how to master the art of storytelling, how to talk "TED style". And by now, I reckon most people also know not to show more than one sentence or one graph per slide.

Hence, I won't dive into that and nor will I describe how to create a perfect startup pitch (that's a totally different ball-game).

However my guide will focus on the most common mistakes I witness among speakers and their proven wins. Here we go:

Test your setup. Keep it simple.

The double-espresso you had just minutes ago is driving your heart-rate up and your hand firmly grips the mic - you're seconds away from walking on stage...

... wait, delivering a keynote or presentation starts well before you step on stage. First things first:

Say 'hi' to the technician at least 30 minutes before-hand, ideally in a coffee-break while nobody is on stage. Sounds boring, however in my experience as a MC things go wrong on a regular basis when:

• You want to use your own laptop on stage.
• You want to show a video with sound.
• You work with Keynote instead of Powerpoint.
• Like me you're the proud owner of an Apple Macbook with a HDMI-output... erhh no, with an USB-C output, .... wait, where's the adapter?
• You want to demo your web-application and need to access the internet. ...actually, just don't do that - I've rarely seen this smoothly.

None of these things should present a big challenge to the average technician - as long as he/ she has time to adjust the setup to accommodate your needs. He/she might have to pull out a cable from the stage-floor, load your video-file beforehand or search an adapter for yet the newest Macbook-generation that you brought with you.

Diviation from standard-procedure needs testing and if you arrive 10minutes before your presentation, the technician usually is busy with what's happening on stage and it's too late for changes.

Rock the crowd from the first moment!

Yeah! Finally - you're stepping on stage, the audience is clapping and for a brief moment they are not busy checking their smartphone, instead you have the undivided attention of 800 eyeballs! now is the perfect time to:

• test the mic.
• introduce yourself and your position.
• hastily run over a few slides about the company you represent.

...NOT!

The audience already saw in the program who you are and what you do. Plus seconds earlier the Emcee just introduced you and your company. And most likely, from the 5th row onwards, people are just waiting for you to give them an excuse to get their phones out and check-up on some mails or browse through their Linkedin-feed.

So skip all of the above and use your very first sentence on stage to jump right into the action - grab the audience's attention with a surprising fact, a crass statement or an interesting question.

e.g. "The average internet-user has an attention span of 8 seconds. That's 1 second less than a healthy goldfish! How on earth did we come to that?!"

And of course it's always great to ask your audience some questions and ask for feedback by show of hands. This way you can find out who's there and how to adjust your talk.

The 'secret' formula: Open your treasure box!

Ok, so you started of promising, now you have to deliver. Here's the 'secret', yet simple formula that will help you create the perfect content for any conference-talk:

0 company pitch + 3 real industry insights = max. value for the audience

I know your boss might not like it, but unless you are a startup like e.g. @What3Words with a ground-breaking, one of a kind product, people won't be interested in hearing you talk about how great your company is and how awesome your products are. So simply skip the part with "We are 1.500 employees globally in 5 key markets and we work with these 3 amazing Fortune 500 clients...".

Instead think of which industry trends beyond your company's work are really interesting. Or which of your case-studies could you talk about with a truly unique 'behind the scenes' look, including fuck-ups and insights into real numbers! Research you audience beforehand and know what they don't know.

One of the speaker who I witnessed doing this in a great way, e.g. is @Oliver Kanders of Zeotap at the EBSpreneurship Summit.

Although Zeotap provides amazing data to its clients, Oliver skipped the company-pitch and instead used his stage-time to give the audience an in-depth understanding of the digital advertisement ecosystem and how companies should navigate in it. For me that was the first time I really understood the workflow of digital advertisement.

By the way: on stage pretty much the same rules apply as on social media: be authentic, be capable of self-irony and create true value for your audience.

And don't worry - sharing your general expertise into a market or coming trends reflects back on the work of your company without having to mention it.

Find a hero-finish for your talk!

So, you followed the advice above, delivered an insightful talk and the audience is still with you. How should you finish?

Could this finally be time to squeeze in a few numbers and facts about your company?

I think you can guess the answer....

Instead think of something the audience will truly remember! One of the most memorable finishes I have ever witnessed, was by @Stephan Schilling of Divimove at the Play Conference Berlin:

After a fun and insightful talk of more than an hour about influencer marketing, he wrapped up his talk with a fast-paced interactive quiz. Stephan got everyone in the room to get their phones out, follow a prepared link and had them compete with each other.

You can imagine the sporty and fun atmosphere in the room while everybody tried to answer the quiz as fast as possible... Not only did Stephan go the extra-mile to integrate his key-insights into an interactive quiz on kahoot.it, he also had cool prizes for the first three winners. And no, it was not branded merchandise from the marketing-department...

So save the best for last and finish with a clear message or a clear call-to-action. Like e.g.: 'Talk to me now - I'll be at the coffee-machine over there and the first two persons get my book for free...' or 'write me an email to get our free report on XY...'.

And yes, here it's ok to have a company slide with your contact details. Or a map with your booth-location.

End on time - always!

Make sure to finish on time. Actually, a few minutes before time is even better. That way you might have some minutes to engage the audience into a Q&A.

People are grateful if they can ask their own questions, plus you get to shine with your instant reaction. And in case it's a rather shy audience, the Emcee usually is happy to jump in with one or two questions and will help you to create a lively finish.

After that you're done! Congratulations! High-five with the emcee, but don't rush off to grab a smoke or have the next meeting - you've done a great job and people will want to talk to you. So be visible and available to audience-members who want to approach you for more questions.

You're a pro now!

Now that I've taken you through my personal short list of do's and don'ts when presenting at conferences you are prepared for your next talk. Go on and rock the stage!

Of course each scenario is special, so if you have detailed questions feel free to comment below or send me a message on Linkedin.

As an Emcee for tech conferences I run into a lot of amazing tech and innovation experts. I started posting short videos on Linkedin in which they share their exclusive insights. Follow me and check it out: Zackes Brustik on Linkedin

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