Ignite Salt Lake 5 Observations

Wow!  I just finished my first Ignite style presentation.

That was the scariest thing I’ve ever done.  I speak a lot in public with usually little worries.  What makes Ignite different?

First of all, you only have 15 seconds per slide.  The audience can usually tell you’ve screwed up if you’re talking about purple dinosaurs when the current slide has yellow cows.

Second of all, there’s an audience!  A typical Ignite audience has hundreds of members.  Kind of hard to ignore when you’re on the stage.

I bit off more than I could chew.  I tried to present a story that took years to develop in only 5 minutes.  That’s what I promised and technically I delivered it, but not with any grace or finesse.  Lesson learned.

Please don’t heckle at Ignite!  Sadly, I invited a guest that saw fit to provide commentary during the 15 second slide and ask questions.  Really?  Wrong format.  Leave questions at Ignite to Twitter addresses clearly provided to be answered outside of the time limit.  Thankfully the heckler didn’t ruin any presentations.

Don’t try to cram too much into your presentation.  While some people rushed(moi) other people took a much slower approach.  Frankly, that was refreshing.  Ignite is about presenting an idea quickly, but it shouldn’t be about cramming a square idea into a round hole.  I feel guilty of that to a certain extent.

The best presentations were those that allowed plenty of room for error with the slides and ad libbed on the verbiage. 

Still, the preparation and focus required to even complete this silly 5 minute presentation was worth attempting.  I learned a lot.  I might even try again…

Here’s the link to my video and the slide deck.