As with any recipe, this formula will work but only if you follow it.
The formula below also works brilliantly for writing blog posts!
You should read Dave Cheney's full blog post Practical public speaking for Nerds. Below is the most important piece to get your talk/blog post written:
In order of importance you need...
- a conclusion
- an introduction
- everything else
The conclusion is your position, your idea, your argument, your call to action, summarised in one slide.
Don’t start writing until you know how your talk ends.
The introduction should set the stage for the conclusion.
The rest of the talking points should flow logically from the proposition established in the introduction. They should be relevant and supportive of the conclusion. If a point does not relate to the introduction, or support the conclusion then either rewrite it, drop it, or in extreme cases reconsider your conclusion.
The ideal flow to come up with a presentation is:
- complete the formula
- use the formula to write a blog post
- use the blog post to do your deck
A descriptive title tells attendees what your talk is about.
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- Abstracts are the hook for other people to sync into - I like them when they show some personality too.
- These are better with a little more of your personality throughout it!
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Who you think would be interested in this talk
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- I believe X (this is a hard cold fact)
- I have shown you X
- We now both agree on X
- Call to Action
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- I believe X (this is a hard cold fact)
- I believe X because (this is why I am an authority)
- This is the problem I see.
- What I am going to share/teach
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It’s important that attendees leave your session with clear takeaways. List what attendees will learn from the talk including examples or GitHub repositories.
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The outline describes the content of the talk and provides additional details.
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Who are you
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