When presenting, present what counts for your audience first

I have been to a few conferences and presentations this year.  A big part of my role is to look to the future to see what is new in the world of Business Intelligence and what it could mean for our customers.

So attending these (along with lots of research and experimenting) is a good way of getting a feel for whats happening.

I have also been stepping outside what are normal BI realms, going to conferences such as Webstock, which although not traditional BI, where a lot of the presentations were people talking about making information visible.  Webstock is still my fav for this year for a whole raft of reasons.

I have also spent a bit of time sitting through presentations that made me cringe.  Often for the delivery (but good on the presenters having a go, its a skill you need to learn, practise and enjoy to be good in my opinion) but often for the content.

One pet peeve is presenters who talk about their companies first, then what the advertised topic is second (hopefully).

Here is the thing, I don’t care about your company.

I have taken time out of my morning/day/evening to learn something new, not to be sold your company.  If I wanted that I would have come and asked you for a meeting.  However once you have imparted the knowledge you have promised I am happy to have you tell me about what your company does, I owe you something and I will listen.

So here is my suggestion:

1) Tell me who you are and why you are qualified to tell me something intersting

2) Tell me something interesting

3) Tell me about your company (Or even better tell me how you can help me solve a problem)

Cheers

Shane

“Innovate now, the train is a coming”