HOSTING / FACILITATING A SYNAPSE SYNOPSIS EVENT
This is a rotating event, both location and role. The person who hosts / facilitates the Synapse Synopsis night will: communicate with the group, coordinate with presenters, set up the presentation means, introduce the speakers, determine a theme if any, organize food, have fun with it... [Renata is happy to collaborate on this, or not.] Here's a tidy way to offer your facilitation and hosting skills: http://synapsesynopsis.com/want-to-host/
From igniteshow.com: If you've planned it well and you take things in stride, then the night will be easy. Have fun!
- Do an open call, but also invite speakers:
- You want to make sure that you have strong speakers to keep the crowd. Try alternating the known with the unknown. Also, consider varying the topics of your speakers; if too many apply with similar topics, you should put some off until the next event.
- What type of presentations work best?
- Make presentations that can stand on their own; presentations should not be about some "inside joke" that only the tech community knows.
- While topics can be very funny, Ignites are not a forum for stand-up comedy. People should be left with an interesting message from each presentation. A great example is Derek Neighbors's presentation from Ignite Phoenix 3: a highly entertaining talk where the laughs helped hammer home a point at a level that few understood it before his talk.
- Often, Ignite is portrayed as something where all the presentations should always be geeky or fun. This presentation from Ignite Portland is neither: http://igniteshow.com/videos/being-refugee. Tara's presentation is passionate and moving. She stops talking for about half a minute in the middle of the presentation— something I'm not sure would even be possible for the majority of Ignite presenters. Her talk was so powerful that Brady selected it for the Ignite Show back in January. If you have a list of exemplary presentations, consider including this one. If you have a definition of what Ignite is, include presentations like this.
- Prepare to Run Powerpoint Presentations
- Run all presentations from one machine to help keep the speed going. We recommend using Powerpoint for all presentations. Be sure to rename the files to reflect the order and speaker. Make sure your computer is working and have a backup on hand, loaded with the presentations.
- Renata uses Google Presentation [like Powerpoint, but on Google Drive]; you can see the person’s presentation ahead of time, they can alter it even once you have the file, but you have it so that it can’t be forgotten or corrupted, etc...
- Portland handles their intros very elegantly. They have a guest speaker do a 20 slide intro. About 8 of the slides are admin (format, bathrooms, sponsors, etc.) and the rest of the deck is devoted to the speaker's thoughts on Ignite. It's a really nice way of keeping the opening fresh and reflecting on the tech community.
- Video in Ignite presentations
- There is no hard and fast rule about whether to permit or prohibit video or animations in a presentation.
- It's certainly technically possible to allow them, but if you permit any sort of buildouts, animations, or videos on slides, you will increase the difficulty for the slide wrangler to massage the slides so they're reliably timed and delivered for the event. If you do end up using video, try using Keynote if you can—PowerPoint has had mixed results, where the video will appear on the laptop but not on the big screen. (As an aside, PowerPoint 2010 promises to fix this. It's in beta release if you want to try it.) To reduce the probability of complications with a presentation incorporating video, the slides can be converted into a Quicktime video with all non-video slides as static images for 450 frames (15sec) each.
- Some Igniters cite philosophical reasons for not allowing video—the talks are supposed to be focused on the presenter's story, with the audience's attention primarily focused on the presenter, and the visual aids are supposed to be supportive of the presenter, not the other way around.
- Do a walk-through.
- Hang signs [bathroom, snacks, anything important].
- Do a soundcheck.
- Set up the projector (have a backup, if at all possible).
- You'll be dealing with a lot of speakers. Ask all of the speakers for that particular block to be up front before the block starts. Lure them with drink tickets! Introduce speakers to each other–connecting with their fellow speakers is a confidence builder and facilitates a smooth hand-off of the mic.
- There's a lot of time for padding in the schedule, but try to start on time. You don't want your audience to get bored.
- Managing the Talks (Options - MC or Speaker-to-Speaker hand-off)
- The MC can kick things off with an intro, and then bring on the speakers one at a time. Use a wireless hand-held microphone if possible so that the MC can hand it off to each of the speakers.
- Optionally, you can have each speaker hand-off to the next. One person will need to staff the laptop. This person will start the next speaker's presentation as soon as the microphone is exchanged.
- Say good-bye. Thank everyone involved. Clean up as directed by the venue--don't be afraid to ask the crowd for help.
TIPS from http://igniteshow.com/tips:
- How to handle speaker cancellations
- Meet with the speakers in person before your Ignite event, getting them excited and making them less likely to pull out at the last minute.
- Request the slides a week in advance also helps, and gives you a buffer zone to recruit more speakers. People are less likely to pull out if the hard work has already been done.
- Tell potential speakers "Before submitting a proposal, please make sure you're committed to the event and you have enough time to create and prepare your presentation.”
- Avoid moving around too much. It can distract the audience if a speaker uses wild hand gestures, is bobbing and weaving back and forth, or has their back to the audience
- Give yourself plenty of time to rehearse to avoid word hooks like "hem", "uh", "like", etc. With practice, you’ll smooth-out rough edges and improve cadence.
- Wear clothing that is comfortable and that does not clash with the backdrop of the presentation/stage. This is so you will show up well on camera. Remember, it will probably be dark in the venue. So use clothing that will reflect the light (gold lame excluded). (This is especially true for people up later on the bill; the room can get hot, and if you go up on stage last, you could look all shiny and sweaty.)
- Avoid wearing lots of gaudy jewelry. The camera and lights also pick this up and can be distracting.
- Speak up and speak clearly and speak just a little slower than you usually do.
- Prepare your presentation with speaker notes and supply them to the event organizer to assist with preparing your presentation after the fact for archived streaming.
- Watch as many online Ignite videos as possible well in advance (we’ve conveniently located them at igniteshow.com). This has the advantages of 1) letting the presenters become familiar with the format being done different ways, 2) seeing the high quality of presentations being done by other Ignites, and 3) making the presenters aware that their own presentations would be recorded and viewed by others in the future.
- 6 helpful pages for speakers:
- What if a speaker wants to present without slides?
- To remain faithful to the 20 slides/5 minutes format, you can use 20 blank slides. Alternately, the slides could count down from 20, include 20 boxes that fade away one-by-one, change color over time, or state the amount of time remaining.