Speaking and Facilitation: Tips & Tricks
Part 3: Running your session
Running your session
At the start of your session
Start as you mean to go, as they say. In order to create a positive atmosphere, be an enlarged version of yourself.
If you’re funny, make people laugh. If you’re not, at least try to put people at their ease as best you can! That can be as simple as smiling :)
Be in the room well beforehand
There may be someone in the room in which you’re going to be running your session immediately before you. If the event planners did their job well, however, you will have at least a few minutes to get set up. If you feel like you’re rushing, just ask everyone to get acquainted with the person next to them.
Question: What can you do to get set up or prepared even before you enter the room?
Preparation is key
Make sure everything is working properly
Even if there’s a tech person on hand, don’t assume that everything is set up to your liking. Check the remotes. Check that the fonts on the slides you sent through look correct. Check the microphone works. Check everything. Twice.
Question: Have you got a backup copy of your slide deck? Could you run the session without them?
Check everything twice
Greet people with a smile
Aristotle famously said that we become brave by acting like a brave person. If you smile, everyone assumes that you are confident and are enjoying the experience. Smiling is particularly infectious, so smile away at people as they arrive. Just not in a scary way.
Question: What kind of questions can you ask people as they arrive which will make them feel welcome?
Body language counts
You’re not nervous, you’re excited!
Physiologically, there’s not much difference in terms of the states of being nervous versus being excited. So just tell yourself that your body is excited and preparing you to do well in the session, because that’s (kind of) what’s happening!
Question: What’s the worst that can happen?
Reframing emotion
Give people access to the slides
If you’ve done a good job with your slide deck, then it will be something that session participants might want to share. Also, there may be some people in the audience with (potentially hidden) accessibility needs which means they would appreciate their own copy of the slides. Share a link on your first slide!
Question: If you’ve used a link shortener, have you checked it isn’t blocked on the event wifi?
Sharing is caring
During your session
Sessions at events can be a rollercoaster of emotions and energy, both for the whoever is leading the session (you!) and the audience/participants.
Preparation is important, but so is delivery, so make sure people and ideas have time to ‘breathe’. Mix up the pace of the session to keep it interesting.
Keep track of time
Even if you practise, it’s easy to run over due to people arriving late, a question derailing your flow, or just you being over-enthusiastic about a particular section. Keep track of timings using your watch, phone, or presenter display. Bonus points for vibrating alarms, etc.
Question: Have you left enough time for questions?
Keep a watchful eye
Pause for longer than you think you should
The average teacher, lecturer, or presenter pauses on average for ONE second after asking “any questions?” You can do better than that, and to force yourself to do so, drink (or pretend to drink) out of a coffee cup or water bottle. It’s also a signal to the audience that you really are pausing for questions.
Question: Can you think of questions you are expecting to get and can prepare for?
The coffee cup technique
Explain more difficult concepts in more than one way
Just because something is easy and obvious to you does not mean it will be to other people. If there are ideas, concepts, or approaches that are likely to confuse people, ensure you’ve got other ways to explain them. Stories, anecdotes, and metaphors work well!
Question: Are there easy analogies you can use from everyday life?
Say what you mean
Everyone wants you to do well
Remind yourself that 99.9% of the people coming to your session want it to be a success and to learn something. So stick to your plan and imagine everyone applauding at the end. Because they will.
Question: Did you know that audience members with a ‘concentration face’ can also looks like them frowning?
You’re going to nail it
Don’t read from the screen!
If you put lots of words on slides that you are presenting (as opposed to using them as a document, like this deck!) then you will end up reading them. Maybe not at the beginning of the presentation, but by the end the chances are you will be. To avoid this, minimise your use of text and use lots of images!
Question: When people read they tend to use a monotone voice - have you practised modulating your voice (making it go up and down, faster and slower) to make it more interesting to listen to?
Voice modulation is a thing
At the end of your session
End well by being generous with your time and by sharing your resources with people both inside and outside of the room.
Use the Q&A part of the session, if there is one, to expand on ideas that particularly resonated with your audience. If there are no questions, use your spare slides to go into things you are interested in!
Add another link to the slides
Just because you’ve informed your audience of the link to the slide deck once doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do it again. Especially as they’ve now seen how good it is. Ensure it’s on the screen at the end of your session for a good while.
Question: Can you make the link as easy to access as possible by ensuring there are no ambiguous characters (e.g. l vs 1)?
Slides as social objects
Share contact details
If you want people to get in touch with you after the session, then you will need to add your contact details to your slide deck. This sounds obvious, but you should also ensure it’s readable by people at the back of the room. 16pt text is usually big enough, but check!
Question: Do you want to add your social media details as well? Which one(s)?
Gain more followers
Use spare slides to your advantage
If you have too much content for the time available for your presentation, consider using ‘spare slides’ after your final slide. These allow you to go into more detail in the Q&A section, or even if someone comes up to you after the session asking a very specific question.
Question: Are there particular ‘rabbit holes’ that people tend to want to go down with the topic of your session?
The hidden surprise