Speaker Awesomeness I plan to copy and other insights from Blog Indiana

Communication Audits are a big part of what I do for a living  - so I couldn’t help but attend Blog Indiana with at least a little bit of an auditor cap on.  Overall – I loved the conference.  It felt like any other Hoosier family reunion.

@LindseyUHS @nancyjarial @BobbieGarner (myself) and @DonKincaid

The organizers put together a great mix of session topics and experts (there may have been one wonky session that slipped in there).   Each speaker had their own style – but there were a few things that as an attendee really stood out to me.  Here they are:

Speaker awesomeness I plan to copy:

Repeat the question:  The rooms are large and noise is high.  When somone from across the room asked the speaker a question – it was very helpful when the speaker repeated it for all to hear.  @erikdeckers did a great job of this during his keynote.

@whoareyou:  Some presenters had their twitter handle and hashtag on the bottom of each slide.  This made it handy to mention them when I discovered a tweet-worthy soundbite in their prez.   @kmullett even made his entire presentation tweetable (short and sweet slide content).

Link to resources:  My absolute favorite speakers made a link available for their presentation and or resources cited.  A couple examples of this: @KLFLegal tweeted his presentation link 1 minute before he started and @jlisak prepared a blog post citing sources and links.

@giveaway:  Clever presenters had giveaways during their prez – but required attendees to tweet and @mention something specific to be in the running.  Clever.  Inclusive.   @vincerobisch used  @tweetaways to pick a random winner.

Slides that work:  Prezi or PPT – the conference location had trouble with wifi (umm they did know this was a  blogging conference right?).  This caused a problem for some presenters relying on a connection for portions of their presentation (like linking to youtube).  While the room was understanding – i’ll take that as a lesson to have an alternate “no need for wifi” version in my back pocket just in case.

2 minute drill:  @vincerobisch had a great session on writing blog headlines.  He included several 2-minute drills where all was silent and we actually came up with blog headlines for ourselves.  Why was this genius?  Two days of back to back note taking sessions – this was the only one that said let’s take the tips and use them right now.

Involve others:  @randyclarktko had a great prez on the many ways to use social media – but did not just focus on his own experiences.  He included the stories of at least a dozen others and asked those on the room for comments.  Great engagement.

Show us behind the scenes:  @Petetheplanner had a great prez on establishing yourself as an expert.  He was funny, engaging, and shared a lot of personal things about himself – including offering to refund anyone who bought his first crappy book (his words not mine).

I couldn’t help it!  Here are a few more observations:

• Wifi and power sources are a must- but if those fail, at least make sure the free pens work
• I LOVE that the sessions started at 9:15 – I am not a morning person
• Loved the QR code session ratings – worked great!  Would like to see the ratings results.
• Loved the QR code on the badge too – but thanks for having session schedule printed – used both
• When the room is full – sorry, your laptop bag doesn’t get a seat
• The bathrooms were clean!!  That’s a big deal.
• Don’t unplug someone else’s charger – evil will occur.
• If you are not the speaker – don’t add to the presentation unless asked
• Heckling is not cool (you know what I’m talking about)
• If you are sleepy after lunch, sit with @rockywalls – he’s very entertaining
• If you’re an introvert – follow @randyclarktko around – he has extra extrovertedness to share.
• Business cards are still useful – EVEN at a blogging conference (Am I the only one who feels this way?)
• If you wear a QR code on your shirt – you need to stand still for just a little bit so I can scan it
• p.s.  I threw in a bunch of grammatical errors and ill placed commas just to annoy Erik Deckers.

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