{"id":2337,"date":"2013-11-13T15:12:47","date_gmt":"2013-11-13T06:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2013-11-13\/2337"},"modified":"2013-11-13T15:12:47","modified_gmt":"2013-11-13T06:12:47","slug":"the-most-important-rule-to-follow-when-giving-a-presentation-or-teaching-a-workshop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2013-11-13\/2337","title":{"rendered":"The Most Important Rule to Follow When Giving a Presentation or Teaching a Workshop"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
<\/a>\nAt The O'Reilly Open Source Conference<\/span>\nWith Tim O'Reilly, the publisher of my book<\/a>\nJuly 2002\n<\/div>\n\n

When I spoke at large software conferences back in the 90s, where 1,500\nfolks might pay to listen to hear me prattle on for a few<\/span> hours, my\npreparation went like this:<\/p>\n\n

    \n
  1. Discuss with the organizers the kind of talk to give.<\/li>\n
  2. When the conference program comes out, see the actual title and\ndescription of my talk.<\/li>\n
  3. Prepare a talk<\/span> that exactly conformed to that advertised title and description, even if it differed from what was discussed in advance.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n

    Even the most fantastic presentation is destined to make people feel cheated if attendees arrive expecting to hear about something else.<\/p>\n\n

    I know this from unfortunate first-hand experience as an attendee\nmyself. For example, once I showed<\/span> up to a presentation<\/span> by Famous\nComputer Guy<\/i> expecting to hear the talk advertised in the conference\nprogram, only to be subject to the advertised speaker inexplicably giving a\ndifferent<\/span> talk, apparently recycled from some earlier conference.\nIt wasn't a last<\/span>-minute schedule change; I think<\/span> the speaker was just lazy.<\/p>\n\n

    Perhaps there was overlap between the two target\naudiences — those interested in the advertised talk and those\ninterested in the delivered talk — but I was<\/span> not among them and so my\ntime and my attention was completely wasted. I felt deceived<\/span> and\ndisrespected.<\/p>\n\n

    This applies to most any kind of teaching\/presentation situation where\nfolks choose to attend based upon the description.... from the aerobics\nlesson at a gym<\/span> to a college<\/span> class to a presentation<\/span> at a conference<\/span> to a\nplay<\/span> or music performance:<\/p>\n\n

    \nWhat you advertise to provide is the basis by which folks make the choice to attend,\nso make sure to actually provide the content that you advertised<\/i>, or you will certainly disappoint.\n<\/div>\n\n

    I showed up at my local gym today and thought I'd give a particular<\/span>\naerobics class a try.<\/span> It was advertised<\/span> as being for beginners for whom\ndancing is not a strong<\/span> point, so it was up my alley to get in some\nlow-impact sweat. I think<\/span> I was<\/span> the only first-timer in the class because\nwhen the instructor put the music on, I was the<\/span> only person who didn't\nlaunch into a complex<\/span> choreographed dance (like a high<\/span>-energy version of Michael Jackson's\nThriller<\/i><\/a>). It left me<\/span> just standing there dumb, wondering what\nto do. Perhaps it was just a warmup<\/span>? After a few<\/span> embarrassing minutes of\njust standing there amid the flailing high-energy limbs and torsos, I eventually<\/span> bothered anther student to ask when the instruction could come,\nto which I found<\/span> out there wasn't any.<\/p>\n\n

    Nothing was wrong with the lesson nor the description: the problem is that they didn't match<\/i>.\nThis is fully the instructor's fault (though the gym also bears responsibility for allowing such an instructor).<\/p>\n\n

    Feeling absolutely stupid and deceived; I slinked<\/span> out of the room and returned home, devoid of both sweat and a good<\/span> mood.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    When I spoke at large software conferences back in the 90s, where 1,500 folks might pay to listen to hear me prattle on for a few hours, my preparation went like this:<\/p> Discuss with the organizers the kind of talk to give. When the conference program comes out, see the actual title and description of my talk. Prepare a talk that exactly conformed to that advertised title and description, even if it differed from what was discussed in advance.

    Even the most fantastic presentation is destined to make people feel cheated if attendees arrive expecting to hear about something else.<\/p> [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2337"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}