How to prepare and create a short talk from scratch in under 15 minutes

Having encouraged hundreds of speakers, interviewed many top tech conference speakers and sourced speakers for 50+ lightning talk events over the last few years, we’ve spotted a number of common challenges that every new speaker comes across.

They include:

How to handle imposter syndrome ("why would anyone want to listen to me?")

What subject should you speak about?

How to decide which parts to include and which to leave out

How to structure a presentation

How to create a talk that people will actually be interested in

In this workshop we will reflect on lessons that we have learnt from the best speakers, and walk you through a very simple framework that anyone can use to create a short interesting talk in a very short time.

Through a series of very simple steps, this workshop will help you:

Select a topic in 30-60 seconds

Create a structure that will deliver a short talk

Tame your imposter syndrome

Give you everything you need to create a fully written short talk (e.g. lightning talk) in 15 minutes

This will give you something you can use over and over again throughout your career, whether for public presentations, internal sessions/brown bag sessions, interviews or any time you need to create a presentation.

Take a look at quotes from previous attendees:

"I thought the session was great and well structured. The document guide is fantastic, I love the way it guides your thought process and gradually builds to construct your talk at the end, also love that you can use the final tab to structure your talk.

After the session I was left feeling far more comfortable about public speaking, it didn't seem so overwhelming to prepare and deliver a talk. It was a great format and I think it will help a lot of people."

- Aimi

"I thought it was really really great! I've been struggling with just finding something to talk about but in such a short time, I brainstormed multiple ideas. I will definitely use this outline in the future.

I also liked how we were walked through each section of the document on the workshop. I had a chance to voice my personal concerns and a past experience that left me nervous to be a speaker at a conference and was given a different mindset to think about it."

- Melissa

This is an introductory framework, designed for anyone that resonates with any of the following:

New speakers, junior speakers and aspiring speakers

Those who are paralysed by the thought of speaking to other people

Those who are convinced they can't talk because of imposter syndrome

Those that want to speak but can't find the time to think about what to talk about

Those that don't think they have anything interesting to talk about

Those that want to speak but don't know where to start

This event is organised by RecWorks on behalf of the Aspiring Speakers

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