Preface:
I have no easy way of describing all of the things that BarCamp is, so I have included the "official" description of BarCamp below, as according to their site http://barcamproc.org
BarCamp Rochester is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. BarCamp Rochester is an intense event with discussions, demos, and interaction from attendees. All attendees should give a demo, a session, or help with one. All presentations are scheduled the day they happen. Prepare in advance, but come early to get a good slot on the schedule.
This year I was only able to attend a single talk at BarCamp due to some preoccupations that involve an aforementioned math class from my last blog post. Either way, the talk that I was able to attend wasn't quite "normal," to me, even for BarCamp's standards.
Given the nature of the entire presentation behind this talk I'm going to turn this into a constructive piece on how this speaker could have done better.
The Talk:
The name of the talk was "How to Not NOT Sell Video Games." I'm going to list off all the tips I can think off in a bulleted form:
- Don't try to force audience interaction
- Make sure that you project your voice, but avoid shouting at your audience
- Practice your slide deck a few times before presenting it
- Always be prepared for the worst of Murphy's Law
- Check your facts before showing them to others
- Don't hold your audience captive