Today, I’m talking about how first timers can prepare to present at a conference. If you remember in episode 9, I talked about a number of free virtual conferences and how you could attend. But it didn’t occur to me until I was helping a colleague prepare for her first state level conference that some of you might be taking this opportunity to present for the very first time. So today, I’m going to give you some tips on how to prepare. I’m choosing to not focus heavily on proposal writing, because that could be an entire episode on it’s own! But I do have a couple of tricks to share on that subject too. So let’s jump in!
PRESENT WITH OTHERS
If you haven’t presented outside of your school before it can be nerve-wracking! So I asked other educators on Twitter to give advice for first-time presenters. Ashley Morrison @IHMSMorrison shared, “Present as a pair or small group. She found it helpful to have another person there who can help fill in the gaps and that having more than one person presenting can make it more engaging for the audience.
I have done this several times, including the first time I presented at my state conference. It does help to have another person who can share or reiterate information in a different way for your participants and to split up parts of the presentation with, allowing each of you to cater to your areas of strength or expertise. Of course, you will want to figure this out before you submit your proposal.
Ashley also shared that you should add in points where you are getting interaction from your audience including using tools such as polls, Google Jamboard, or Mentimeter. I’ll get into this a little later in the episode, but I wholeheartedly agree that being able to have some interaction in your presentation is worthwhile if used correctly.
HAVE A SET OF PRESENTATIONS
When I started presenting at state and national conferences, I wanted to present on a number of different topics, but I felt like I never had time to get the presentations where I wanted them. Then I noticed the keynote speakers and educators who do the conference circuit had a set rotation of certain sessions they did for that conference season, then created a new set of sessions for the next season. It does make a lot of sense to do the same sessions and presentations at different places. I’ve found it’s been easier doing it this way and each time I do the presentation, I get feedback and make it better. I tweak things each time and I’ve been able to ad lib a little more and relax, building relationships with participants, because I’m not so focused on worrying about what to say next. I’ve also been able to build a lot choice into these sessions and let things evolve more naturally in the direction participants want to go. These two things have helped me grow immensely in my confidence as a presenter.
Another way this has helped is that I reuse the same proposals tweaking a few things as needed, but I’m not writing an entire proposal again. I keep a Google Doc for every conference session, actually every PD I do even in my own building, with a session description and agenda. If I need to make major changes because a proposal is asking for something different, I label an area on the Doc with the information for that proposal. When the next one comes up, I just copy and paste.
Okay, so you’ve been accepted to present. Now what?
SHARING INFORMATION
First, don’t make the same mistake I’ve made for the last 3 years. Don’t wait until you’ve been accepted to start working on your session. It’s way too stressful and I’ve made myself sick for two of those years, getting a sinus infection a couple of days before presenting and coming home with the flu the next year. Even if you don’t get accepted, there’s probably another place you can give that session, so start making!!
Next, how are you going to share information with your audience? Will you use PowerPoint or Google Slides, or Google Sites or Wakelet? Each one offers different features. PowerPoint is great, but in this digital age, your participants want to take a copy of your slideshow with them. If the conference is using a program such as Sched to manage everything you can upload the slideshow there, but if not, you need a way to share it. I’m not a Microsoft 365 user, so I’m not sure if there’s a share link similar to Google. I prefer to use Google Slides because I can share the presentation out with anyone.
A couple of years ago, I saw a fellow Google Trainer use Google Sites to present and this year I tried it for my YouTube session. By the way, that session was inspired by two previous Tech Tuesday episodes. I was able to add additional resources that I would never have time to get to in a session. I presented this two weeks ago and one participant said I loved the site filled with resources to continue the exploration on my own. So if you have a topic that has a lot of information, this may be a better format for you.
Wakelet is the newest app that I’ve seen a couple of people use for their main presentation. But most people use it as a way to share additional resources, much like I share the episode notes. It’s ultimately very practical as you can add any kind of resource and share out the link or have collaborators.
URL SHORTENERS
A URL shortener will be easier to use than sharing out a long URL or Google share link. Bit.ly is the one I prefer to use because I can customize the back half of the URL for free, which means I can create a link that participants can remember after my session. For my YouTube session, I use bit.ly/youtube_instruct, because my session is all about using YouTube in an instructional environment. There’s also a paid option where I could customize the whole link. Rebrandly, TinyURL, and Tiny.CC are 3 other URL link shorteners you can try.
Most of these link shortener sites will also give you analytics, showing how many people have clicked on the link, what day they clicked on it, where they clicked on it from, such as an email or social media, and their location. To use, simply copy the link you want to shorten, paste into the URL shortener of your choice and it will shorten the link. This shorter link is the one you want to share out. If you’re using a Google document of any kind, make sure you are using the share link, not the edit link for the document. Give sharing permissions set to ANYONE WITH THE LINK can view, because most participants will be from outside your school district. Copy this link into the URL shortener.
Next, you don’t want to be bogged down trying to share out this link. Put the link on the first slide of your presentation or somewhere it will be noticed, big enough for people to see it. In my introduction or while waiting for people to join the session, I highlight that it’s there. Then add the link to every slide. Make it smaller and somewhere in a corner. Especially in a virtual conference, where you can have people coming in or out or get kicked off the Internet, when they come in, being able to see that link no matter where you are in your presentation is super helpful!
ICEBREAKERS
Now, I know we all hate icebreakers, but this is necessary to start building a relationship with your audience and create a positive learning environment, just like we do in our classrooms! This can also help you get an idea of what participants really need support with or what they’re interests are. This conference season I’m doing a Google Workspace Refresher asking participants what top 3 Google tools they want to learn the most about. If they want to know more about Forms, Sites, and Jamboard, I’m not going to waste time talking about Slides. I have a survey ready to give out before the session begins or as people come into Zoom or into the room when we’re face-to-face.
But you can definitely do more fun things, such as Would You Rather? Find some different items and put them in a Google Form or Zoom poll or use Google Jamboard and allow for collaboration.
A few years ago, I found this “design your own” emoji template in Google Slides that can be used with Pear Deck. Or use what one of my UnisonEDU colleagues, Patrick Hausammann does. He creates different graphics with pictures and you pick a number and add it to the chat. It could be how is your day going, how do you feel, etc. He does a great job of relating to the audience this way!
INTERACTION AND MODELING
I mentioned earlier in the episode that you will want to include some interaction in your session and this doesn’t matter if you are presenting face-to-face or virtually. Include polls through either Zoom, Google Forms, or Mentimeter to gauge the audience’s prior knowledge, assess their understanding, or as a fun brain break or transition. If you haven’t heard of Mentimeter before, it’s big at conferences and allows for real-time voting and live polling. While Mentimeter is free, you do have to pay for some features. I’ll have a link to what’s available in the free version in the episode notes.
Kahoot and Pear Deck are also good examples of how to include interaction and are popular choices for tech tools.
The use of round table style discussions grouped by grade levels, subject areas, skill levels, or interest in a tool or strategy, and with the use of Google Jamboard could be one way to get participants to move around the room and share out ideas with the whole group or you could start the session with participants already grouped in specific places around the room so each person is surrounded by people with shared interests.
In either case, this setup will better facilitate meaningful connections and dialogue. While in this grouping, you can include brainstorming activities, capture participants’ input or create an action plan, asking participants to share how they will apply their new information or what changes they will make upon returning back to their classrooms. Create separate Jamboard files per group and allow participants to move from frame to frame to capture their responses or create one Jamboard where all participants respond on one frame for an activity and then move to the next frame for the next activity. It really depends on what works best for the participants.
If technology isn’t your thing, engage your audience by sharing your own stories which will help connect participants to your topic. After the conference, they may not remember the idea, strategy, or tool you shared, but they may remember your personal story and can look back through your materials or contact you. You can also ask the audience to share specific examples from their personal experience of the topic you are discussing.
However, if you are showing participants how to do something specifically with technology or how to set something up, make sure to model the steps, not just explain them or have the steps listed on a slide. Physically, walk participants through each step as many in your audience will probably not have encountered this before.
LINK TO RESOURCES
Again, if you are sharing resources that are any type of Google document or any resources such as a PDF that are stored on your Google Drive, make sure you give sharing permissions and use the share link. Set it to ANYONE WITH THE LINK, can view, if you only want participants to view it or set to “can edit” if you are doing a collaborative activity and you want participants to be able to move things around or edit the document.
Also, you don’t have to link just text, you can also link to images or icons. I will often take screenshots of resources and upload them to Google Slides. Then copy the URL I want to link to and come back to select the image. Click the hyperlink icon in the toolbar and paste the link. When anyone clicks on the image, it’s an active link that will take them to that resource.
If you’re a windows user, you can use the snip and sketch tool to take a screenshot. I use a more advanced tool TechSmith Capture. It is free, but has to be downloaded and installed to your computer. I like the many different options it gives me. If you’re a mac user, press and hold down the Shift, Command, and number 4 key at the same time. Drag the crosshair to select the area of the screen to capture. To move the selection, press and hold the Spacebar while dragging.
If you have a chromeback, use the CTRL + SHOW WINDOWS key combination to take a full window screenshot. The Show windows key, which looks like a rectangle with two lines on the right side, is on the top row of the keyboard. To take a screenshot of a portion of the screen, press the SHIFT + CTRL + SHOW WINDOWS keys. You’ll see a crosshair icon; click and drag it until the part of the screen you want to copy is highlighted, and then let go. Any screenshot you take will end up in the Downloads folder. To find the folder, select the Launcher at the left corner of your display. Look for the icon named FILES under the search field. If you don’t see it, select the up arrow and look for the FILES app there. That icon will bring up your file manager. Look for your Downloads folder under the MY FILES category on the left. Your screenshots will be there.
ADDING VIDEOS
I’m not a big fan of including videos in my session other than as a resource for participants to watch later. However, there are a few times when a video just does a better job explaining a concept or showing something from a classroom perspective. If you have to use a video keep it short or use short clips from a longer video.
If you’re using Google Slides or Google Sites, you can embed YouTube videos directly into your presentation. In Slides, go to INSERT>VIDEO and either search for a video you want to use or paste the URL link. Or if you have video in your Google Drive, you can embed that too. Then re-size as needed. With the format options, you can decide how the video will play upon coming to the slide; will you need to click on it or let it play automatically? You can also start and end the video at specific times.
In Google Sites, make sure you’re on the INSERT tab, and then scroll down until you find YouTube. You can search for a video or find a previously uploaded video. Then re-size as needed.
TOBY
In my Google Workspace for Education Refresher session, I have a lot of examples and resources to pull up during the course of the session and because I let participants lead the direction for what Google apps we talk about, every session is different. If you do have a lot of examples to show, like me, having each one open in a new tab can be a challenge and make your computer run slower. As you can usually see when I record my screen, I am a tab hoarder. Even with the help of a tab managing system like Toby. Toby is a chrome extension that lets me save my tabs into collections. In the middle of my screen, you see all the collections I have and on the right are my current open tabs. I can drag one of these tabs to a collection and the tab will automatically close in Chrome and be saved here. Or I can create a new collection to save it to. When I want to open the website again, I either click on the name of that site or open all the tabs in that collection.
As I said with the Google Workspace Refresher session, I let participants direct which apps we talk about, so I have put the resources I need for each session into separate collections. At the beginning of each session, I do a poll and ask for the top 3 apps. When I get to that app, I simply open a tab and Toby opens. I find the collection and open all the tabs. I close each example or resource as I finish talking about it and do the cycle again when I get ready to move to the next app. It has kept me very organized during this session.
PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!!
I really can’t say enough about having time to practice or maybe I should say leave time to practice. You don’t want to overdo it and have it feel stiff either. But practicing will make you feel better prepared going into the session, and it often makes me think of things that I may have forgotten to include. Running through your session helps you understand the pacing and what to have already up and ready on your screen, especially if you have a lot of examples.
If possible, you may want to run a full dry run with teacher friends or colleagues or offer a sneak-peek session to teachers in your building. I’m not always good about planning this step out and sometimes it just doesn’t happen and that’s ok.
SESSION EVALUATIONS
Most conferences have a conference evaluation that is very broad and doesn’t often give you information about your session. So create your own! Here’s what mine looks like and you can get a copy in the episode notes. I always want to know what I can do better on or fix and having this evaluation gives me important feedback.
At the very bottom of my form, I also add a section for participants to tell me if I didn’t cover something they wanted to hear and if they would like for me to contact them for a follow up. I can offer training sessions later or create a video and send out to those who want it.
If you want to take a look at some different presentations and resources, you can check out the Conferences section of my Wakelet account, where I keep my notes from different conferences I have attended and presented at. On my profile page, scroll down until you find Conferences.
All of the resources mentioned in today’s episode will be available in the episode notes on Wakelet.
What other advice do you have for those prepping to present for the first time?
Ms Priester EDU 