The Presenter’s Guide to Engaging, Fantastic Sessions

National Charter Schools Conference

June 29 – July 2, 2014Las Vegas, Nevada

Mandalay Bay Hotel & Resort

Charter schools are so creative–why aren’t conferences?

flipped classroom

project-based learning

college preparatory

imaginative learning

montessori style

core knowledge

character education

service learning

un-conferen

ce

Let’s make the conference feel as

cool as our schools:

fishbowls

ted talks

experiential

learning

quiz bowl tourname

ntattende

e-led discussi

on

pecha-kucha

rants

flipped classroo

m

fishbowls

Don’t recognize one of these? Look it up!

Sales-Free Sessions

• Every attendee will be asked on the survey “Was a sales pitch included in this presentation?”

• If over 25% respond “Yes”, you will not be invited back.

• Our attendees complain every year about sales pitches.

Presentation GoalsOur goals for you

Our Experienced Attendees

Years Attending the Conference Age of School, Years

WHAT MAKES YOUan expert?

GO DEEP INTO THE

complexities

Stay within your strengths, talk about what you know

really well.

Don’t just skim the surface of your topic. Dive deep into the nitty-gritty and get to the tough

questions fast.

How to dive deep:Use your handouts, not your powerpoint, to provide the background information. They can read that as they come in if they don’t know it already.

Jump in to the meatiest part--start with the challenge.

Goal of this Presentation

Set a clear goal for your presentation: What should attendees know going out that they didn’t going in? Use your goal to drive your content.

Attendees want to be ENGAGED

Engaged with:

• you

• each other

National Charter Schools Conference 2012

Ideas for Engagement

This takes planning. You won’t magically wake up and feel engaging on the day of your presentation.

Icebreakers:

• Introduce yourself to your neighbor

• Tell your table why you’re here

• Ask: have you ever dealt with this problem before?

Stop every ten minutes to ask your attendees a question:

• Show of hands, have you ever met a student like this?

• Questions break up the act of listening and turns attendee’s minds to something else for a second--that helps make them better listeners too.

EYEcontact

There are people out there. When you look up from your notes, you engage them!

Boston Collegiate

Don’t Read the Powerpoint•Many presenters like to read their

slides out loud and put lots of text on them.

•This is not engaging for three reasons:

•Your attendees read along

•You look at screens, not at them

•If they can just read it at home, why did they fly to DC?

Keep Powerpoints as free of text as

possible.

The Great Presenter Setup

in front of the head table with a hand

mic

hide your things!

screen with crucial info

Let the attendee

focus on you

You can use an app to advance slides

Content strategies

Plan Your Content•Brevity: Keep on-screen words

brief.

•Outline: Outline your presentation before designing

•Test: Ask a colleague to listen to you rehearse

•Practice: makes perfect!

•Handouts: Use a handout instead of a slide deck (See presenter website for our handout)

Supplementary Materials

•More engagement suggestions

•Design tips

•Gadgets and Gizmos

•Session format suggestions

•...and more!

Available on the presenter website: http://bit.ly/ZxNrfG

Before you leave for Vegas:

Register for the conference Book your travel and hotel room Confirm your session timing and the

presenters that will be joining you Order any additional AV that you’ll need Upload your handouts through the

speaker management system Put your presentation on a thumb drive

and email it to yourself and fellow presenters

Have a call with fellow presenters Call or email us with any questions!

Contact us:presenterinfo@

publiccharters.org

Your Questions