How to present at MeasureCamp

Presenting in front of a group might seem daunting but it’s one of those skills that gets better with practice. MeasureCamp is a supportive community of like-minded data enthusiasts so you’ll find a friendly audience for your talk. MeasureCamp relies on the community to fill the schedule, so think about doing a talk!

You’ve decided you want to share your knowledge. Where do you start? You’ve got 25 minutes to present your wisdom, though you’ll likely be asked questions so trim down a little.

25 minutes isn’t enough time to do hands-on training but you can give people an overview of your topic that builds their mental model of what you’re showing. That way when they get home and look at other material, they’ll understand the key concepts and know what the specific terms mean.

The rooms each have screens with standard connectors (HDMI), wifi will be available and the larger rooms have microphones. You can show people anything you like but most start with some slides, perhaps switching to a live demo if there’s something cool to show.

It never hurts to practice your talk a few times. You can do this in a private room to yourself. Don’t forget to track the time it takes. If you can find someone to sit in and watch, even better. Just the practice of talking to a real person helps and they’re likely to give you some feedback.

Speaking is rewarding

Getting up and speaking in front of an audience has many benefits. You’ll gain confidence in your public speaking ability with practice, a superpower that will help throughout your work life. Being in front of the audience turns you into an instant expert and has enormous career benefits.

Commercial plugs

If you’re a vendor, whether a product or a service agency, be especially careful with commercial messaging. MeasureCamp is an UnConference. One of its biggest strengths is that sponsors don’t get automatic high-billing speaking slots to tout their wares.

If you’ve got some genuine knowledge to share and it happens to use your product, cool but keep your audience in mind. If they don’t walk out with useful knowledge, you’ve failed. If you’re not sure, talk to the MeasureCamp organisers and we’ll let you know what side of the line you’re on. Yes, this includes MeasureCamp sponsors!