How to prepare to speak at Ignite Seattle

We do everything we can to select speakers with great topics and passions, but we also work hard to help them prepare.

As the Ignite Seattle speaker coach I run a session where we talk about common mistakes, tactics for preparing and how to develop a great story. It’s informal, fun and we usually feed people (hungry speakers are bad speakers). We also encourage folks to do a dry run improvisation with us to get feedback early on in their process. And of course speakers at Ignite are interesting folks and the session is a chance for them to get to know each other.

We tell speakers that since they’re speaking about something they know well and are passionate about, they could probably spend time thinking carefully about  4 or 5 stories or messages and simply practice and present that, without any slides, and do fine. We strongly recommend people develop their ideas, points and stories before they make a single slide. What you say and how you say it is by far the most important thing.

Here are the slides I use that covers the basic advice, including showing speakers photos of the stage and what to expect once they’re up there.

But others have written advice on preparing for Ignite. There is no right way to prepare of course and the ends are far more important than the means<

Summary of additional good advice:

Author: Scott Berkun

Author and Speaker, known for fine books including The Myths of Innovation, Making things Happen, The Year Without Pants and Confessions of a Public Speaker. View all posts by Scott Berkun