Public Speaking Masterclass: FROM UNHEARD to UNIGNORABLE

"Public Speaking is a privilege of talking to people who decided to listen to you" Seth Godin.

Understanding attention as a privilege makes the difference between people we HAVE TO listen to - from people we WANT TO listen to. I am sure, you are aspiring to be the latter. The 7 Skills of Social Intelligence is a comprehensive package of probably everything, you know already - but I am confident that you will be grateful for this reminder.

There is a universal law of how important people take things - not only in the world of conferences. It is actually more a funnel than a law: in the conference world, the curator cares the most, and the speaker cares a little less about the whole picture because they focus on their talk. and well: the audience will never care more than the speaker. This is about how to make things important for the people who listen to you.

What I learned soon, in my life in Silicon Valley: you have to structure "experiment" to learn exponentially. What does that even mean? In this very short talk, you will learn a lot about experimenting.

Do you need the "energy of the moment" to react and respond and be spontaneous? Do you have the feeling that preparing too much, rehearsing the talk - will actually make you perform worse? If that's true for you, this 5:30min talk is just perfect for you...

Serendipity is a term being used for a culture that creates soil for unplannable fortune. If you decide to signup for a conference without knowing who is going to speak and who else is going to be in the audience, you are already a person that has a good relationship with serendipity.  However, the next level of experience is when you combine serendipity with a great social agenda. What does that even mean, social agenda? 

In 5 Minutes and ten Seconds, you will know...

One of the worst things that could happen to you on a stage is losing your thread. "what did I want to say next?" And you are stuck. Can you even feel it while you are reading this? It's a terrifying feeling.

What can I do if I forget what I wanted to say? – so many speakers asked me this question.

Watch this talk and you will never worry, again...

It basically is the first question you have to ask yourself, before you even think of preparing your talk. Who am I talking to? The answer to this question will make a massive difference to everything in your talk. In an extreme scenario it might even mean that you withdraw from the gig. Some audiences, you might not even want to talk to. For the others, you will want to hit the nerve of their personality. Make sure that they will enjoy listening to you. And audiences can be so extremely different that if you are not prepared with an answer to that question, you might only have a 25% chance to speak in a way, they actually will enjoy, listening to you...

What you are sharing with your audience might be the focus point of your life for what, months, years, maybe decades? Well, maybe the people in the room hear about it for the first time. They do not sense the amount of urgency that is natural to you. You have to make them care. The next lecture dive deep into the topic of The Art of Listening & Bringing the Problem into the Room.

When you meet someone for the first time, you will always listen. From then on, the odds are high that you will continuously listen less and less. The Art of Listening has two pillars: why do we listen & how can we become enjoyable to listen to. Enjoy.

In most of the situations, the speaker, the audience, the whole conference, AND the problem are not in the same room. To create urgency and attention, you have to bring the problem into the room. Here is how...

No one attends a conference to be inspired. People attend a conference to either learn something new or learn something new about something, they thought they know. If that happens, they call the event (or the specific talk/speaker) inspiring. And if you do not have that something, why are you even speaking? So what is that thing, your audience should see differently, after your talk?

We love and hate surprises. We love surprises that light up our day. But we hate surprises that surface problems worth solving. At the same time, these surprises are often a massive potential for a business idea - and eye-opening to those who did not see the problem coming.

Every process, every routine, every product, every service, every experience - somewhere hides a pain factor. Sometimes the pain factor is so well hidden, that the manufacturer of the pain factor does not even know they are in trouble. If you do not want to be hit by surprise, you might want to master the identification of the pain factor. Here is an introduction to the topic and all you need to know to give your talk that little extra.

The lecture you have been waiting for. This is about your talk. How to draft it, how to structure it - and how to deliver the best talk of your life.

This is about the tech you use. Tech like Videos, Demos, or the technology you are using for slides. Did you actually know the difference between the major presentation technologies? Spoiler: it is NOT transitions...

A fun (and a little longer) compilation of things that are helpful to know as a Speaker. Things you will never find in a textbook about public speaking, but really helpful insights from over 100 TEDx events and many many other conferences, Niki Skene has attended in over 14 years of being in the world of innovation conferences. "Conferences and Airports are my natural habitat", Niki tends to humor about. Well, if not already - after this bonus lecture, you will know, why...