Greg Hartnett

At my presentation at PubCon, I decided to mix it up a little bit. I experimented a little by not using a PowerPoint, and speaking more off the cuff. I think it worked out pretty well, as I kept my ad-libbing to a minimum, and stuck to my pre-rehearsed topics of discussion. Integrating the video clip of my son’s hockey fight into my part on multimedia got the crowd laughing, and from there it was smooth sailing. Thanks for the encouragement to do so from Todd and Brian.

My biggest fear was losing the crowd a bit. I was afraid that if I wasn’t able to keep their attention throughout the speech, their minds would definitely wander. If I wanted them dozing off, I would have opted for a bullet point laden PowerPoint. At one point a few minutes in, I tried spinning a bit off the cuff. While the comments I made flowed well while ad-libbing, I lost my track in where I was, and had to briefly refer to my note cards - it was a four second lapse that seemed like an eternity.

One thing I screwed up on - not providing handouts of the important points of the presentation. I did it when I spoke in Boston, and the crowd definitely dug it. Next time, for sure. For the handful of people that asked me about the books I mentioned, they were: Lexus, by Mark Buchanan and Linked by Albert Laszlo Barabasi. Both of them discuss network theory, and are very insightful from a search marketing perspective. I highly recommend both. If you enjoyed Tipping Point, and have some interest in science, these will be right up your alley.

So next time, I think I’ll stick with my no PowerPoint, and make sure to give handouts. I already got the heads up from Brett that I’ll be back for more presentations, so I’d better start thinking of some cool new stuff - I can’t rely on that hockey fight video forever