This outline covers the material necessary to present a four hour workshop to first time Ignite speakers, walking them through the creation of their first Ignite talk.
Students will need a computer to complete their presentation.
Ignite talks can be composed in any slide deck generating software (Keynote, PowerPoint, Google Slides, Etc) as well as any code-generated slide deck packages like Remark. You should standardize on one solution based on what will be available to your students. Make sure they know what you'll be using, and have a template with slide transitions pre-set ahead of time.
Create a shared folder on a network or in a cloud service (Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, Etc) where Students can access the template, and upload their presentations at the end of class. Be sure to write-protect the template to prevent students from accidentally overwriting it.
Introduce the class and give an overview of how the class is structured. Specifically call out the following:
- Everyone in the class will write an Ignite talk during the class;
- All the talks will be presented at the end;
- Students will pair up three times during the class to give the current version of their talk;
- Due to the tight scheduling of the class, students are asked to respect start and stop times;
- Tell them you're going to show a talk about why they should give a talk, as an example;
Show the How And Why To Give An Ignite Talk Ignite Talk.
After the talk, reinforce that an Ignite talk is: 5 Minutes, 20 slides, 15 Seconds Per Slide, Automatically Advance.
Ask the students to think of 3 topics about which they could speak. Provide the following guidance:
- Audience members will buy into the passion students bring to their talk;
- Good choices for a first talk are hobbies, core beliefs, secret pastimes, exciting experiences, spectacular failures;
- Steer away from purely technical topics, unless the student feels they can speak passionately about the topic;
- Choose specific instances of topics that might be overly broad, such as travel or cooking;
Go around the room, asking each student what their 3 topics may be. If a student doesn't have 3 topics, ask them to share what they have. Ask the class collectively what they want to hear about, and pick the topic that seems to have consensus. Don't spend a lot of time here, but aim to get the topics that most people want to hear about, while aiming to avoid duplicate topics.
After topics have been selected, remind students that it's OK if they feel like they could give a better talk on another subject, and that the point of the class is to learn the format and iterate.
The next step is to decompose the topic into 4-5 points to be covered in the talk. The students will make notes about what they think they want to say. Provide the following guidance:
- The Ignite format only leaves time to make about 4-5 points;
- Laptops are not needed;
- For the moment, forget about slides and pictures;
Give students a couple minutes warning before kicking off the first iteration.
Students should pair up and give the best version of their talk that they can. Provide the following guidance:
- If there are many students in the room, some will need to leave the room for this section or the noise will make it hard for others. If this is necessary, emphasize the need for a punctual return;
- In each pair, whoever gives their talk first, their only job is to speak for 5 full minutes about their subject;
- In each pair, whoever is listening first, their two jobs are to keep time (with a phone timer or stopwatch), and to listen so they can provide good feedback;
- If the speaker ends early, the listener should not cut them off or give feedback until the full five minutes have passed. It is important to feel what the full five minutes feels like;
- After the five minutes have passed, the listener gives two minutes maximum of feedback;
- Good Feedback Is:
- Sensitive: Not everyone is at the same level of public speaking ability, and may not have english as their first language. Speakers should not be criticized over nervousness or language tics;
- Relevant: If the talk reminds the listener of a similar experience, this is not the time to share. Focus feedback on what will improve the talk;
- Actionable: Feedback should inform the speaker for what will make their talk better. The more specific, the better;
- For Iteration One, ask listeners to focus their feedback on the Hooks - What about the talk pulled you in? When did the speaker become most energized? What did you want to hear more about?
- After two minutes max of feedback, the speaker and listener should trade places.
Encourage students to begin decomposing their 4-5 talking points into 20 bullet points that will translate into 20 slides. This 5 minutes also serves as some cushion should some students still be returning from the first iteration.
Call out some specific phrases that may have been learned during previous speech classes that can be extraneous in the Ignite format:
- "Next I want to talk about..."
- "Let's move on to"
- "Today I'd like to tell you about"
Encourage speakers to jump as quickly into their subject matter, rather than spending the whole first slide saying who they are.
Show a video that calls out aspects of storytelling. A good choice might be What makes a story relatable?
Have students download the Slide Deck Template you created before class, and demo how it works. Part of this demonstration should be searching for images. Provide the following guidance:
- Before downloading any pictures, students should put a couple words on each slide to remind them what their talking point will be there, so that there are no blank slides at the next iteration;
- Long blocks of text will be distracting to both the audience and the speaker - both will be tempted to read the words, and will stop focusing on the story that is being told;
- The best pictures serve as a backdrop to what the speaker is saying and to the story that is being told;
- When searching for an image for a slide deck, be aware of Fair Use as it applies or does not apply in the country where you are teaching;
- For the purpose of the class, show users how to find the first image that is Good Enough For Now, insert it into the slide deck, and move on;
- Remind users that getting too invested in finding the perfect image will make it challenging to complete their slide deck in the time allotted;
- Remind students that the goal of the class is to learn the format, not to product a perfect slide deck;
Students should work independently to start filling out their slide deck, first with text, and then with pictures.
Give them a five minute warning before Iteration Two begins.
Students should pair up and give the current version of their talk. Provide the following guidance:
- Pair up with someone new;
- Encourage students to present this iteration while standing if possible. This will give them the best sense for what it will feel like to present to the class, and will make them aware of their body language;
- Listeners do not need to keep time any longer, as the slide deck will automatically keep time for them;
- After the five minutes have passed, the listener gives two minutes maximum of feedback;
- Good Feedback Is:
- Sensitive
- Relevant
- Actionable
- For Iteration Two, ask listeners to focus their feedback on the Storytelling - How is their story flowing? Do they have a narrative arch? Does all the content serve their story?
- After two minutes max of feedback, the speaker and listener should trade places.
Indicate that you haven't spent any time talking about presentation skills and body language, but that you are going to show a video on the subject. Show the ‘Thought Leader’ gives talk that will inspire your thoughts talk.
This talk serves two points. One is to open up a conversation about body language. The other is to provide a little comic relief a couple hours into the class.
Provide the following guidance:
- Don't try everything in the previous video all at once;
- Connecting with your audience is important. Encourage students to not present their talk directly to you, but to explicitly make eye contact with different audience members. This will help the presenter know if their talk is engaging people;
- Ask students if anyone had a slide where they didn't have very much to say, resulting in some silence or waiting. Indicate that these slides might make good candidates to be cut. Offer asking a rhetorical question or using a pregnant pause as a way to improve these slides;
- Ask students if anyone had a slide that changed much more quickly than they expected or where they had to talk very quickly. Indicate that these slides might make good candidates to be broken up into two separate slides, to allow for more time.
- For students that may be using the same image on two consecutive slides, encourage students to use two different images with the same message versus duplicating a slide, for the following reasons:
- Exact duplicate images are boring;
- The same image appearing for 30 seconds has the effect of interrupting the 15 second flow;
- It can be challenging to know if a slide has changed or not, which can be distracting to the speaker and cause a fumble;
- In the event of a slide deck, microphone or projector malfunction during a presentation, encourage students to step in front of their slides, forget the slides, and focus on their story;
Give students another 20 minutes to continue to decorate their slides. Encourage them to replace any remaining text.
Students should pair up and give the current version of their talk. Provide the following guidance:
- Pair up with someone new;
- After the five minutes have passed, the listener gives two minutes maximum of feedback;
- Good Feedback Is:
- Sensitive
- Relevant
- Actionable
- For Iteration Three, ask listeners to focus their feedback on the Transitions - Is what they are saying being reinforced by the slide that appears when they say it? Are they having to rush on slides, or drag slides out? Are they focused on their story over their slide?
- After two minutes max of feedback, the speaker and listener should trade places.
Encourage students to make any final changes to their slides, do a final run in private, and upload their completed slide decks to the shared folder you created, and use the restroom. Many students may choose to use this time solely to tweak their slide decks. The end goal is to have everyone's slide deck uploaded before presentations begin.
Laptops should be closed during presentations, for the following reasons:
- This prevents the final presenter from getting an hour more than the first presenter;
- Presenting to an audience of people looking at their laptop screens can be demoralizing;
- It makes it clear that last minute tweaks to the slides will not be accepted anyway;
The order of presentations does not matter much. You may allow the class to self-select who goes next, use a random number generator to pick the next talk, or choose who speaks next.
Provide the following guidance:
- After each talk, the class will give feedback to the presenter;
- Good Feedback Is:
- Sensitive
- Relevant
- Actionable
After each talk, ask the class for feedback. Resist the urge to chime in first, and leave room for the other students to give their own feedback.
Here are some things to pay attention to, and some common suggestions.
Body Language: Speakers sometimes will feel compelled to pace, fidget or wander. This is common and works out to a place of comfort over time and practice. Speakers should not feel compelled to move about the stage unless the movement is in service of their talk.
Verbal Tics: Most people have verbal tics (umm, ahh, err, like, ok, you know, right?) when they first start giving a talk. These are common and work out over time and with practice. Encourage speakers to record themselves rehearsing their talk, as this will help them become aware of improvements they can make.
Call To Action: Including a call to action in a talk can be very powerful.
Thank students for their time and feedback. Indicate you'll be sending out a survey. Encourage them to use each other as a resource when preparing talks in the future. Make yourself available for questions and mentorship.