Attention All You Veteran Con Talkers...

[teddy_radiator]

Okay, I've just finished up my talk outline. It's around the 3K word mark and 8 or so pages. Does that sound like enough to fill a 30 minute talk?

Quite frankly, if it isn't, I'm a little stuffed - I've pretty much highlighted all the salient points I can. I know I'll vamp a bit, and perhaps have time for Q&A at the end if anyone wants it. I'm really happy with the talk; I just want to know what other folks' talks run - word-wise.

Comments

[karelia.livejournal.com]

I'm not a speaker, but I've beta'ed enough presentations to have an idea... Basically, give your talk to yourself and time it. If it's your first talk, record it, so you can listen to it afterwards and judge whether you're talking too fast (talking too fast is way more common than talking to slow). That exercise will give you a very good idea about the timing.

[writcraft]

I have spoken at a bunch of cons and academic conferences and that sounds about right to me in terms of word count, if anything I would say you will find yourself over rather than under the 30 minutes. I always run my talks through to myself and time them. You will find all you need to do is expand on one point and deviate from your script and that can quite quickly take up five minutes etc. It's always a good idea to run it through in any event as it tends to make it easier to do on the day as you are comfortable with the material.

Good luck! I'm sure you will do brilliantly!

[ex-logospil.livejournal.com]

~Does that sound like enough to fill a 30 minute talk?~

Yes :-)

[hbart.livejournal.com]

It's been too long since I've done this sort of thing, so I can't comment on word count, but I will say that unless you public speak all the time and are very comfortable, you are likely to talk fast. A Q&A would definitely take up some time, and it is something you could drop if you ran long. Or just go short and fill the time with something else. Perhaps you dance or juggle? Or not, lol. Is there a practice audience you could give it to? I'm not much help, but I'm wishing you luck and am sorry I won't be there to cheer you on. Or jump on stage and dance if you run short. :)

[juniperus.livejournal.com]

That's right on target. Time yourself when you practice it aloud (and you really should), in case you speak a bit slower than average (which is about 100 words a minute).

[akatnamedeaster.livejournal.com]

It should be enough. The only con speaking I've done was holding a class on figure drawing without models and I had about 6 pages of notes and didn't make it through all of it due to questions, I would think 8 pages(especially if there's some questions or going off on tangents occasionally) would be more than enough.

Good luck Teddy! I'm happy you're going to be able to do this. :)

[drinkingcocoa.livejournal.com]

3K is what I aim for in my half-hour presentations. :-)

I changed my flight time so I can make your talk. :-)

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

Wow! I'm so flattered. Thank you for that huge vote of confidence and support. Can't wait to meet you there.