5 steps to create conference content

We’ve all experienced lackluster speakers—fidgety, monotone, reading from the screen, relying on their overly dense slides, not engaging with the audience at all. And the worst part? They’re going off on some tangent or telling a story that makes absolutely no sense, to you, the audience. 

Don’t be that person.

You’re probably thinking, “Come on SNP, I’ll never be THAT person.” While you may not crash and burn (which we’d never wish upon you), your nervous energy––the kind we all get before speaking––can sink any presentation into the murky waters of unintended tangents and filler words. 

You have to put in the work to ensure your message reaches your audience. Sure, that comes down to the physical skills and being engaging when you’re on stage or in front of the room, but it also comes down to your content. Is it compelling? Is it audience-focused? Because content is queen after all. 

Read on for five steps to create your conference content: 

1. Know Your Audience

You can’t make content compelling unless you define what compelling is. Here’s the kicker: what’s compelling changes from situation to situation because your audience gets to define what it is. Before you put pen to paper, ask yourself:

• Who’s my audience? Think title, function, company, industry, demographics (age, gender, etc.). 
• What do they care about? What keeps them up at night? What are they curious about? What will be helpful to them in their day-to-day? Not just personally, or related to your topic—think about their roles too. 

For example, imagine you’re a product leader for a B2B Procurement SaaS company and you’re about to speak about product updates at your annual user conference. You might answer these questions this way…

• Audience––users:
  • IT: IT Director, Director of Technology, Chief Information Security Officer
  • Finance: CFO, Controller, Accounts Payable
  • Supply Chain: Chief Supply Chain Officer, VP of Supply Chain, Business Analyst, Project Manager
• What do they care about?
  • IT: Infrastructure security, data privacy, smooth and seamless IT operations, the business running as it needs to
  • Finance: Profit, revenue, operating costs, long- and short-term business planning
  • Supply Chain: seamless sourcing experience, timely sourcing, regulatory compliance

This is your editor. Your content filtering process. When looking to cut, add, or clarify—ask, “What does my audience care about?”

2. Clarify Your Objective

What do you want your audience to think or feel? What do you want your audience to do after your presentation? Write that out. That’s your objective. All of your content decisions henceforth revolve around serving that objective. 

Consider your approach too. Are you aiming to inform, inspire, persuade, or entertain?

• Inform: Share knowledge and insights.
• Inspire: Motivate and energize your audience.
• Persuade: Convince your audience to take a specific action.
• Entertain: Engage your audience with humor or storytelling.

Define that for yourself. This can help you tailor the stories and statistics you use to bring your content to life.

Keeping with our story from earlier…You’re giving your SaaS product update to an audience of IT, finance, and supply chain people: 

• Objective: Excite existing users about product improvements and intrigue new or potential users about business impact. 
• Action: Start a conversation with a sales rep about their custom needs. 
• Aim: Inspire.

3. Establish 3 Key Takeaways

Clarity is key to keeping your audience engaged and helping your message land amidst a full day of conference content. What are the three most important points for your audience to know, based on what they care about? These should support your objective. 

For example, our product leader might want their audience to walk away remembering that they…

• Have improved run-time by 50%
• Are innovators in security 
• And are exceeding regulatory expectations

Three takeaways, short and sweet.

4. Tell stories

Speak to everyone in the audience. Some people are more data-minded. Bring in those facts and figures to support what you’re saying. Some people are more story-minded. Think about how you can create emotion and clarity through examples. Stories are how you get them to relate to you and your content. You know your audience. Find the balance between the two. Even better yet, find the blend. 

The basics of telling a story is that it must have a beginning, middle, and end. Now, you can find many different story structures that build on that online. 

One of our favorites for motivating an audience to action is Marshall Ganz’s Public Narrative framework that tells a larger story in three parts…the story of self, us, and now.

• A story of self: “Who are you? What do you value? Why do you do what you do?”
• A story of us: “To what values, experiences, or aspirations of your community will you appeal when you call on them to join you in action? What stories do you share that can express these values?”
• A story of now: “What urgent challenge do you hope to inspire others to take action on? What is your vision of successful action? And how can they begin now, at this moment?”

For examples of the story of self, us, and now, check out this comprehensive article from the Commons.

5. Start and end your conference content strong 

Have a hook. 

You have to grab your audience’s attention straight away. Ways you can do this include sharing:

• Interesting statistics or little-known facts
• Analogies (two unrelated ideas compared to make a point)
• Retrospectives and prospectives (stories that look at the past or the future)
• Metaphors (ideas and stories representing something else)
• A yes/no question
• Anecdotes (short relevant story)
• Quotes relevant to the topic
• Aphorisms (familiar saying)

Summarize and inspire to act. 

Conclude by restating your key points and having a clear, memorable call to action or message. 

For examples of great speakers, read our series on the best speeches in the 2000s (part 1 and part 2).

And a final note on transitions, if you’re introduced before you come on stage, don’t introduce yourself again. Before your time on stage, confirm with your contact if you need to introduce the person after you and make sure that gets into your talk track if needed. 

And about your slides…

You are your presentation. Not the slides. Keep your deck as simple as you can. Think 4×4––no more than four bullets with no more than four words (roughly) each. We know there may be instances where you can’t avoid a dense graph or two. That’s ok, just explain what people are seeing.

For example, “Here you see a bar graph of our runtime progress since last year. On the y axis you see run-time in seconds, on the x axis you see months. What’s most important to know is that in June, we had a breakthrough…”

Guide them through the visuals so you can then bring their attention back to you and get to your main point.

No one likes death by PowerPoint. It’s your responsibility to craft your slides to best serve your audience. 

Conference content is work, but it’s worth it. 

Preparing for a conference takes a lot of effort. Your content is the foundation. Investing time into making your presentation audience-focused, clear, and engaging with these five steps gives your message a fighting chance to be remembered in a world of non-stop noise. 

Get to writing. 

If you’re curious about how to cultivate your stage presence, watch this video. 

Looking for speaker coaching or conference support? Reach out to info@snpnet.com for a consultation.