I have had the pleasure of speaking at 2 physical events recently. I'm not going to lie that I had mixed feelings after 2 years of more than 20 Zoom online conferences. It's incredible to see people start networking, be on the stage, and hold the mic.
The first was Digital Branding Conference organized by Mindzallera ., and the second was a round table by Involve Asia.
The point of this post is more on some of the learnings that I came to realize after speaking of these 2 events:
People are tired of theories and less tangible things. They want to see clear action points and what they can apply next in their companies.
Most of the time, I like to show my mistakes in my presentations. It's not that it makes me vulnerable. It's because I don't want to say I'm perfect and will never be. People love to see: here is something that I did wrong, here is what I've changed, and here are the results after this.
I hate speakers, when I'm attending a conference that 30% of their presentation it's a sales pitch about their company. Of course, I'm also starting my presentation with some slides about TRAPO, but at the end of the day, nobody came to see a sales pitch. Instead, participants are coming to learn clear, actionable points.
One of the points that I'm constantly learning to do, and of course is not working all the time, is to create an interaction with the crowd. I'm trying to ask questions, even if I'm not constantly receiving an answer. Making a bond relationship with the audience will make them present.
