The Art of the Lightning Talk was originally presented as a "Ninja Talk" at the LavaCon Conference on Content Strategies and Digital Media. Video of David Caruso presenting this "Ninja Talk" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2yBJ9FAqMM

1. The Art of the Lightning Talk
Five minutes of fame or flame
Slides by Roger Renteria
Twitter: @RogerRenteria
http://writetechie.com

2. The Lightning Talk
• History of the Lightning Talk at STC Summit
• The Good, Bad, Ugly
• http://www.perl.com/pub/2004/07/30/lightni
ngtalk.html

3. Why torture yourself?
• It’s fun
• (Have quotes of past lightning talk presenters)

4. !@$#% - that slide advanced…
• Let me repeat it right here…

5. Flickr: indraw

6. Rehearse!
• I woke up 5 minutes before or put it together
at the last minute…hmm.

7. Flickr: nateone

8. Rehearse again…
• Five minutes is short…
• Average commercial lengths are 15-30
seconds long

9. Make your points clear

10. Flickr: fboyd

11. I have 10 slides left
• What can possibly go wrong?

12. • Lots
– Running out of time
– Forgetting an important point
– Dropping your laptop

13. Conclusion
• Bring all your lightning talk back down to
Earth…
Photo: NASA

14. Elaborate
• State your points again
– Why am I doing a lightning talk?
– !@#$, I should have rehearsed this talk…
– Five minutes is not enough time
– Next year, I will present this topic as a full session
– I should become a career entertainer
– Anything goes…including distractions!

15. Add a filler image again!
Flickr: nateone

16. If your conclusion is now…you’ve got
45 seconds left…
• Not enough time for Q&A
• Jam as much info if you’re running behind
• Too messy of a conclusion

17. Questions… 30 seconds folks!
• Or just grab a business card from me…

18. And time is up.
• Or just grab a business card from me…

19. The Art of the Lightning Talk
Five minutes of fame or flame
Slides by Roger Renteria
Twitter: @RogerRenteria
http://writetechie.com