IA Summit 2010: This One Goes to Eleven -- The Best Conversations Happen in the Hall

Information for Speakers

By now you are heavily into crafting your presentation for the IA Summit. To assist you we have included a few pieces of information about your session's logistics and some suggestions about getting to know your audience.

During your session

Each session will be assigned a volunteer facilitator who will assist you with setting up in the room prior to your presentation. He/She will then call the room to order and introduce you as well as help with the flow of questions and timekeeping at the end.

We recommend that presentations should be timed for 30-35 minutes to allow for introductions and for questions. Please communicate to the session facilitator whether you would like questions raised throughout or held until the end so that they can instruct the audience appropriately during the introduction.

Feedback from past summits has taught us that the few minutes at the end of the session is never enough for your audience to ask questions and meet you. This year we have created a dedicated “discussion lounge” close to the session rooms – once time has run out the facilitator will announce the end of the session and inform the audience that you will be available in the discussion lounge for further questions (the facilitator will check with you that you'll be available). And always remember to keep the conversation going in the hallway, virtual or real.

Making your presentation shine

As a presenter at the IA Summit you are going to be faced with a challenge that many speakers at other conferences do not experience... a room full of people who deal with design and communication problems for a living. Don’t fall into the The shoemaker's son always goes barefoot trap. If you want a friendly ear to hear draft 1 or 25 of your presentation before the big day, don't hesitate to reach out to us or your peers at CrowdVine. If this is your first time presenting, here are a handful of useful tips from Scott Berkun's book Confessions of a Public Speaker.

Your audience at your fingertips

You have an unbelievable opportunity this year to get your audience to help shape your presentation. Using our social networking site, CrowdVine, you can connect to those who will be attending the summit. We encourage you to use CrowdVine and all other social networks as tools to understand your audience better, ask them specific questions or promote a discussion on your topic so it can inform your presentation.

Promote your session! This year, we have more amazing speakers than ever. With only a few days to get through all that content, tough choices will have to be made by attendees. Getting people interested in your session is more than just writing a good title and abstract – if you have a blog, write about it – tell people you’re speaking! Tweet about it! Start commenting on the CrowdVine page about it! If you hype it, they will come.

Next Steps

1. Make sure you register for the IA Summit – this does not happen automatically.
2. Book your travel, April is right around the corner.
3. If you’ve haven’t already done so, please visit CrowdVine, add your photo, fill out your profile and meet your audience!

We will email you again with more updates and the final schedule by March before we publish it to the world!