What do you want when you go to a conference? What do you hope you take away with you? These two questions have cycled through my mind for the past week. I’ve been speaking a lot lately and, more than anything, want to provide relevant information the audience can put into practice as soon as they leave. If you’ve ever been in a “death by Powerpoint” presentation – and who hasn’t – you can appreciate how much I don’t want to be responsible for a mass destruction of brain cells.
The Challenge
While the last thing I want to do is bore people, I also don’t want to invest a lot of time researching, developing, practicing and delivering a presentation and not get any benefit for my business. It’s a labour-intensive process but the time spent in front of an audience is fleeting in comparison. Speaking engagements are a great way to establish authority, but how do you go about promoting that authority after the conference is over?
The Goal
As I struggled to construct a presentation on Content Marketing for the Fitzgerald Photo Imaging “Breakout at the Breakwater 2010″ conference, it dawned on me what I really wanted to do was load the audience with Word of Mouth (WoM) recommendations. The theme of the conference is “Education & Inspiration”. It’s easy enough to educate but if I really want people to go back to work the next day and implement my suggestions, they need more than just theory or a bunch of snazzy slides to look at. If they are going to remember my talk, I need to do a bit more.
Hand in hand
Obviously, the presentation would be more powerful if I developed supplemental content to go with it. This approach packs a wallop as I can construct the additional content with my branding and contact details on it. It’s also a great opportunity to promote my business partnerships and make recommendations on where I think the best practitioners and businesses are operating. While I may spend an hour on the stage, the content I distribute lives on the desk of the audience long after the conference is over.
These are my recommendations on things to do to give your presentation legs:
1) Upload your presentation to SlideShare.
2) Produce a handout listing detailed references and recommended resources to distribute after your talk.
3) Make a quick-reference card attendees can use at their desk.
4) Develop a formal case study around the examples used in your presentation.
5) Write a white paper at the same time you’re researching your topic to add depth and expand your ideas behind the time allotted on stage.
6) If your presentation is captured on video, upload it to YouTube.
7) Post a review of your presentation along with links to the handouts on LinkedIn discussion groups or on your website.
The Pay-off
It might seem like a lot of work when you’re already dealing with the stress of public speaking. By providing additional resources and information, you’re establishing your willingness to participate in a solution. In turn, your reputation as an authority on your topic will increase. If you’ve bothered to produce additional content, your company branding becomes more widely distributed. By asking the attendees to contact you directly for valuable pieces of content like white papers and case studies, you can build your marketing database with qualified leads in your targeted audience.
Developing original content is a great way to nurture and generate leads. If you can incorporate content marketing techniques to complement your speaking engagements, you can maximise your effectiveness and even reach people that didn’t make it to your talk.
What techniques have you used to extend your influence at conferences? If you’ve had a great experience as an audience member, tell us about it.
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