Hi everyone!
I’ve been doing panels at major conventions here in the UK for almost 15 years now and I thought it might be a good time to give some thoughts about it.
Delivering panels at conventions are an interesting experience, and always have been.
I’ve done them with different individuals (Jonathan Lewis and Leo Cosh) and I have always found myself to be the person giving information rather than the person making it fun. While that is an important skill, if it’s not made fun, then people will not engage with it.
I’ve learned a lot over the years that I’ve been doing this.
I’ve learned to make my points concise and be wordy in the right places. Using the stories that I have experienced during my time in a way that’s constructive to the points rather than just throwing them out.
Learning these things been a very long journey: it’s not something you learn overnight, it’s taken me years to master it. Ultimately, as I lead up to my major convention season, when I’m giving a lot of panels, these are the things that I am doing in order to make sure that I have the best chance of succeeding.
1. Rehearsal
I am rehearsing every panel that I’m doing at least three or four times, even if I’ve done it multiple times before.
I found that not doing so often means that you are winging it from vague memories from years ago and you don’t know what you want to say.
2. Refining My Notes
After each rehearsal, I’m actually thinking carefully about what did I say that was different. I try and take a transcript of each rehearsal using otter, which is a program I’ve had for years for recording and kicking out a transcript. I use that to go through and find out whether I (or the person I’m practicing with!) did something that isn’t in the notes that I want to add to the notes or remove the notes because we skipped something repeatedly.
While you’re at it, keep your notes short!
You don’t want to read them out. In fact, the shorter your notes are, the better! One word that prompts you to say three sentences is better than three sentences written down that you’re going to read to people… that will just make you sound like a robot.
3. Repeat
I cannot emphasise this enough: you don’t just do 1 and 2 once, you do it every single time you’re rehearsing. You are always trying to improve what you’re doing.
4. Think carefully about what the title is and what people are expecting!
So “How to be creative?” Fine, very simple for me (as I wrote a book about it), but as soon as you change it into “How to Finish your Creative Project”, your notes out the window: they aren’t actually what everyone wants to hear anymore.
Now what people want to hear is, “how do I deal with this thing that I ran into on my project?”.
And so…
Following these steps has allowed me to make sure that my performance at conventions is the best it can possibly be, and has meant that I’ve come back and back and back. And that’s amazing, because being able to help people be creative is why I present panels.
I know that some people believe that it’s an opportunity for self aggrandizement. That’s not for me.
I want to help the people who are there, teach them what I know and help them avoid some of the pitfalls that I’ve fallen into during the time that I’ve been creating.
If you’re trying to learn to speak, think about these things! Practice.
Good luck out there, and maybe I’ll see you at MCM!
– Ed
