On 2018-09-10 09:56, Steve McIntyre wrote:
On Mon, Sep 10, 2018 at 10:49:47AM +0200, Michael Prokop wrote:
...
Or to quote Gary, from
https://twitter.com/garybernhardt/status/989998209123536896:
| who in hell called it conference talk Q&A and not an open mic
pedantry slam
And this is exactly what makes me wonder if the other confs referred
to are very different (in style, or feel, or attendees) to
DebConf. I'd *never* describe DebConf Q&A as "an open mic pedantry
slam", from many years of experience. I'm used to people asking
reasonable clarifying questions of a speaker. Either what's happening
at these other events is massively different, or this author is
massively exaggerating their perceived problem. :-(
I started off as a *really* nervous public speaker, petrified of
standing up in front of an audience and making a fool of
myself. Talking to supportive audiences like DebConf helped me a lot
to get over that, and that includes conversations started in Q&Q.
I too started off as an absolutely terrified public speaker, and the
Q&As were especially nerve racking. I should note that DebConf in
particular was especially intimidating, not due to anything related to
the format of the conference but to how knowledgeable (and opinionated)
the average attendee is. I think one way we could overcome this is by
having some tips for first time speakers, or an optional orientation
session at the conference for new speakers. For example, the tips could
include some of the things mentioned here already, like how you can
speak for the entire time so there's none left for questions (while
stressing that it's important to practice your talk so that you have
confidence about its length), ways to handle questions that are not
really questions but comments, how to handle it if you don't understand
the question because you don't understand the accent of the asker, etc.
I also have found it really helpful when conferences train session
volunteers to not just manage the microphone and make sure the video is
running but to actually moderate Q&A, shutting down pedantic commentary
and helping to focus on respectful questions, setting the speaker up to
really share their knowledge in a lower stress way.
karen
