More than a few speakers have written to me asking about the SES conference series – how they should prepare, what they should bring, how the conference is organized for speakers, etc. There’s an irony here that shouldn’t be overlooked – when I was a first-time speaker (just a couple years ago), I had these same questions, and plenty of nervousness. I’m going to address this purely from an SES perspective, as Vegas will actually be my first Pubcon speaking opportunity.
Below, I’ve listed many of the most common questions and provided my answers (remember, there’s nothing official about these, I’m just sharing my experiences):
How does the Speaker Selection Process Operate?
For most of the shows in the US and Europe, it’s either Danny Sullivan or Chris Sherman. Both are very fair minded, but you’ve got to pay close attention to the timeline for speakers that’s listed on the show page (e.g. here’s the one for Chicago). Basically, it follows a general pattern:
- Pitch New Session Ideas
(unofficially, you can also pitch an idea that could fit in with an existing session and if they think it’s a good fit, they’ll make it work) - Initial Agenda Posted and Returning Speakers Contacted
(if you’ve been a positively reviewed speaker in the past, they’ll ask you back with rare exception. The only times they might not is if they’re seeking to mix things up a bit or your particular session has high demand). - Pitches Accepted/Declined
(if you pitched something to Danny/Chris, they’ll let you know if it’s been accepted or not) - Session Openings Posted
(if you see something open you want to pursue, this is your chance) - Sessions Filled Up
(at this point, it’s a waste of everyone’s time to pitch a last minute session or request to be on a panel)
Danny & Chris are primarily interested in how much value and enjoyment the attendees receive from each session. It’s not just the right thing to do, it’s also the most profitable. The more people come away from the show blown away by the amount of value provided, the more likely companies will be to send more people to the show the next time around.
What’s the Best Way to Become a Speaker?
This practically deserves its own post, but I’ll just list my top 5 tips:
- Attend at least 1-2 shows in person before you pitch
- Make a name for yourself online
- Get yourself on film (and show the video online)
- For your first time, pitch a small show – try for Toronto, Paris, London, Stockholm, etc.
- Write a compelling, easy-to-digest pitch that shows a mastery of your topic and your communication style
Your goal is to get Danny/Chris comfortable with who you are and confident in both your grasp of the material and your ability to impress the audience.
How do Finances/Travel/Accommodations Work for Speakers?
For a very small, select group of speakers, the SES events will cover your flight and hotel, plus your pass to the conference. My understanding is that this only happens if you’re invited to speak, not if you pitch.
For the majority of speakers, you’ll be on your own to book and pay for the flight and hotel. The only perk of being a speaker is the free, full pass to the conference. Personally, I’ve never been offered flight & hotel accommodations for SES, though I have gotten these from a few private conferences where I’ve spoken. Don’t let this dissuade you – for most folks in the US, the conference price of ~$1600 will be more expensive than roundtrip airfare and hotel, so you’re saving at least half the cost. In addition, the small expenditure to attend should be easily recovered in new business (and new tactics to use on your return). I would value the networking alone in the tens of thousands of dollars (assuming you take advantage of it well).
What Should I do When I’m Not Speaking?
Three things – network, attend sessions and attend meals/parties.
Sessions – if you’re at the SES conference, you should do your best to attend every session you can to get an idea of what the audience enjoys, how they interact, what they don’t like and how you can tailor your presentation to fit. Since this is also likely to be one of your first few times at the conference, attend sessions you haven’t seen before and speakers you’ve heard good things about – watching folks like Jake Bailie, Greg Boser, Jonathan Mendez, Jessie Strichiola and many more taught me an incredible amount about how to be a great speaker.
Networking – don’t miss an opportunity to chat. If you’ve already spoken, sitting with people you know were in your audience is a good idea, as is hanging out with folks who can get you introductions. Once you’ve met a few plugged-in regulars and made a positive impression, you can meet dozens of folks over the course of a day. However, you SHOULD NOT think of your connections as purely for business. Yes – I recognize that we’re all there to make money and further our economic interests, but going directly towards the issue will work against you. Instead, try to learn from the people you meet; be humble and receptive to ideas; always ask what your new introductee does – ask them questions until you feel you’ve got a great understanding of their business. If you show interest in others, they will reciprocate and you can share things about your own work.
Meals/Parties – Many of the SES shows feature some built-in parties like the Yahoo! celebration in NYC and the Google Dance in San Jose. For the smaller shows, there’s often more-intimate, private gatherings – don’t expect to get invitations to these right off the bat. I spent plenty of nights at my first few conferences hanging out in the hotel bar or eating Luna bars (yeah, I know they’re for women, but have you tried a Powerbar or Cliff Bar? Those things are awful). Because I hadn’t yet become friends with a lot of conference-goers, I spent my time hanging out where i might be seen by folks I knew of and respected. Occasionally, I’d buy someone a beer in the bar or show them something on my laptop (something interesting and not self-serving). Once you’ve made a positive impression on some well-connected folks and seen them in 4-5 cities around the world, you will be invited to join events and can even start to plan your own when SES shows come to your town. SEOmoz threw a huge dinner party in Seattle after the SES show here. It cost the company ~$2,000 to feed two dozen or so speakers, search engine reps, conference organizers and other VIP types, but it was the least we could do after all the times I’ve been treated visiting other folks around the conference circuit.
What Kind of Return Should I Expect from a Speaking Slot?
There’s two major opportunities for return on your speaking investment. The first is direct – people will hand you their business card after you present. You have a chance to spend a few minutes chatting and many times have a good shot at a friendly contact for services. The second opportunity is through relationships. These often takes weeks or months (even a year or more sometimes) to pan out, but eventually, someone will call your company and say “I heard you speak last November in Las Vegas and really enjoyed it. We’ve got a rollout and think you might be able to help.” Even if the contact doesn’t come directly through speaking, your networking can go a long way. Almost everyone on my recommended list is someone I’ve met at one conference or another – we became friends, I got to see some of their work (usually long after the conference was over) and from there, I decided they deserved to have business referred their way. I’ve sent at least 150 inquiries with significant budgets to that list over the last year (probably more), and plenty of contacts have sent work my way, too.
What does the Crowd Want to Hear?
This is sometimes problematic because audiences are almost evenly split among two groups (in my experience). The first group wants to know the basics about your topic. They’re relatively unfamiliar (yes, even if your session is marked “advanced”) with how to optimize a page or build links or avoid duplicate content penalties or start an AdWords campaign or “fill in the blank.” They’d love to have the equivalent of a beginner’s training session that explains the process cogently and throws in a few tips that will make them instantly competitive relative to their competition.
The second group, which has been growing over the last few years, is fairly advanced. They may have been to a few SES shows in the past and they’re often working on the types of projects you describe on a regular basis. They’re far beyond the basics – these people want an edge. They want to know how you leverage tools, tricks, new strategies, new software, outsourcing, etc. to stomp the competition and make their bosses look at them in awe.
In my experience, if your session says beginner, play to the first market and if it says advanced, serve the second. When Bill Slawski & I speak on the algo panel, I try to gloss over any basics and talk at a high level – not so high as to be obtuse, but high enough so that the only people who’ll be bored are the ones who read this blog everyday (and know 99% of the material I might share). Also, by serving the audience who’s in the right place, you’ll get more positive feedback overall. Talking to beginners with advanced material can earn you respect, but many of the attendees will be frustrated. Talking to advanced folks with beginner level topics is, often, even worse because you
What Should I Wear as a Speaker?
Men – If you’re seeking business from folks who are accustomed to professionals in suits and ties, wear a suit and tie. In fact, the best advice I can give is to wear a suit and tie, or, if you look better in a suit with no tie (which I’ve found many men do), go that route. The only reason you should dress like I do is if you have built expectations that you’ll be in jeans and yellow trainers (with a sportjacket) or if your primary goal is not to get business from large companies. My goal at the SES shows is to attract readers to the blog, and I believe that jeans and yellow shoes accomplish this task well. However, I can say with near certainty that being underdressed has cost me some leads from folks who think that I’m not serious about the profession. I’ve decided that the balance is there, but you need to think carefully about it.
Women – sadly, I can’t be of much help, but I can say that business casual appears to be more popular than a full suit. I’ve heard from several women speakers that they feel it’s more approachable. You’d have to ask a woman speaker, though, to get more accurate input on the realities of this subject.
What Formats are Appropriate for My Presentation?
They almost always use Powerpoint, but a few people do presentations off a web page (like Eric Ward), and I’ve been known to do most of mine in Macromedia Flash. Personally, I feel that the crowd loves when you branch out of Powerpoint, open up a web browser and show them something live on the web, even if it’s as simple as running a search at the engines. One of the designs of the Pg Strength tool was actually to build something that could be run on a site while on a stage giving a presentation – it usually finishes in 20-40 seconds, so this works pretty well.
How Can I Structure My Presentation so as Not to Run Over Time?
One slide or concept per minute is pretty good, unless you’ve got a lot of meaty stuff on a slide, in which case, I recommend 2 minutes for the slide. Some folks will race through slides, having short, easily digestible, single ideas on each. This format can work very well, as long as you remember to keep engaging the audience with your eyes and your voice. I’ll often put several points on one slide, rather than spacing them out so that I can engage the audience before returning to the task of clicking the next slide, ensuring it’s the right one and giving my verbal input.
How Can I Make Sure that Attendees Don’t Leave the Room During my Presentation?
I’ve made a list of seven things you can do to keep people from leaving the room – I hope these can be of help. If you’ve been a speaker or an audience member, I’d love even more input in the comments on these:
- Use visuals in your presentation – charts, graphs, screenshots, examples, etc.
- Speak authoritatively, clearly and with a mastery of the language (I have little doubt this applies in Nanjing, Paris & New York equally – audiences often struggle with heavy accents or poor phrasing)
- Put yourself in the shoes of your audience before you craft your presentation; think of what they would want to hear most (if in doubt, ask Chris/Danny about the demographics)
- DO NOT be self-serving – it helps if you come across as a pure expert and just touch on what your business does at the end of your session (this will actually get you more business, rather than less as people respect expertise over salesmanship)
- Look at the audience, not just the crowd. It’s a lesson I’ve struggled with, but if you use your eyes to actually make eye contact, rather than simply roaming out over the masses, you’ll have more interest. Just be careful not to look at one or a few people the whole time.
- Be funny and charismatic. I make jokes at my own expense, attempt horrible puns, use bad comics and give a “wink-wink” when there’s a topic that might cross the line between white hat and black hat (or even gray hat). Everyone has their own style and plenty of people are more effective than I am – leverage the qualities people find attractive about you offstage and you’ll do fine.
- Provide at least one “killer” piece of advice every 4-5 minutes (in a standard 15-minute presentation, I shoot for 4). This should be something that most of your audience will rush to their notepads to write down – a tool, a website, a strategy, some research figures, etc.
- Be passionate and engaged. If you’re not excited about your topic, the audience will sense it and tune out, even if your material is fantastic. In all honesty, I think that passion and excitement (as long as they don’t overwhelm) are the biggest component that differentiates successful speakers from ones who aren’t asked back. Passion doesn’t have to mean you’re shouting and jumping up and down – just ask Mike Grehan or Greg Boser, who both are relatively reserved and staid in their physical mannerisms on the stage, but have incredible energy and focus in the lines the deliver.
Obviously, I’m not an authority on the SES subject. I’ve spoken at a dozen or so conferences over the past 2 years, and while I’ve had a lot of success, I’ve certainly had my share of bombs, too. I can think of one session in particular on search & branding that I was sure would sink me (since Danny was moderating and I executed awfully). Luckily, my feedback has always been relatively positive (although it’s oftentimes hard to get it back from Incisive/Jupiter), and I always bring a lot of passion to the sessions I join.
If you’ve got other issues you’re curious about, please don’t hesitate to ask and, likewise, if you’ve got experiences or advice to share, we’d appreciate that, too.
