How to get ready to speak at an event
At World of Learning 2026 in Birmingham Hari saw a lot of great speakers take the stage, which got her thinking about the top 5 things she wishes she’d known before delivering her first conference speech.
Get there early
I have a rule; if the place I’m speaking at or teaching in is more than 50 miles away from my home, I travel the day before. I’ve been caught out by cancelled trains, traffic jams and on two notable occasions, not having the correct address for the venue.
Arriving early negates travel chaos, you’ll have a chance to check out the space long before you have to own it and it generally lowers pre-performance anxiety. So whenever possible, plan your travel for the day before.
Check your fonts
13 Times uses two Google Fonts for our presentation decks - Julias Sans and Roboto. These aren’t standard on either Macs or PCs which means that if I send a PPT file to someone and those fonts aren’t installed, words in those fonts change to another font and as a result the deck goes wonky.
I cannot tell you how many times I’ve arrived to give my speech and the slide deck I’ve sent over looks out of sync and unprofessional. Words are unaligned or off-centre, sometimes the text box has cut them leaving an “ly” or an “ing” forced onto the next line, random capitals or lower case letters have appeared.
When you send your deck to the event organiser include your fonts in the same zipped file. But be aware, even well seasoned conference professionals miss this one, as the support team don’t know what your deck is supposed to look like, and it’s heartbreaking to turn around while talking and see your beautifully designed slides looking like crap.
So here’s another vote for getting there early - not only to the town or venue but also to the conference space to get the support team to show you your deck on their machines, so if the fonts have gone haywire, there’s still time to fix it.
Plant a photographer
Often events will take photos of their speakers - but getting access to those photos can sometimes be tricky. So make sure you have a friend or colleague nearby to snap some pictures of your presentation excellence.
You’re going to want to talk about this on LinkedIn or in your company’s blog, so don’t rely on the official photographer. Make sure you get some pictures you can access and use immediately.
It can also be very helpful to get someone to film the whole thing so you can watch it back later and see where you can improve - but that’s another post.
Bring water
Speaking on stage is thirsty work, and a dry mouth can result in a cracked voice. Bring water.
Even better is to ring a water bottle that one no one can see through so if you need to take a moment you can take a swig even if the bottle is empty.
Be ready for Q&As
If someone has give you a 30 minute slot, they are expecting a 22-25 speech and for the rest of the time to be reserved for questions. A 30 minute slot does not mean a 30 minute speech.
Plan that time in - no one likes it when things overrun and attendees have to dash off to make their next appointment. Makes you feel unloved.
It’s also a good idea to have a few phrases prepared to give you time to think if you are asked any tricky or complicated questions. My favourite stalling phrases include:
“That’s a great question!”
“Could you give me a bit more context on that please?”
“That’s proprietary information I’m afraid, but what I can say is…”
And one final note…
Wear comfortable shoes
Like going to Disneyland, walking around a conference centre generates a higher step count than you might have expected. Shiny pretty shoes are lovely to look at but if they pinch your feet you’ll be limping by 9.30am.
Make sure you’re wearing shoes with good support. Your feet will thank you.
