First, thank you for volunteering your time and energy to present at the 2023 International Conference in Portland! Without folks like you who are willing to share your expertise with the ACCT community, there would be no conference…period.
If you haven’t already done so please be sure to complete your 2023 Presenter Agreement form by no later than Wednesday, September 1, 2022!
As you prepare to share your knowledge with the ACCT world, we would like to offer you a few presentation resources:
- ACCT Conference Specific Presenter Details
- Registration: all attendees, including every Presenter, is required to register for the conference
- Presenter discount explanation
- Marketing / Promos: Presenters promoting is priceless!
- Info about Media Kit – For the 2023 Conference in Portland we’ll be providing a customized digital media kit to aid presenters in plugging sessions. Check your e-mail for logos / specifics as these will ONLY be shared via e-mail due to logo usage policies. – Coming soon!
- Conference Website – Explore this site to ensure all of the info about you & your workshop are correct. If you would like to update your headshot, please send it to the Workshop Crew lickety-split!
- Presenter Gathering – We look forward to connecting with you, sharing Presenter-only information & insights, as well as giving each of you a hearty, “Thank you!” for sharing your knowledge and skills with our industry. We truly appreciate all of the time & effort you put into your presentations. Please attend so that we may give our thanks to your face, rather than just over email.
- Your presentation timing/plan:
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- Standard room set up – feel free to move stuff around in the workshop room, but return it to the standard set up for the next Presenter.
- Session CEUs – Keep an eye out on emails for most up to date information on how attendees will be tracking their CEUs.
- Workshop Evaluations – Evaluations will be available through the conference app. Please plan to remind your attendees to complete an evaluation of your workshop.
- Workshop track sponsorship – Each workshop track has a sponsor. Let’s make sure to publicly give them a hearty “Thank you!”
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- Labeling your equipment – As we will all be using similar equipment, even if you aren’t loaning yours out, it is important to label your equipment prior to your arrival. We highly recommend that you label each individual piece, just in case it gets away from you.
- LCD Projector Loaner info / request / how to prep – If you are bringing a projector, keep an eye out for emails with more details.
- Adapters galore!
- If you have a Mac, please plan to bring your own adapter.
- If you have an adapter at all, please plan to bring it.
- Here is our current adapter inventory – if you don’t see what you need, plan to bring it.
- Service Crew (aka Yellow Hats) members are here to help! They are basically your superhero sidekick.
- They are here to help you. They are your first person to ask. If they cannot complete something, they will be happy to find the proper help.
- Service Crew members have several duties to take some of the pressure off of you, so that you can bask in the Presenter Spotlight (spotlights not included in room setup, you will have to bring your own). They will be available to: check badges at the door, count people coming in & out of the room, manage room capacity, provide time limits, reminding attendees to complete evaluations, telling people to not stack the chairs and stand on top like king of the mountain (safety first!), etc.
- Welcoming people! Service Crew members serve as hosts of the room. An attendee will receive a smile & instructions on using the online workshop eval from the Service Crew member as they enter the room. Yay! One less thing you have to do…well, the eval distribution part, not the smiling part. You will definitely want to smile some.
- Need a smiling face in the crowd? Service Crew excel at smiling!
- Want an introduction? If you ask nicely, your Service Crew member will be happy to introduce you!
- Manage room capacity: Your Service Crew member will be the person to prevent you from being smothered by a crowd that exceeds room capacity (see, they really are a superhero sidekick!).
- Count attendees: They will be tracking how many attendees are in the room when you begin the workshop & how many are there at the end of the workshop. The Workshop Crew uses this information when vetting workshop submissions. Are you a statistics nerd & interested in these numbers? Just ask your Service Crew member at the end of your workshop for those numbers.
- Time limits: Wait…time limits!? That’s right. Your fantastic sidekick is looking out for you & your time. That means that you don’t constantly have to check your watch or worry if you might be keeping people late. Whew! That’s a relief! Your Service Crew member is going to quietly hold up a few signs for your viewing pleasure (15, 10, 5, STOP) to let you know when you are nearing the end of the workshop time frame. Your job is to actually notice the signs & make adjustments as needed.
- Troubleshooting: They can help you out if something goes awry before or during your well-prepared workshop.
- A/V issue? Service Crew will send up the equivalent of the Bat Signal to the Workshop Crew for help!
- Missing a marker? Service Crew will find a new one!
- Need a tissue? …ewwww…please bring your own.
- Too hot or cold in your workshop room? Service Crew will figure out how to fix it (or get you a blanket).
- Portland Specific – check out all of the cool resources they have provided us already which have been added to the conference website.
- General Tips, Tricks, Tools for presenting:
- Be aware of the time allotted for your workshop: Many presenters end with a statement about how they had so much more material to go over but were simply out of time. Remember, there are only 90 minutes allotted for your information. You will do better to have a great presentation that ends early and allows extra time for Q & A, than to have a hurried presentation that ends abruptly due to time constraints. The Service Crew member will have a series of signs that will help you keep track of your time (10 minutes left, 5 minutes left, etc).
- Use your time wisely: Everyone has their own technique for making introductions. Keep in mind, having each attendee introduce themselves TAKES A REALLY LONG TIME! This may be appropriate for certain workshops, but please give serious consideration to the amount of time you spend on introductions during your workshop. Your attendees are more interested in learning what you have to share than they are in learning everyone’s name and two interesting things about them. If part of your goals include networking for your attendees, consider leading introductions in small groups instead.
- Have a back-up plan: This could apply to many aspects of your workshop. Do you have a plan for when technology fails? Do you have to adjust your presentation if you have more or less attendees than expected? Will it affect your presentation if someone leaves or comes in halfway through? Think through what could go wrong and always have a plan.
- Be authentic: You were selected as a workshop presenter for a reason…You are intelligent and passionate. Speak from your heart and everything will be fine.
- Contact info: Make sure to bring a load of business cards. This will be helpful for networking in general, as well as for giving to attendees that would like to contact you about your content at a later time.
- Check messages: Plan ahead. Make time. Check your messages WHILE AT THE CONFERENCE. Some people may attend your fantastic session, need to scoot to the next session & quickly pick up your business card (or take a photo of your contact information when you post it on the screen or flip chart) on the way out. These people & others may want to meet up with you while at the conference to connect more. If they try to message you online to schedule a time with you, but you want to wait to check any messages until you get back to the office…well, you can see how this might not end well. Even if you just set aside a few minutes each day to check messages for any meet up requests & leave all other emails for your return to the office, that will be a good plan.
- Here is a handy list of 52 ‘Presentation Hacks.’
- Need a list of things to try to avoid? Here you go: 21 Presenter Habits to Avoid.
- Check out this list of qualities of a good workshop.
