Speaker Guidelines

BIL is not your normal conference.  These notes will help you get the most out of your experience.

We’re working on the schedule, so hang tight.  Here’s how we’re doing it.

There are three kinds of talks BIL.

• Polished short-format. 15-30 (preferably closer to 15) minutes on the main stage, audience of up to 450.  No Q&A.  Insightful and entertaining.
• In-depth long-format. 30 minutes, audience up to 55.  Assume everyone knows the basics of your field.  Go deep.  Allow people to interrupt with questions, but don’t hesitate to give them homework.
• Informal open-format. Any length, small groups.  Possibly over a game of pool or on a walk.

Things to know about the BIL culture.

• BIL is a participatory, and everyone has access to the microphone.  Just because someone is on stage doesn’t mean their statements are valid or worthwhile.  The listener is responsible for their own mind.
• BIL follows the Law of Two Feet, if at any point you aren’t learning or enjoying yourself get up and walk and to a different environment.  Do so respectfully and quietly.  Don’t be offended if people leave during your talk, learning is an individual process.
• You are responsible for your own experience.  If you had an amazing experience congratulate yourself — you’re doing it right.  If you did not have an amazing experience don’t blame it on other people, reflect on what you could have done differently.

BIL likes certain kinds of talks, as described in an insightful post by Meng Wong.

1. Something awesome recently happened.
Let me show you it.  (Oh, and I helped make it happen.)

2. Something awesome is happening right now, but most people aren’t seeing it.
I have a special perspective; let me show you it.

3. Something awesome but unexpected is going to happen.
Let me show you why this will come true.

4. Here’s something awesome that you can do too.

5. You are unexpectedly awesome. I will show you why.

BIL dislike certain talks.

1. I just thought of something awesome, and I’d like it to come true, but I neglected to do any research so maybe it’s already being done but I wouldn’t know.

2. I read about something on BoingBoing / watched a TEDtalk / etc a few months ago, and you probably did too, but let’s pretend you didn’t so I can go on about it.

3. I’m awesome.

If you’re considering giving a talk, here are three simple rules:

This is not a lay audience. If you’re a professor, this is not your freshman class. If you’re a business exec, this is not your typical conference crowd. There will be people in this audience who know as much as you do about your subject. If you can expect your smartest friends to know something, this audience will too.

Remember, information is a difference that makes a difference. The best speakers are always either making an original point, or laying the ground for one. Please don’t insult the audience’s intelligence. They can read your slide ten times faster than you can talk it. If your slide doesn’t say anything new at all, skip it. And please, don’t overexplain.

If you’re at BIL, you probably scored an N on the Myers-Briggs. You’re good at detecting patterns. So is everyone else! Remember: show, don’t tell. Many speakers say, “here’s a pattern that I deduced, and I’ll talk about it in the abstract.” Abstract thinking is fine, but abstract talking sucks. Give examples! Here, I will give two examples. Garrett Lisi’s talk was beautiful because it invited the audience to study a screen full of coloured symbols, and arrive at the ‘a-ha’ themselves.  Another BILder made the mistake of showing a banal slide that said “modern education is based on the factory assembly line.” A professor I once knew would have responded: “True, but not insightful.” So: if you have found a pattern in a mass of data, show us the data in a way that lets us spot the pattern ourselves!