The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. I suffer from something called Ménière’s disease—don’t worry, you cannot get it from reading my blog.
The symptoms of Ménière’s include hearing loss, tinnitus (a constant ringing sound), and vertigo. There are many medical theories about its cause: too much salt, caffeine, or alcohol in one’s diet, too much stress, and allergies. Thus, I’ve worked to limit control all these factors. However, I have another theory. As a venture capitalist, I have to listen to hundreds of entrepreneurs pitch their companies. Giving Lightning Talks. After the keynotes, the most popular sessions at most Perl conferences tend to be the lightning talks.
Each session consists of about 10 to 15 lightning talks — talks typically lasting individually no more than five minutes — back to back. As well as being tremendously interesting and entertaining for attendees, the conference organizers recognize that they offer an unequalled opportunity for new speakers to present for the first time without going to the lengths required for a longer talk.
Which is why I was surprised that at this year's YAPC someone raised the point in the town hall meeting that there's no document that stands as a basic guide for pointing out the common pitfalls to new speakers. Armed with my experiences of YAPCs and organizing many, many London Perl Monger tech meets I thought I'd have a go at explaining what you need to know.