October 15th, 2009
Categorized under: General

Create WV Conference Presentation

Next Tuesday, Oct 20, I will be presenting as part of the “Storytellers” session of the Business track at the Create WV conference because of my work with the whyhuntington.com website. I’m pretty out of practice with my public speaking and the time frame for my presentation is pretty limited (10-15min) so I want to put my outline up for others to review and provide some feedback. I don’t know if I will actually get to touch on everything in the outline but all of the elements are somewhat important to me effectively communicating my story. Here’s the outline. Please be as harsh as you want; just keep it constructive. Thanks

  1. Introduction
    1. Who I am
    2. How Did I get Here?
    3. Why did I stay here?
    4. Why am I speaking today?
  2. Why Huntington.com
    1. Why did I create it?
      1. why charleston
      2. lawrence fine
    2. What are my goals for it?
      1. locals
        1. show them how great their hometown is
        2. keep them informed of all that is going on
        3. help get them involved in making the place better
        4. show folks how many great creative people are here
      2. outsiders
        1. counter some of the bad national publicity
        2. high search result for huntington wv
          1. Where did that start?
          2. Where is it now?
        3. show people this is a place they might want to live/work in
      3. Collaboration
        1. I can’t do it all alone – I have a job
        2. I don’t know everything there is to know
        3. Even when I do know, I’m not always the expert
        4. IT’S HARD to get others to invest themselves in the idea
      4. Aggregated Calendar – http://elmcity.cloudapp.net/services/whyhuntington/HTML
        1. what is it?
        2. how does it work?
          1. other people publish their own calendars online
            1. google
            2. microsoft live
            3. outlook tie-in
          2. pull it all in programmatically
            1. working with Jon Udell of Keane NH; another small town
        3. Value?
          1. Calendar is always updated with accurate info
          2. Residents know what is going on before it happens
            1. no more, “nothing happens here”
            2. no more, “I always hear about something a week after it happens”
          3. metric of events:popluation ratio
            1. one way to show quality of life here
              1. possibly show comparisons to other towns in project http://elmcity.cloudapp.net/
              2. show “tags” and give an idea of temporal scope (90 days) http://elmcity.cloudapp.net/services/whyhuntington/tags_html
      5. Why WV Network
        1. Why Huntington and Why Charleston
        2. Benefits?
          1. Shows great features of the entire state
          2. Helps to counter streotypes
          3. Help people who are thinking of moving here see why they should
          4. Help businesses see the value in opening here (it’s the people)
        3. Obstacles?
          1. Getting someone to start it
          2. Overcoming the post-honeymoon slump
            1. how do you stay motivated to keep posting?
          3. Expense?
            1. fairly inexpensive to operate
            2. potentially sizable cost in effort to get a site started
              1. domain name
              2. site configuration and installation
              3. training time
    3. Technology Used
      1. WordPress Blogging Engine

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Comments

  1. Just browsing topics I would say that you would go over your time by 5-10 minutes. My public speaking prof said to read it out loud, and assume that for every 7 minutes you speak, assume that when you actually do it you will lose a minute (due to nerves you will be speaking faster than your normally would).

    Also, I dont think its a good idea to put the negatives at the back. Suggesting that the cost could be sizable, you dont want your listeners leaving on that note.


    joerawlinson
    October 15th, 2009

  2. Thanks, I know what I've got here will go over the 15 minute mark. It's hard to determine what I can safely cut out. Some parts will go by pretty quickly – such as the two sections on the goals. There really isn't any way to “fluff” those out – I'll just be stating the goals and then moving on.

    Likewise, Collaboration will go by quick as it too is just sort of a quick summary. The longest portion of the talk will probably be about the calendar.

    I see what you're saying about the negatives at the end and maybe I should just leave those out of the talk and provide those if, afterwards, people ask for more information (via a followup email).


    Bill
    October 15th, 2009

  3. seems like a lot of info to get out in a short period of time. Do you have any visuals like power point or whatever or just your smiling face?


    ted
    October 15th, 2009

  4. It is a lot of info.. Fortunately, last night, I discovered the format of the talk will be a bit different. The moderator panel will be asking me questions and I'll just be answering those. The questions will be based on the above outline to some extent.

    I do have 3 visuals. We will start out with the website itself behind me, then the comprehensive event calendar, and then the whycharlestonwv.com website that was the catalyst for my stuff when I go to talk about the “network”


    Bill
    October 16th, 2009

  5. If you stick to the outline you'll be there for an hour. Cut it down to what you think are the 3 or 4 most important or interesting topics for your audience. Dad


    Dad
    October 17th, 2009

  6. Well here's the followup – he asked me to say how I am, where I am from, how I got here, why I stayed here, and what I'm doing. Then he asked when I worked on the why Huntington site (so he could establish it was totally voluntary). I probably spoke for about 10-12 minutes

    Larry Groce (Mt. Stage Host) went next. He spoke for about 20 minutes about his own background, the show, and what he thought it provided for the state and why he lives here.

    The came a guy named Mel who leads the “Come Home To WV” project for the state. He explained the project and what their goals are. He too spoke for about 10-15 minutes.

    The last lady is a Lawyer and sadly I can't think of her name right now. She is in charge of a special group in her firm that helps connect entrepreneurs with people who have high-net worth and might be interested in providing angel funding; she spoke for about 10-15 minutes as well.

    The moderator, Duane, spoke a bit as well so we ran a touch over schedule.


    Bill
    October 20th, 2009

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