Lightning Talks
        I will be moderating lighting talks at the Software Test & Performance Conference, April 2008, In San Mateo, California.


But ... what are they?
        Lightning Talks are a series of 5-minute presentations in a concurrent slot. In other words - imagine you walk into a conference room, and instead of a one-hour conference presentation, you see ten five-minute talks in rapid succession.


But ... why?
        The one-hour conference slot, including PowerPoint slides, is just about everywhere. It takes back to college lectures, which have been organized in roughly one-hour blocks since the 14th Century, predating Francis Bacon's Scientific Method.

        There are lots of conference formats: open spaces, tutorials, exercises and simulations - yet the conference presentation still tends to be stuck to an hour.
        With five minutes, there is no time for an introductory joke - no big agenda slide, nor time for fifteen minutes of Q&A. No, the speaker has to make a single point, make it well, and get off stage. Because the speaker can really only say one thing, the audience will probably remember it - so the point should probably be actionable.

        Now think back to your conference presentation experiences. How many hours of talks would you typically sit through to get ten actionable ideas?

        Of course, this is the real world. Half of the ideas in a given talk won't apply to the audience, perhaps more. If your talk is structured as a key idea or two for an hour, the audience may miss them. Packing ten ideas into an hour improves your odds.

        Lightning talks are entertaining for the audience because they get to watch the clock, and a challenging format for speakers. Personally, I believe they are especially valuable for speakers, because they allow you to really polish and work a presentation with less effort. In fact, after moderating lightning talks for several years, I find it's possible to structure a one-hour slot as a series of 5-minute "nuggets", and that it makes for a better lecture. Finally, lightning talks are a great way to experiment with public speaking with less investment - to get your feet wet. Or, for those of us who do a lot of public speaking, it's a chance to vent on a subject or two that just doesn't fit into our main topic.


Sounds interesting. How do I apply?
        I am currently soliciting speakers for ST&P Con 2008. Email me at Matt@Xndev.com with your talk title and a one-paragraph abstract. Hurry! Applications are evaluated in multiple rounds and the last slots close by March 15th. Sadly, I can not offer conference passes or discounts for lightning talk speakers at this time.


I'd love to go, but to attend, I will need the conference fee waived, as well as airfare and hotel. (Plus a modest honorarium to cover three days of lost work. I make $XY an hour.) Can you please help me out?
        Sadly, I cannot offer waivers or conference discounts at this time - only goodwill, good experience - and feedback from the audience. In 2005, Harry Robinson gave a lightning talk at the STAREast Conference, and he went on to Keynote at the Eurostar conference and the Conference for the Association of Software Testing. No guarantees, but I'm just saying ...


Sounds neat. Do you have some sample ideas to get started, or other tips?
        - Mark Jason Dominus's Page on Lightning Talks
        - Giving Lightning Talks by Mark Fowler
        - Sample Lightning Talks:
            Battle of the Test Automation Tools
            Ed Keyes - Monitoring is testing
            Bill Schongar - Making Automated tests less frightening (audio)
            Scott Barber - Performance Testing in Five Minutes

        Looking at those examples is really interesting for me. Without a doubt, Bill Schongar got the most laughs and the biggest applause of any lightning talker at GTAC. If we had to do evals immediately after the conference, I think he would have scored highest.

        And I can't remember a thing he said. Really, I just watched his video, and I can't think of what I should do different tomorrow. He talked fast, and he covered a lot of ground, but does that make for a good lightning talk? As a speaker, my goal is to improve the clients condition - consistently. Not to look cool, get the big claps - or - even - in some cases - not to get the high evaluation scores. Six months after GTAC, I still remember what Ed Keyes had to stay, despite his simple, laid-back demeanor. Make a point, make it well, and get off the stage. If the audience is interested in what you have to say, they ask the question afterward, not in some stilted Question and Answer format.


Do you have a gong?
       Usually I hand the audience kazoos. I am considering something else for ST&PCon - if you've got an idea, please email me.


Hey - this 'lighting talk' term - is it copyrighted or something?
        Lightning Talks were introduced by Mark Jason Dominus at a perl conference in 2000. Since that time, they have spread very quickly. Several years ago I gave a lightning talk at the O'Reilly Open Source Conference, where MJD moderated, and shortly thereafter, received written permission from Dominus to moderate them myself.

        Of course, if you want to do them yourself, I'd be surprised if MJD would be disappointed. He has a plethora of support material on his website, which I discuss and link to above.