Tips for Success: Description for an optional talk

There are two types of presentation opportunities: mandatory and optional. This post is a discussion of the latter.

The two pieces of information that your prospective audience uses to decide whether or not to attend your talk are the title and the description. The title is discussed here: https://securitywa.blogspot.com/2018/01/tips-for-success-selecting-title-for.html

After a reader looks at the title, they decide whether to inquire further, that usually leads to the description of the talk. It may be called the introduction, summary, abstract, or something else, but for it to be useful it must describe what the talk is about. For this reason, we are using the term, "talk description".

A talk description is similar to an abstract, it should be short, (target 200 words, shorter, or, longer may make sense). It should cover the four Ws: What, Why, When, Where. The better ones inform, delight and invite.
- We inform by briefly covering the subject matter of the talk, (what).
- We delight by sharing an insight, touching on a shared emotion, giving the potential audience a reason to want to attend our talk, (why).
- We invite by making sure they know they are welcome, cover the when and where, as well any costs or requirements.

It should read/play well in both written and oral forms. Some people consume information better by reading, others by listening, the description should support either. Never assume it will only be published in one form or the other. Many speakers have been surprised by a host "introducing" their talk which often consists of reading the speaker's bio and talk description. When I was a SANS instructor, we read the "morning announcements" to the class. This included the optional evening talk presenters, title, and description. Most importantly, the world is changing; ten years ago we consumed most of our information by reading, today, more and more people connect to information by speech and sound, (just look for the earbuds).