Friday, August 7, 2009

Inside Meetings & Conferences

Techies dispel 'socially awkward' stereotypes

By Bridget Botelho, Special to Mass High Tech

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Forget the stereotypes: Not all techies are socially awkward “trekkies.” In fact, there are plenty of tech professionals who have taken to the art of public speaking, developed themselves as presenters and have some helpful tips to share.

David Reynolds, a systems manager with the Rhode Island Blood Center in Providence, takes pride in not being what he would call your stereotypical “Asperger syndrome IT person.” He takes every opportunity to give presentations for college alumni fairs, user group meetings and conferences.

“In a field where social skills don’t tend to be as prevalent as in other professions, I’m really quite the opposite. I very much enjoy public speaking and have always sought out ways to participate in that forum,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds started early in preparing for the podium, taking classes in public speaking in college and in training seminars. He encourages other IT folks to do the same — if not for enjoyment, than because public speaking is an important skill.

“An IT person who can communicate effectively … can really be a valuable tool to an organization,” Reynolds said. “You could have all the valuable knowledge in the world, but it doesn’t mean much if no one will listen to you.”

And entrepreneurs who want to start their own businesses need to be able to communicate their ideas to investors and their potential customers. That was the case for Todd Knapp, chief technology officer and co-founder of Envision Technology Advisors, a Providence-based consulting firm specializing in virtualization and data storage strategies.

“When you start a business, you have to become comfortable quickly talking to people who don’t use the same terminology as you do,” Knapp said. “Communicating with investors or upper management, in their language, is a self-serving skill set that you should develop.”

One way to learn the language of those you are trying to persuade is to develop business relationships with them. For instance, Knapp learned a lot from his accountant about balance sheets, profits and losses, he said. “I had no choice but to learn about Capex and Opex, which helps me communicate with CEOs and CFOs.”

The blood center’s Reynolds emphasizes that preparation is critical for presentations to a large group. That does not mean reading off notecards or a written transcript. Reynolds is also a certified ethical hacker who often speaks about IT security.

“I usually avoid reading from scripted text, even for best-man speeches, because it just seems so cold and scripted versus looking into your audience’s eyes and gauging their response to what you’re saying,” Reynolds said. “Preparation is important in the way of knowing your audience; their interests, knowledge level, what are they looking to get out of this, attention span, demographics, etc.”

Patrick Hynds, president of Nashua, N.H.-based IT consulting firm Critical Sites, started out as an engineer and IT manager and now often presents to groups within the software development community. He said knowing your audience and your topic are critical to giving a strong presentation.

“You can’t bluff your way through an hour-and-15-minute session. You have to know your topic and be honest about what you don’t know. I see a lot of presenters who are afraid of saying, ‘I don’t know,’” Hynds said.

Hynds keeps to the assumption that the audience is full of people like his nephews — bright 18-year-olds with a little interest in the topic, but not a lot, he said.

“With any presentation, the room is full of people who don’t necessarily want to be there, so you have to make it an interesting conversation,” Hynds said. “You have to assume people are saying, ‘So what,’ and it is your job to explain why they should care.”

Being passionate about the topic always makes it more interesting, according to Knapp.

“This business is like my child. I’m passionate about it, so it’s actually hard to stop me from talking about it,” he said. “Plus, when you enjoy the topic and are confident with it, it helps get rid of the nerves.”

Getting to the point of being comfortable in front of large groups takes practice for most people — though there are those anomalies who take to the podium like a duck to water, like Knapp.

 “You can put me in a room with 600 people, and I won’t even break a sweat. It just comes naturally to me,” Knapp said. “It probably all started when I was about 8 years old. We were in Boy Scouts and we sold popcorn, and there was a plaza in town with a Wal-Mart. I convinced the manager there to let me use the PA system to make my announcements.” 

Richard Campbell serves as co-host of .NET Rocks, part of PWOP Productions, based in New London, Conn., and is a regular speaker at technical conferences and seeks out new speaking talent for Microsoft Corp. Tech-Ed conferences throughout the world. His advice: Observe good speakers and learn from their techniques.

“Go to a lot of sessions and watch how the presentations are done — don’t focus on the content per se, focus on how it is presented,” said Campbell, who also co-founded a software business Strangeloop Networks in Vancouver. 

“Figure out what a speaker is doing that works. Then learn to do those things. It’s easy to lose sight of the real goals of a presentation — to pass along information and/or persuade the audience about a topic.”

Bridget Botelho is a freelance writer in Warwick, R.I.