Russ Unger is a User Experience professional, co-author of the book A Project Guide to UX Design and co-author of the book Designing the Conversation Russ is co-founder of ChicagoCamps, which hosts low-cost, high-value technology events in the Chicago area, and is also on the Advisory Board for the Department of Web Design and Development at Harrington College of Design.

Samantha Starmer is Vice President of Customer Experience for Razorfish’s national Commerce and Content practice, where she works on strategy and best practices for creating seamless experiences across all touchpoints of the customer shopping journey. Prior to Razorfish, Samantha was Director of Customer Experience at REI. She has over 15 years of experience with companies such as Microsoft and Amazon. She is fortunate to have been invited to speak and teach globally on customer experience and designing for this omnichannel, convergent world.

Chapter 1: All About You

Provide a well-written bio that tells your audience who you are and why they should listen to you. Your bio comes in multiple flavors: how people read about you online, how people read about you in a conference program / on a conference website, and in the very brief format that you should provide to the person who is introducing you.

Chapter 2: What the #*@&% Do I Talk About? (Brainstorming Your Big Idea)

The goal of brainstorming ideas to present about is to help you extract as many ideas as you have in your head as you can muster. Then you can sort and explore; identify the ideas that are worth diving into now, those that could use some additional exploration, and those which are likely better in the circular file.

Chapter 3: How to Write Your Proposal/Abstract

It seems like every conference you apply to has a different set of requirements for submitting a presentation. However, presentation abstracts should all have the same set of information in them. Learn how to create a conference proposal that is put together in a way that some of the most successful conference creators like to see.

Chapter 4: Providing Structure to Your Presentation

Pulling together an outline can be your best saving grace for identifying the structure to your presentation. Blowing it up and creating the next couple of versions are will help you further refine your ideas and provide the focus you need to build a solid, well-structured foundation to your presentation.

Chapter 5: Creating Your Presentation

Once you have your structure in place, creating your presentation becomes a lot easier, but it's still a daunting task. The message is clear: creating the presentation is a lot of work, and all of the effort you've done up until now will only make it easier.

Chapter 6: Practicing Your Presentation

Practice, which comes in many different formats, is essential, and you can start with some very basic techniques that will help you turn a bunch of slides into a well-timed and focused performance of knowledge.

Chapter 7: Presentation Tips & Techniques

There are many different factors to consider when you're on stage and presenting to an audience, and these tips and techniques can help you be prepared for a variety of common situations.

Chapter 8: Handling the Audience (Questions & Answers, Interruptions & Distractions, Hecklers, and More)

A good presenter is prepared to field and respond to questions to make sure that attendees get the most out of the material. You will find suggestions for managing questions and answers successfully, even when you are not able to answer all of the questions.

Chapter 9: You're Never Done

A good presentation has a life beyond a single conference, and you should be ready to receive feedback and update yours. Every presentation has the ability to positively impact your personal and professional life for long after your time on stage. Understand how you can continue to leverage and extend your presentation, riding the wave to more successful presentations and career growth!

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