What can not be said from the scene at IT conferences, but really want

As you know, in many ways we take an example from Europe and the USA. It applies to the IT field to the full: developers adopt the tools and the best programming techniques, IT managers are equal to the most progressive methods of project management and development.

If a specialist has succeeded in any field of knowledge and skills, then he should be ready to share his experience with a wide audience. And in this case, there is someone to be equal with: there are a huge number of records in the network from the largest IT conferences of the world and speeches of the best speakers, speakers, and so on.
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However, individuals with critical thinking caution us against making mistakes when choosing examples to follow. Far from everything that even the best speakers say is positively perceived by the audience.

Christian Heilman decided to look at the speeches from the point of view of the audience that sits in the hall. Analyzing the speech of the speakers and modeling the reaction of viewers with different backgrounds, he drew attention to several phrases that can cause a negative or even frustration.

1. "It's easy ..."
2. "I will quickly repeat for those of you who do not know ..."
3. "Everyone can do this ..."
4. "Product X solves the problem, so don't worry about it now."
5. "As we all know ..."
6. “That's why product Y [this is the product of the speaker] is much better than X [this is the product of a competitor]”
7. “This is what we all went through at school / university”
8. "To do this, just need to write a few lines of code"
9. “If you want to be professionals, do this ...”

If the vast majority of listeners in the hall are experts in the topic under consideration, then it is necessary to submit the material, going more deeply into the details. However, otherwise, it is worth tempering your ardor and not throwing the audience with highly specialized terms.

On the other hand, the task of the speaker is not only to issue technical information. Even if he speaks at an IT conference, he still has to inspire and in some sense entertain the audience. But often the balance is disturbed: the speaker goes too far, over-simplifying the material and playing the performance in front of the audience.

1. "It's easy ..."

We often inspire the audience (sometimes we unwittingly inspire) that a particular task is simpler than it seems.

Worst of all, when the speaker gives a bunch of abstract diagrams and references to the toolkit, after which he makes an unexpected conclusion: “This is easy.” Yes, now it is easy for him, because he understood the topic, having spent more than one day.

How to replace this expression:

 “That's what needs to be done for this ...”
 "Using this well-documented toolkit, you can ..."
 "This problem is solved in several stages ..."

2. "I will quickly repeat for those of you who do not know ..."

For those who really do not know, the phrase is: "Everything is already in the subject, but you are not yet." Blows arrogance. And to these unfortunate "dunno" it begins to seem that everyone is looking at them with reproach.

How to replace this expression:

 "I remind you that ..."
 "As you probably remember ..."
 "Here we use X. This is ..."

3. "Everyone can do this ..."

If everyone can do it, why should they listen to the speaker? If everyone can do it, why could I not? Of course, this phrase removes a certain fear, if a person has never done something else. But, if and when, he will fail his "cover" with a vengeance.

How to replace this expression:

 "If you have already worked with X, Y, then you should not have problems with Z"
“If you can master this, then the rest of the work will be easy for you.”
 “This is a very effective way. If it works for you, advise it to others. ”

4. "Product X solves the problem, so now you should not worry about it"

This is a classic reception specialist in sales. If such a bold statement turns out to be false, “grateful” listeners will remember the speaker with a “kind word”.
Instead, it is better to bring specific cases in which those or tasks were solved, and to show how the product works, and not to sell it with all your might.

How to replace this expression:

 "The feature X works in the case of Y, based on this you can create Z"
 "X can automatically do what you used to do manually: [examples]"

5. "As we all know ..."

Often this is not the case. If the speaker is guided by his background, he risks being misunderstood by those who have a completely different experience. Moreover, the question may come from the audience: “For me it is not obvious. Can you explain why this is so? ”

How to replace this expression:

 "At source X, this is wonderful explained Y"
"Tests have shown that X is true in most cases" [link to source]
“I am based on the fact of X, which has been proven many times” [link to source]

Quotes and references make life easier for the speaker: you have to explain less. In addition, it demonstrates the level of its preparation.

6. “This is what we all went through at school / university”

In the hall can be very different people. It is rather strange to assume that they studied in the same school or in the same faculty as the speaker. This is especially true of highly specialized knowledge in IT.

How to replace this expression:

 "It is not for nothing that he has been taught in universities in computer specialties for years and that is why ..."
“If you didn’t study with me in the same school, there might not be this important discipline in your curriculum. But in vain, because ... "

7. “That's why product Y [this is a product of a speaker] is much better than X [is a product of a competitor]”

Not the best way to advertise - to put your product in a favorable light due to the shortcomings of competitors. After that, students can start looking for flaws in your product. The story should not be reduced to the categories of "good / bad." The task of the speaker is to talk about the technical features of his own product. Need specifics.

How to replace this expression:

 “In product X, this function is implemented like this ... We went the other way, and this is why ...”
 “There are several ways to implement this feature. We decided that our product will work more efficiently if ... "
 It seems to us that in such products there is not enough of this feature. Therefore, we implemented it "

8. "To do this, just need to write a few lines of code"

The amount of code does not yet indicate the effectiveness of the solution. Almost always, a “fast and efficient” solution will grow into a big project when a product develops and it comes to large-scale development. Therefore, “a few lines of code” is just the beginning.

How to replace this expression:

 “You can start with a few lines of code. In the future, there will have to add a lot »
“If we illustrate the general idea, everything will be reduced to several lines of code”
 “To implement the function of X code you need very little”

It is better to write more code and explain it, breaking it into fragments, than to mislead a story about the magic “several lines”.

9. "If you want to be professionals - do this ..."

Firstly, everyone has their own understanding of the term "professional". Therefore, in some cases, such a phrase may look just silly. Instead, it is better to talk about specific criteria - quality, performance, speed, and so on.

Secondly, universal recipes practically do not exist.

How to replace this expression:

 “Companies X, Y and Z use this practice. I will give several case studies with positive results. ”
 “The positive aspects of X are Y and Z. Therefore, we can put X on a par with professional tools”

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The IT industry is constantly evolving, people come to it with different levels of education and intelligence, representatives of the humanitarian professions as well. In many ways, building a dialogue with such people is more difficult than with IT specialists. But it was this diversity that made the IT industry comprehensive.

Productive communication is also hampered by parasitic words and clichés that are harmless at first glance. They introduce into the presentation of the speaker a kind of “information noise” that can tire listeners in the background.

We asked the organizers of IT conferences from Russia to comment on unsuccessful phrases and cliches, and also to give a couple of tips to novice speakers.

Maria Uvarova, Managing Director at DI Telegraph

Do you hear such expressions? How important to you are the figures of speech in the speeches?

The audience is already so accustomed to the words of the trash that in the process of public speaking they simply cease to notice.

What examples of “junk words” and clichés can you recall?

The list of garbage expressions is endless: just, as if, well, ok, so what, and in general, in principle, practically, in fact, in short, actually, in other words, in general, so to speak, , in principle, in a sense.

Are there such expressions in your speech?

Of course, each of us has its own “set” of garbage expressions. By the way, it varies, depending on the environment and scope of activity.
As colleagues say, I have a peculiarity: I often repeat the same thing in different words.

What will you do if the speaker speaks with interesting material, but tells it in terrible language?

I will not invite you to participate anymore, if you consider me as an organizer of the event.

If you invite again, the event will be firmly associated with vague speakers, which means with a bad program.

What recommendations would you give to a person who wants to increase their own level of presentation and performance?

Follow the rule of any public speech:

• Introduction / Submission
• Development
• Climax
• Conclusion
• Questions

Simplicity and clarity of presentation. You should avoid overly complex expressions, and refrain from the use of obscure terms if you speak to a wide audience.
Quite often lately I notice that people have forgotten how to speak Russian, they do not understand how to build the logic of speech.

It seems to me that classes in oratory or even acting can help to prepare for public speaking.
After all, any performance is self-presentation, “selling your project.”

The audience loves contact, she likes it when a person communicates openly, when he is available for communication, charismatic.

If you perform regularly, then you definitely need to think about your image: the style of clothing, the manner of presentation of the material.

No matter how trite it sounds, Steve Jobs is always remembered.

Yuri Vetrov, head of the portal design team at Mail.Ru Group and organizer of design meetings (meetings)

I speak at conferences quite a long time ago, but due to the constant lack of time I still suffer from many of these problems. Although I try to work on myself, gradually getting rid of the most unpleasant.

Naturally, the endless interruptions of "uh-uh" and "here" are most confusing. For quite some time now I have been trying to just keep silence for 1-2 seconds, instead of inserting these placeholders - it turned out that it works with a bang.

From the common words-parasites cut the ear things like "actually", the same placeholders holes. And among the professional designers and IT-based - empty words like "intuitive", "convenient", "maximize". They do not say anything concrete, they are empty adjectives like school “beautiful”, for which Russian teachers beat their hands.

I can wade through the bad language of other speakers, so I am ready to suffer it for the sake of useful information. Although sometimes it is so painful that it is not perceived at all. And less motivated people all the more fall off.

Oleg Bunin, organizer of well-known IT conferences in Russia:

Yes, the colossal problem of technical conferences, for example, our HighLoad ++, is that gurus and speakers are introverts and techies. Very often they are carriers of very deep knowledge and serious experience, but they cannot express it.

But this is a component of a professional. If you are a real pro, then you should not only know the subject area. You should also have the humanities skills of an educated person. You must be able to structure your thoughts, you must be able to speak clearly and clearly, so that your thoughts can be caught and understood.

Words-parasites, garbage expressions are all. Starting from the banal "as if", "this" and ending with some kind of buzzwords and cliches. Cliche is a problem at all, they are very fond of representatives of large vendors. Hyper Convergence! What is it? Try to give a definition!

To combat such reports, we have a Program Committee (more than 20 critical professionals). Evangelicals, professional sellers are very quickly brought to light by a couple of questions about specifics.

By the way, the abundance of cliché, buzz words, terminology is the first signal for the committee that the report will be empty. It is only marketers who think that microservices + cloud computing + hyperconvergence is the recipe for a good report.

By the way, as a representative of the HighLoad ++ program committee, I enjoy watching the trends: how cliches appear and go. A few years ago they were “clouds”, “virtualization”, then “hyperconvergence”, “microservices”, now - “web scale”. A professional should be able to talk about the complex in simple and clear language, his knowledge is valuable in and of itself, regardless of how many buzzwords are used in the report.

We also audition reports. This helps the speaker to prepare himself and us to understand whether the speaker really understands what he is talking about or is it just a collection of buzz words.

If we encounter a speaker who, even after all our work (conversations, coaching, training, webinars for speakers), still speaks badly and is not interesting, then we will not miss him at the conference.

The conference is not only knowledge, it is also a show. Speech should be smart and beautiful, in all senses. Slides should be clear, speech is sensible, the thought from the report should be born, remembered and stay in the listener's head. Then there will be a favor.

Of course, and I have such words-parasites slip. It helps ... training and training! Read the report out loud to yourself! Record and listen to yourself. Write a detailed speech plan. Listen and watch your past reports. After each performance to work on the bugs.

This will advise those who want to raise their own level of presentation and performance. Training and honest feedback.


"Perfect" performance