Thanks to your votes, I was selected to speak at the SXSW Interactive Festival in 2013. I'll be speaking as a part of the Future 15s, which are 12 minute talks that focus on forward-looking ideas across a variety of topics. I'll be speaking about The Art (and Power!) of Explanation - an idea I believe has a lot of potential for the future (and now). The festival is March 8th-12th, 2013, in Austin, Texas. Thanks for helping to make this happen and congrats to all the speakers, a group I am honored to be among.
I'm also excited to be a part of the upcoming Ignite Seattle, an event that has become an Seattle institution and spread to cities around world. My five minute talk is called "The Long Lost Art of Explanation". Ignite Seattle 18 will be on November 8th at 7pm, at Town Hall. Tickets are on sale now for a whopping 5 dollars. Here's the description of my talk:
I’m on a bit of a mission. I want to help the audience (everyone, really) to become more effective explainers. I think it’s a lost art, something we take for granted and never think about. But the potential for improvement is tremendous. My ignite talk will discuss the basics of explanation and how to take a complex idea and explain it with context, connections and stories. My hope is that everyone will leave with ideas for how they can be better explainers.
I did an Ignite Seattle talk in 2009 about my family's business in North Carolina called "Where Goldfish Come From":
I'd love to meet you at these events. Come and say hello. If you know of other events that are looking for speakers, please let me know.