In mid-September I’ll be winging my way across to Sydney to attend and speak at the Step Two Digital Employee Experience Conference (DEX). I haven’t been to a Step Two “DEX” conference before, but have managed a speaking slot or two at their earlier Intranets conferences. The last time I went was in 2015 – where I talked about Re-Imagining Effective Work, and managed to pull off the classic punch line in the Q&A part of my talk about “getting stuck into the project” in response to a question from someone who worked at a glue factory.

This year my talk is on getting business value from Office 365 (or the larger Microsoft 365 offering if you are so inclined and licensed appropriately). Feel free to check out the ebook I wrote at Silverside on the topic, along with a couple of blog posts on LinkedIn to set the scene (here and here). The upcoming talk follows the sensibility of the ebook in the main, with the appropriate presentation visuals designed to give progressive revelation.

As I get my head ready for speaking to this topic at DEX, I have been reflecting on how I handled the conclusion of the deck the last couple of times I presented it. The talk ends abruptly – clearly, when you’ve said what you need to say it’s good to then be quiet – but I think on balance it ends too abruptly. There needs to be a bit more in the conclusion, and I have a content concept that I’m going to be working on between now and September. My tentative sense it that it amplifies the messaging across the rest of the deck, without introducing content that is so radically different that it would be a departure from what has come before. And of course I’ll test it with my speaking buddy from Step Two once that process kicks into life, and then see how it goes on the day. I quite like – and seek to practice – the idea of better each day or better each time you present. I saw this modelled for me as an undergrad student where a professor would go back to his office and recast a lecture deck so it would be ready for the next time he presented it, and I have tried to use this frequently myself in my own professional practice across consulting engagements, workshops, seminars and talks.

Am I likely to see you at DEX 2019?