"the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning"

Mark Twain

I am about to give my final lightening talk. To the uninitiated, these are fast paced 3 to 5 minute turns at the podium during a conference. Not as glamorous as PechaKucha, originating in Japan as 20 images auto-advanced every 20 seconds for 400 seconds or 6.66 minutes.

The presenters are often awkwardly trying to pitch something or share research and seem to unavoidably waste valuable seconds talking about their confusion before finding their stride albeit now with less time.

Last year I coined 2024 the year of “yes” — I planned to travel and give talks across the globe. But somewhere along the way — I became wiser. Or stated a different way, I discovered my value.

I started declining invitations. “No” to paying my own way to Brazil to give two talks and a workshop, “No” to anticipating a regular speaking spot only to be pushed into a 3-minute rushed talk on geospatial storytelling and a variety of other opportunities that only benefitted the host.

I do have something monumental in the works but that isn’t ready for primetime — yet.

Let’s walk through a sample work-flow I use to prepare all of my talks but it works well for the quickies I have done in the past (soon retiring them).