What would u like to see???

Me and a couple of my friends started a computer club at our college and my job in the club is to do presentations infront of a room of people. I thougth it would be an easy task, but I am having trouble comming up with ideas of what people would like to see presented, explained, or demonstrated. If you came to a meeting, what would you all like to see?

I would love to see the Lesbian Lady Scandinavian Basketball Team being demonstrated. However I don't think that is what you are looking to present... ;)

Look to the interests and level of the people you would be presenting to. No point presenting BBQ beef to vegans if you know what I mean.... Whatt are they interested in? What impacts them that they don't understand? You will succeed best if you aim towards their interests than yours.

Why not ask them?

Also why are you doing all the presentations? Different people have different skillsets and interests and it would probably be better if they shared their knowledge rather than you having to come up with something new every meeting. Plus it's good experience for the future.

What about asking local vendors? You got any local IT companies or well regarded computer shops that might be interested in presenting to you and getting the chance to demo new kit. Might be worth liaising through the college but companies often jump at the chance to present to potential customers. they might even donate for refreshments. You run the chance of getting some crap sales pitches but you could get some good quality speakers too.

I go to a regular meeting which runs on the same principle. It is IT managers that attend so it is easier to get vendors interested but they are willing to cough up £$£ for a venue and food. They are also under the warning not to do a sales pitch only.

I.E. we had a forensics guy up to give us a basic lesson on the preservation of evidence. It wasn't a sales pitch but he got to network and sell services over lunch. We get a day out + some good info + lunch (important that one) and he gets to make some sales. Everyone is happy.

Hi mad_fox9007

From your first post, I suspect that a lot of the audience are not part of your club?

Try basic computer security for a start?.............lots of stuff on this site.................AV, firewall, spyware, adware, passwords, physical security.

What do you have to do your presentations...........data projector would be nice; do you have powerpoint?

I have a very newbie presentation of mine, in powerpoint that you can have if you PM me..........it is aimed at college teachers, so it is pretty basic. Maybe you could build it into something.

"The most frightening thing in life is not a complex form, but a blank sheet of paper"

;)

I agree with TS and Aspman - gear your presentations towards what the audience desires, mixing liberally with what is truly needed. Your audience wants 'new and cool' - so you give them overviews of several new, cool software packages involving security, firewalling, and a game or two :P They want to see strict net security? Do a bit of legwork, dig into what they've got, and show them how to tighten down what they're currently running, or scrap what they're using and come up with an entirely new setup. Understand a couple of things up front though - first off, business owners really don't like to spend money on things that won't give them financial gain, so they'll be hesitant to buy into a new system should you recommend one. If this is being done strictly in a classroom environment that shouldn't be a worry, but in the harsh realm of the real, it's crucial. Secondly, make it fun. Nobody wants to hear another lecture, in either the classroom or the real world. Audience participation, and very interesting softwares (that REALLY cool game that just came out, or this or that powertoy) they haven't seen before should do the trick.

As Nihil suggested, Powerpoint and Projectors usually make for excellent presentations. Spice up your graphics and have things catchy and bulleted.

Luck to you!

We haven’t tried to spread the word of the club yet because we wanted to take care of the website and try to get a couple projects down first, that’s y I haven’t tried to ask the members yet. I want to do something fun, but not advertise someone’s new products. Most of the people attending will be in the club, but some may not. I do have a data projector to work with, but the only things I can think of now are related to hardware, such as a "cantenna" which is a device to extend the range of a wireless network. I want to projects like that because I think they're simple and they can keep people interest. Any more suggestions?

Depending on your target audience...

Anything that is cheesy to seasoned computer experts can be very good fodder for less savvy users... eg Cracking and Hacking, p2p software with a whatis spyware section, whatis and howto use IRC... these are all 'online' type things but there are other things that may be more practical like howto build your own PC from parts or howto put together a home network. Just a few ideas...

Of course these are all areas that I have enjoyed learning about, so I may be assuming everyone is just a clone of me... and the world would not be a better place...

Why Not just make a Questionnaire or a survey form and pass them to the audience, so you can have a clear idea of what they have in mind. And also use the same activity after the presentation to get idea about how well the presentation goes. These things really help in any sort of presentation. Its a basic rule of a presentation to know Who "You Audience Are?" Might be you keep on telling them things regarding stuff they dont like at the moment and might majority likes computer games.

I think that FanacooL has a good idea; it sounds like a first meeting?

Get them to give you info on level of knowledge that they have. Then what they are interested in.

If you want a "hackers club" you will die in six months ;)

I can't pass a survey out to an audiance because there is no audiance yet, I need ideas before I even give a presentation. Once the club is officially started I plan on asking the member what thy would like to see. If I could just give presentations on hacking I woulndn't have even started this thread.