Speaker Guide

Thank you for agreeing to give a talk at the Seattle Atheist Church! Your talk should be an uplifting, family-friendly talk. 

Preparing Your Talk

  1. Your talk should last no longer than 20 minutes. 
  2. Please create an outline for your talk.
    1. We recommend that you do not write out your entire talk and read it. Instead, list the major bullet points.
    2. Please share your outline a week before the talk to [email protected]
  3. Your talk will be posted on YouTube and appear at https://seattleatheist.church/past-sermons/.
    1. If you do not want your talk posted publicly, please tell us before the talk.
  4. You can share your screen during your talk and show a slide deck:
    1. Do not include copyrighted material in your slide deck. If you need images then we recommend finding them at https://pixabay.com/
    2. Do not use a copyrighted Zoom background.
    3. Do not show YouTube videos during your talk.
    4. Please limit the number of slides (no more than 10).

Delivering Your Talk

Pretend that you are speaking to an easily distracted, hard of hearing, friend when giving your talk.

  1. Project your voice — Use a louder than normal speaking voice when delivering your talk.
  2. Speak Slowly and Enunciate — Use a slower than normal speaking voice when delivering your talk.
  3. Show Emotion — If you don’t care about your talk then your audience won’t care either. If you are enthusiastic about the subject matter then show it.
  4. Make Eye Contact — Don’t read your talk. Instead, create a general outline and follow the outline. 

Participating in Discussion 

  1. Come with three questions that we can use to kick off the discussion.
  2. The speaker is not expected to be an expert on the subject matter of their talk.
    1. The speaker is an equal participant in the discussion circle.