Format
Crafting great CubeTalks
Structure of CubeTalks
Maximum of five minutes
One of the key tenets of a CubeTalk is that the absolute maximum length is five minutes. CubeTalks are to be timed and immediately stopped once five minutes have passed. This will require you to practice your timings so that you do not run over. It is okay to speak for less than five minutes, but it is recommended to aim for a minimum of three minutes.
Maximum of five slides
Slides are optional. The focus of the talk should be on what you’re saying. Slides are to be used only to illustrate a difficult concept (such as a location, a graph or a new product). They should enhance your talk, not replace your talk. By limiting the number of your slides to five, it helps to keep the audience focused on you.
Maximum of five words per slide
If an audience is reading your slides, they are not paying attention to you. Words are to be used sparingly and have a limit of five words per slide. This helps prevent you from reading your slides and helps you to focus on delivering great CubeTalks.
Writing CubeTalks
Starts with ‘What if…’
CubeTalks ask the audience to imagine a possibility. As such, they must start with ‘What if…’. This can be anything you can think of. ‘What if the sky was red instead of blue?’ ‘What if we invested in this opportunity?’ ‘What if we could eliminate prejudices from the world?’ The bolder your possibility, the more engaging it will be.
One point
Often a speaker will try to make too many points in a single talk. Great CubeTalks all have one thing in common: they only have a single point. It’s okay to have multiple subpoints, but they all must work to support the one, main point. This will ensure your audience will be able to better remember your talk.
Write for the audience
The key focus of CubeTalks is the audience, not the speaker. Why should the audience listen to you? What will they gain from giving you three minutes of their time? Ensure you help your audience answer what’s in your talk for them. It doesn’t matter how great your talk is, if you fail to write your talk for your audience, no one will listen.
Delivery
No notes
Presenters are not allowed to use any notes. CubeTalks are short enough where presenters can memorise the key parts of their talk. This enables presenters to focus on connecting with the audience instead of reading their notes.
No sound or video files
The length of CubeTalks dictate that they must flow smoothly. Multimedia files tend to break the flow of a talk. They also take the attention away from the presenter. Additionally, not having multimedia files remove yet one more thing that could go wrong with the talk.
Optional Q&A session
CubeTalks can have an optional Q&A session, but these must be done at the end of the talk. The Q&A session doesn’t count towards the five-minute limit, but it is essential it does not last longer than five minutes and is not used as a way to deliver a ‘second’ talk.
Content
Keep it open
Use inclusive language. CubeTalks are to excite people about possibilities. They are not to be used to promote intolerance, bigotries or hatred.
Keep it legal
Do not use CubeTalks to promote illegal activities. It is against the vision and values of CubeTalks to promote violence, drugs or other illicit activities.
Keep it clean
CubeTalks should remain family friendly and not promote crass or vulgar ideas. In order to appeal to the widest possible audience, your talk is to remain within the normal acceptable ethics.
