Notes to speakers

Guidelines to Presenters

Introduction

Thank you for considering presenting at a Litig Delegate meeting. This simple guide is intended to ensure you are received well by members and things run smoothly.

Litig is a not-for-profit organisation. Its members are predominantly IT Directors or Partners in charge of IT and the role of Litig is one of a networking event and a vehicle to help educate members on topics of importance and especially in topics that may not come into focus during day-to-day working but never-the-less remain important.

In their roles, Litig Members receive a lot of sales calls and sales pitches and so welcome events where there are none! As such all Litig members are strongly against any overt sales pitches from any presenters or any after presentation follow up sales efforts / contact. It is such attempts that do most damage to suppliers that attend and so we have produced this guide to help supplier "steer a positive course" and receive benefit from attending.

One of Litig's founding principles is independence and so Litig is careful not to (and not even be at risk of being perceived to) sponsor or be sponsored by any supplier.

This guide is therefore to advise you how best to approach presenting at Litig meetings so that both parties get the most out of the engagement.

Guidelines re Presentations to Litig

With the above in mind we kindly ask you to comply with the following guidelines.

Physical meetings

Presenters - Attendee numbers should be kept to a minimum and only people presenting significant content should attend. Attendees in a sales / business development / account management capacity that are not presenting are not permitted as such attendances are not well received by members.

Day's Agenda Content — We are not at liberty to share with you the full agenda for the day, but the billing of your session will be agreed with you and shared with you. You will be made aware of (but not issued with the content) of any relevant or related sessions that occur during the day so you can put your session in context and the Litig Secretary will work with all parties attending that day to ensure that no content is accidentally repeated.

Member Privacy - Members wish to keep their details private and so unfortunately, we will not be able to issue you with names and details of attendees. If required we will be able to issue you with a list of firms / companies represented so you can gauge the audience for presentation purposes and know if any of your clients are attending but this is all the information you will be provided with.

Networking - You may be invited to stay for a coffee break or lunch (depending on your time slot) and this is an opportunity for you to network. If asked for your business card by a member it is perfectly acceptable to respond but we would ask you not to embark on a card distribution spree! Your contact details will be issued to all members of Litig (and not just attendees) when meeting minutes and presentation content are issued. You may in any case embed your contact details in your presentation.

Presentation Content - The content (your PowerPoint deck) you present will be required for issue to all Litig members including those that do not attend the meeting. In some cases presenters have preferred to amend the presentation to take out certain detail that they are happy to present but not circulate in "hard copy" and this is perfectly acceptable providing the majority of the content remains intact for distribution.

· As per the guidelines above, sales content is not received well in Litig. Members are looking to understand what the product does or what the strategy is or how things are done etc., and overt sales often receive negative feedback after the event in post presentation reviews which does not favour the presenter organisation.

· Of particular note is when Litig asks a number of suppliers of similar technology to present separately on the same area. This is an excellent way of understanding the views of the main players in the market. However negative remarks against any competition is, again, very much frowned upon by members and it is much preferable to allow your strategy and products "sell themselves" without reference to competition. Named negative references to competitors is not permitted.

Hand-out Material - Hand-outs and sales pamphlets are not permitted. Demo items (e.g. devices, examples etc.) that support presentation content are permitted. It is expected therefore that these will be taken with you when you leave.

Payment — As Litig is a not for profit company for the benefit of the industry as a whole we are not able to finance any presentations. Events are hosted by one of our member firms. We rely on the mutual benefit between presenters showing their abilities in a non-sales mode and this being exposed to attendees and all 90+ members in minutes and distribution of slides. We have found this to be received by all presenters to date as more than suitable "compensation" for the effort and travel expense put in. If travel expenses are an issue however Litig is able to consider, on application, the reimbursement of travel expenses at cost by prior agreement. Please contact the Litig Secretary if this is required.

Layout and Set-Up for physical meetings

The venue is one of our member's offices. We use Hill Dickinson's boardroom at The Broadgate Tower, 20 Primrose St, London EC2A 2EW.

You can use your own laptop or the laptop that is provided.

Attendee numbers are generally 30-45 people seated in a boardroom style table with presenters at one "open" end to encourage involvement by the audience who are generally interactive if the style of presentation permits / encourages this. Given the numbers, the only introduction possible is introducing the presenters to the audience. We do not provide attendee lists to presenters.

Presentations must be issued to the Litig Secretary at least 2 business days before. The Litig Secretary will not issue the presentation material to Litig members before the meeting unless you wish to and will check on what presentation content can be issued with the meeting minutes with you before issue. All presentations are issued in PDF format.

You will be provided with a large room projector, screens (down the side of the room) and wireless internet. The room has audio with a lectern, lapel and handheld microphones. If you need any other equipment such as PC, video etc then please ask in advance of the day.

If bringing your own presentation laptop or device, please confirm the type of connector you wish to use (e.g. VGA, HDMI etc.)

Please note that one of our members will be busy tapping away taking minutes. Firstly we tell you this so you don't think someone is being rude "tapping away" and secondly if you don't want anything minuted then please let the floor know and we will ensure notes are not taken for that part. Notes are only distributed internally to Litig members and nothing will be passed outside of Litig.

We will try where possible to have a break after your session so you are not packing up with people sitting watching!

If there are any questions — just ask the Litig Secretary, Peter Owen, who organises the events.

Virtual meetings

Agenda content if multiple virtual sessions — We are not at liberty to share with you the full agenda, but the billing of your session will be agreed with you and shared with you. You will be made aware of (but not issued with the content) of any relevant or related sessions that occur during the event so you can put your session in context and the Litig Secretary will work with all parties attending the event to ensure no content is accidentally repeated.

Networking - Your contact details will be issued to all members of Litig (and not just attendees) when presentation content is issued. You may in any case embed your contact details in your presentation.

Presentation Content - The content (your PowerPoint deck) you present will be required for issue to all Litig members including those that do not attend the virtual meeting. In some cases presenters have preferred to amend the presentation during the virtual session to take out certain detail that they are happy to present but not circulate in "hard copy" and this is perfectly acceptable providing the majority of the content remains intact for distribution.

As per the guidelines above, sales content is not received well in Litig. Members are looking to understand what the product does or what the strategy is or how things are done etc., and overt sales often receive negative feedback after the event in post presentation reviews which does not favour the presenter organisation.
Of particular note is when Litig asks a number of suppliers of similar technology to present separately on the same area. This is an excellent way of understanding the views of the main players in the market. However negative remarks against any competition is, again, very much frowned upon by members and it is much preferable to allow your strategy and products "sell themselves" without reference to competition. Named negative references to competitors is not permitted.

Payment — As Litig is a not for profit company for the benefit of the industry as a whole we are not able to finance any presentations. We rely on the mutual benefit between presenters showing their abilities in a non-sales mode and this being exposed to attendees and all 90+ members in minutes and distribution of slides. We have found this to be received by all presenters to date as more than suitable "compensation" for the effort put in.

Preparation and delivery of virtual meetings

With the date, time and title of the virtual session agreed, Litig will set up the Zoom session and send you the invite (you will need to provide your email). If you have any specific requirements please speak to the Litig host or the Litig Secretary beforehand so we can work with you and help manage expectations. Litig will tend to send you a Zoom ‘keep the date and time free’ invite quickly to help get the appointment into your diary. We will also ask for a short paragraph about you for the session introduction (if you have not sent something through beforehand).

A few working days before the session a member of the Litig team will email you to check everything is still proceeding as planned from your perspective.

On the day you will be invited to join the Zoom meeting a few minutes before the session is scheduled to start for the Litig attendees to test sharing the screen, polling options etc.

In terms of the how to run the session, you can discuss this with your Litig board member/contact beforehand. They tend to be informal in nature and we want it to be a positive event for everyone. In practice a common format that works well is to have a 30 to 40-minute presentation followed by group discussion and/or Q&A. Interactive sessions tend to be received well (Litig members like to challenge and discuss topics and ideas). Of course, you can decide if you want the session to be interactive with members asking questions throughout or if you prefer the audience wait until the end for Q&A.

Attendee numbers for virtual meetings are generally 15 - 25 people. We do not provide attendee lists to presenters.

If for any reason you want to circulate presentation materials before the session, these must be submitted to the Litig Secretary at least 2 business days before the virtual session. The Litig Secretary will not issue the materials to Litig members before the meeting unless you wish to and they will check on what presentation content can be issued with the meeting minutes with you before issue. All presentations are issued in PDF format.

If there are any questions — just ask your session host or contact the Litig Secretary, Peter Owen, who organises the events.

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