kTalks – Short videos, unbiased information, strong insights from industry thought leaders.

Thank you for your interest in producing a kTalk for aecKnowledge. As an industry thought leader, your expertise will be captured in a 6-10 minute kTalk that will be viewed by professionals, students, public agencies and the general public. By sharing your expertise through participation in aecKnowledge you will be part of a ground-breaking movement that will help elevate the AEC industry.

Before you get started, please view the sample kTalks: Preparing and Delivering an Effective kTalk by Donna Norstad and Designing Zero Energy Buildings by Scott Shell. Once you have watched these videos, please read the below guidelines and follow them closely to maximize the effectiveness of your kTalk. We have created these guidelines to make the whole process easier for you and us.

Purpose of kTalks

1. Provide essential and highly-specific knowledge delivered by individual subject-matter experts and industry thought leaders.
2. Provide targeted, concise and immediately useful information.
3. Create a conversational exchange of ideas and knowledge.
4. Creates new channels of learning in an engaging audio-visual format.

Costs

We are committed to making knowledge available at the lowest possible cost and, at the same time, providing an opportunity for thought leaders to broaden their exposure and share their insights. Filming a kTalk can help practitioners, and their firms, establish themselves as experts while simultaneously giving something back to the profession. After we complete our editing process, we will give you a digital copy and an iPhone copy of your professionally edited kTalk to use for your own marketing and/or training purposes, or to embed in your firm's website. However, it is expensive to film and produce each kTalk ($800 - $1,200). We therefore ask presenters to share the cost by paying $500 per kTalk, due when your filming date is confirmed. (Discounts and exceptions are available to non-profit organizations, aecKnowledge Editorial Board members, and emerging professionals.) We do accept all major credit cards.

Preparation

High resolution (ideally 960 x 540) copies of all of your graphics or exhibits, named clearly to coincide with where they appear in your presentation and photo credit information if applicable. You can upload these to our FTP site. To connect to our FTP, you must have an FTP client installed on your computer. We use FileZilla (http://filezilla-project.org) although most FTP software should work.

Step 6 – Filming day. Please arrive 5 -10 minutes early to check in.

Organize Your Key Points

1. For branding purposes, all kTalks will begin with the exact same three sentences:

   “I’m (your name). The topic is (your topic). This is what you need to know.”

2. Determine the key 4 - 6 points you want to communicate. These will become chapter headings for your kTalk and will be entered into Submittal Form 2.
3. Expand your outline with sub-points, using specific examples whenever possible.
4. For each chapter heading, create 3 - 5 bullet points that summarize the information in that section. These will be submitted by you in Submission Form 2 and included in the edited version of your kTalk. (see Ron Radziner kTalk)
5. Determine what graphics, drawings and/or photographs to include to further illustrate your key points, and where in the presentation these should be inserted. You will indicate this on Submittal Form 2.
6. Prepare a concise, powerful conclusion that summarizes your kTalk.

Presentation

1. We are not looking for professional presenters. Rather, we want you to come across naturally, as if you were in a small room talking to a colleague. A casual, conversational tone is best.
2. Rehearse, but do not over-rehearse. Time yourself to be sure your talk is 6-10 minutes.
3. You will be using our teleprompter software for your kTalk as we have found that this creates the most seamless presentation. We will use your script from Submittal Form 2 on our teleprompter, which is why we must have your completed submission at least one week before your filming date.

Delivery

1. Strong eye contact is probably the most important element of your kTalk. By using our teleprompter, you will be looking directly at the camera lens, as though the camera were 2 – 3 colleagues sitting across the table. You want to make a connection with the viewers – in this case the camera.
2. Most people talk too fast when presenting. We want a steady, consistent pace, not too fast, not too slow.
3. Pause between points for 1 – 2 seconds, always looking at the camera.
4. Before stopping for a "take," pause and look at the camera. When resuming, pause for a second while looking at the camera and then resume. This helps in the editing.
5. The speaking portion of your kTalk should be no more than 6-10 minutes long.

Graphics

1. Easy-to-grasp graphics that illustrate your key points will enliven your kTalk. You should aim for a total of 12 – 18 total images (photos, charts, graphs). You will be uploading all of your graphics to our FTP.
2. Photographs are great. You will need to make sure that you have permission to use these photos if they are copyrighted, and will be agreeing to this as part of the Speaker Agreement. Of course, photographers will be given credits, as you can see in the lower left corner of the example.
3. Submit your bulleted talking points to us in kTalk Submission Form 2 and we will insert them into your kTalk at the specified points.
4. Include other visuals (charts, pie charts, etc.) as appropriate to illustrate your key points. Do not include charts or graphs that are too complicated for viewers to understand in 2 – 3 seconds, or contain anything that is not legible.

Appropriate Dress

1. The day of the shoot, dress as you would at your office or job site. Choose a solid shirt or blouse. Please DO NOT wear charcoal gray, as you will not stand out from the background. Also, please avoid patterns and bright colors. Ron got it just right in his "Restoring Architectural Icons" kTalk.
2. During filming, you will be sitting on a stool with a microphone clipped to your shirt/blouse.

Some Other Guidelines

Viewers will see you as a subject matter expert and your contact information will be prominent in the notes, further resources and handouts that can be downloaded with each kTalk. So if you are generous with your knowledge, viewers will be motivated to contact you. However, no direct marketing or propriety information should be included in your kTalk. If you mention a specific product that does not directly relate to your topic or anything that is self-promotional, we simply will not be able to use your kTalk.

Thank you for your participation.

The aecKnowledge Team