Presentation Karaoke

by Evan Leybourn on      2 minutes read

1 minute, random topic, random slides --- GO!

Something a little bit different. There’s a great exercise for conference speakers to practice their craft - Presentation Karaoke.

Wikipedia describes presentation karaoke as “an improvisational activity in which a participant must deliver a presentation based on a set of slides that they have never seen before.” What it doesn’t say is that it is absolutely hilarious and fun to play. I describe it as; 1 minute, random topic, random slides — GO!

I’ve run this at a few conference (and everyone loves it), and decided to write a small, free, open-source, no-install, app to run it. Download from GitHub

It’s designed to be downloaded and run locally, but you can also try it out here: http://karaoke.theagiledirector.com/

How to run

  • Download the application - it is designed to be downloaded and run directly on your local computer.
  • Run “index.html” - it’s pure HTML and Javascript, so nothing to install.
  • Select a topic set. You can change or add topics to the potential list (a must if you select Freeform)
  • Select a duration. Default is 2 minutes (120 seconds) - 1 minute (60 seconds) is faster and better for novice presenters.
  • Press “Go” - I’m assuming I don’t need to tell you to plug it into a projector or go fullscreen :-)

How to play

  • Press Play (you can press “New Topic” if you want to pick another random topic)
  • Start talking. The slides will auto-advance after 10 seconds
  • Be funny
  • Don’t read the slides, use them as a prompt only
  • Tell a story
  • Be funny
  • Stop talking after 2 minutes (or however long was set)
  • Next person

If you download it and try it, please let me know. If you want to help make it better, you have my eternal gratitude.