Hey

I’ve launched “Lunctime Tech Talks”. We are an EnerTech company and people that work for us are either born and bred nerds or people who have wanted to get into Technology because they believe it is the future.

So, the idea of our Tech Talks was similar to TedTalks, in that people could opt-in to join over a lunch time (we always do them 1-2pm but we are a super flexible company and obvs do not track how long people are taking for lunch!) on topics that interest them. Whilst you can argue this was an initiative / just another thing, it was really light touch.

Hosted using a variety of technology efficiencies, with the ability to tune in later (recorded) – we use Slack (created a specific channel) where people could share information before or have discussions after and also this is where we would push notifications for the talks upcoming/about to start/recordings/polls on topics.

Talks varied from related to EnerTech or a specific product feature that we particularly felt was innovative to talks on Bitcoin, gaming, electronic music. Talks were either just presentations but often were interactive or included demos. Always with view to educate, interest and share knowledge. We have even had people offer to them on technologies they are proficient in like MSO or software engineers doing an intro do coding for non-techies in the company.

Everyone had the opportunity to host a talk if they wanted and to vote on talks they wanted to see. Including leadership. Meaning that people did not feel it was just another thing being pushed on them as they were participant to the subjects and also in giving the talks but leadership also go the opportunity to host and put forward subjects that would help push the team and product forward to secure buy-in to the vision and mission.

Whilst I’ve not strictly replied with a list of advice, I hope this was useful and can inform the shape of your educational talks.