Flash Talks

Present Future was curated. Flash talks were the opposite. They were open to anyone who wanted to share something about Om. Who he was to them, what he meant in their lives, a story they shared, or something they’d learned from knowing him. There was no prescribed direction, no expectation that it had to be funny or emotional, and no presentation required.

Keep it simple

A week before the event, I sent everyone who’d signed up during registration to give a talk a short email with four details:

Talks start at 5:30pm.
Add any slides to one shared deck by the day before.
No slides? Totally fine. Just let us know.
Four minutes maximum, and no minimum.

Expect the list to change

Not everyone who signs up will end up speaking, and that’s okay. Plans change, and sometimes people decide they’d rather listen. A few people let me know the week of, one the night before. We made it easy to bow out: “If your plans have changed or you’d rather not give a talk after all, no problem, just let me know.”

For something like this, build flexibility into the run of show. Don’t plan so tightly around the original speaker count that a few changes throw off the program.

And we didn’t limit the microphone to people who had signed up in advance. We deliberately left a moment to invite anyone else in the room to share something about Om, whether they wanted to come up onstage or simply speak from their seat. I think that was important. Not everyone knows ahead of time that they’ll want to say something. Sometimes hearing someone else’s story brings one of your own to the surface.

What happened in the room

Without a prescribed direction, the talks went places we never could have planned. Some were funny, some were deeply personal. One explored how to prepare for losing someone in your life. There were moments of laughter, tears, and silence.

Daniel Raffel shared a thought that has stayed with me: “Om’s attention was a form of love.” Then he invited everyone to sit quietly for a moment and remember what it felt like to receive that attention.

We hadn’t asked anyone to create a moment like that. It happened because we’d left room for people to share their own experiences of Om.

What I’d steal from this

Separate the curated from the open. Present Future and flash talks served different purposes, and neither had to do both.
Set a maximum, not a minimum. Give people permission to contribute without filling an allotted time.
Use one shared slide deck… your AV team will thank you.
Make backing out easy, an open invitation shouldn’t become an obligation.
Leave room for spontaneous voices, not everyone will know they want to speak until they’re in the room.