The Learning Round Table co-sponsored (along with ALA) a Battledecks competition at ALA, and (perhaps I’m understating this) a good time was had by all. Below is the video to prove it!
Battledecks is a fun improv exercise that challenges contestants to deliver a presentation on the fly using an unknown slidedeck containing random (and often hilarious) slides. The contestants are judged on their ability to create a coherent presentation that incorporates the slide content smoothly. Laughs and getting through all of the slides on time are a plus.
If you think Battledecks looks like fun, consider a competition at your next Staff Development Day. Between contestants, judges, and slidedeck makers, there’s lots of opportunity for involvement—and as you can see from the video below, the audience is pretty involved too!
Direct link to playlist: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=26F1EA6AD67D14D2
A big thanks to Janie Hermann for coordinating the Battledecks event, and to all of our judges and slidemakers! A special thanks to our good friend John LeMasney of 365sketches.org for designing and sharing (through Creative Commons license) a wonderful Battledecks logo!
Thanks for the shout out, Peter!
I will be presenting an agenda for our 2011 All-Staff Day to our Leadership Team in two weeks and I intend to make Battledecks part of our day.
This will be a whole new ball game for us: energy, laughter, enthusiasm, wit, participative…
Can anyone share advice: what works, what doesn’t, what to absolutely do, or not do, to make it successful?
Hi Heidi,
I think it’s well worth investing a lot of time in preparing the slidedecks with an emphasis on including slides that are inherently funny. The more inherently funny slides you have, the more fun/energy will be in the room. Battledecks can be very challenging for participants, and if the slides are funny, then the audience is laughing which both lowers the stress level for the participant, and buys them some time to think. It also ensures that even if the participant didn’t do a the best job imrov-ing, everyone will still have fun.
Asking others to work with you in putting the slidedecks together is a great opportunity to have a fun, team-based activity. You might also want to think about customizing the slide decks for each participant, throwing in slides that might have particular resonance or “inside joke” value for them and for the audience. (i.e, if you know everyone knows that one of the participants is a big Twilight fan, throw in a slide of Edward. That kind of thing…)
From a technical standpoint, have backups of your slidedecks, test, test, test the AV. Have a good, simple remote slide advancer and give the participants a chance to practice with it (and with the microphone) before they go live.
From a process standpoint: Figure out how you’re going to judge the contest. What are your criteria? (I forget our off the top of my head but Janie or I can send that to you if you like.) Who will be your judges? How will you entertain the audience while the judges are tallying (this can take 5-15 minutes depending on how you do it, and whether you’re crowning a winner or trying to rank everyone which is more time-consuming.) You might be able to fill the time with a good Ted Talk or two. ( check out the spreadsheet listing every ted talk– you can sort by length and review the descriptions to find a few that are short and/or fun. http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pjGlYH-8AK8ffDa6o2bYlXg&gid=0).
Hope these suggestions help. Let me know if you want the judging criteria that we used. Good luck and best wishes on a successful staff day!
Heidi,
Janie just uploaded the slides (with a slide describing the rules) to slideshare at: http://www.slideshare.net/JanieH/battledecksala10. Check it out! -Pete