Why Pitching to 30 Teens is More Exhilarating Than Facing 30 Professors

Last week I stepped outside my daily technical comfort zone to deliver a presentation on personal finance and online safety. Over the course of the day, I was honored to run three back-to-back sessions, each with a room of about 30 teenagers.

In my previous life I had the experience of giving a speech to a room full of 30 professors. You might think that facing a room of seasoned academics would be the ultimate test of nerves. In reality, talking to experienced professionals is much easier than engaging a room full of kids.

I’d say there are three big factors that make presenting to teens quite a challenge.

First, there is the knowledge barrier. When you talk to adults about finance, there is a shared understanding: majority of population have checking accounts, credit cards, investments. With teens, you simply don’t know what they already know about those concepts. You have to carefully adjust your language to make sure they understand without over-complicating things and burying the message behind the complex terms.

Second, there is a much bigger sense of responsibility. Adults filter your advice through their own life experiences. When you stand in front of kids, you are actively guiding them, which significantly changes the whole dynamic of the presentation.

Finally, it is incredibly hard to get and keep their attention. Teenagers are not necessarily shy. If you are not their teacher and they don’t natively care about the topic, they will have no problem just sleeping in the sessions. It takes actual entertainment skills to keep them aware.

This is where getting creative was really handy. To break up the talking points, we ran a “human blockchain” session. Turning an abstract concept into something physical and interactive was exactly what we needed to keep the energy up and snap their attention back to the room.

Speaking to 90 teenagers takes a lot of energy, but honestly, it was an absolute blast. The challenge of keeping them engaged and seeing those concepts actually click made the whole experience incredibly rewarding. I learned a lot, hopefully they did too.