British Society of Master Glass Painters to you. They held their Conference on Aspects of 20th Century Glass at the Glaziers Hall 30 July/1 August and very good it was too. Some super lectures, interesting slides, lively audience, much more varied than the usual art historical crowd because many of these people were hands on artists and practitioners/craftspeople. And I learnt so much! I gave a lecture about FB's stained glass based on my current research which seemed to be well received (I hope they weren't just being polite!) - the first time I've used digital and I have to admit that it has convinced me that this is the way to go - it was wonderful being able to take small details of the stained glass and show them together with related works.
The 2 day conference did make me think about the responsibilities of a lecturer, especially a paid lecturer, so for what it's worth:
1) have good images
2) prepare well, work out the logistics of the speech, the forward motion, think about what you want to say and how to say it
3) engage with the audience in some way - show enthusiasm, add some humour, emphasise words - don't drone
4) don't um and ah every few seconds - if you can't ad lib successfully then write a script
5) keep to the alloted time scale, don't over-run, especially in a conference situation
