An Evangelists Guide through

the Galaxy
Dos & Donts for Evangelists on the Road

So you are an evangelist? Congrats, you probably have the best job in the world.
Or are you just interested in becoming an evangelist? Anyways this guide should
answer some of the most important questions and explain some of the most
common task.
Keep one thing in mind while reading this guide: In the end being an
Evangelist is all about sharing. Sharing know-how, sharing tools, sharing best
practices, sharing slides, sharing code. Share it with your customer and with your
colleagues. In the moment anybody else reuses anything you created before
you did a perfect job and were a successful evangelist.
This document was written to provide a basic guide through the daily business of
an evangelist. Not all of the content might be applicable to your current situation
but it should give you good insights into the general direction. The document

Evangelist's guide through the galaxy (V. 1.0)

Author: Daniel Meixner
DX Germany

contains a table of contents consider this as a quick reference or checklist. All

headlines have been chosen to be meaningful so it will be very easy to get the
point by just reading the headlines in a lot of cases. If you want to go deeper you
can still read the full text of course which will give you more insights.

Contents
1

Pre Events....................................................................................................... 4
1.1

Find a clear mission................................................................................... 4

1.2

Contact the organizer................................................................................ 4

1.3

Find a call for action.................................................................................. 4

1.4

Check session list and speakers................................................................4

1.5

Apply for a call for paper...........................................................................4

1.6

Tell your colleagues about CFPs................................................................4

1.7

Tell your colleagues & marketing team that you will be there...................4

1.8

Advertise the event................................................................................... 4

1.8.1

Use Social Media................................................................................. 4

1.8.2

Tell your marketing team....................................................................4

1.9

Know the logistics..................................................................................... 4

1.10 Scan Attendee Lists and find target persons.............................................4

1.11 Infrastructure............................................................................................ 5
1.11.1 Set up your Hardware.........................................................................5
1.11.2 Set up your Software..........................................................................5
1.11.3 WIFI/Internet connection.....................................................................5
1.12 Prepare your session................................................................................. 5
1.12.1 Take your time for preparation............................................................5
1.12.2 Mirror Practice..................................................................................... 5
1.12.3 Prepare for blackouts..........................................................................5
1.13 Backup Videos........................................................................................... 5
2

During Events.................................................................................................. 6
2.1

At the booth.............................................................................................. 6

2.1.1

Engage with attendees.......................................................................6

2.1.2

Dont hide behind your device............................................................6

2.1.3

Do housekeeping................................................................................ 6

2.2

During discussions.................................................................................... 6

2.2.1

Be friendly. Always!............................................................................. 6

2.2.2

Do not embarrass visitors!..................................................................6

2.2.3

Do not blame all the fault to other Microsoft employees (or corp)!....6

Evangelist's guide through the galaxy (V. 1.0)

Author: Daniel Meixner
DX Germany

2.2.4
2.3

On stage.................................................................................................... 6

2.4

After your session..................................................................................... 6

2.4.1
2.5

Listen & embrace feedback................................................................6

Be available........................................................................................ 6

During the rest of the time........................................................................7

2.5.1

Meet with new people.........................................................................7

2.5.2

Meet with targets................................................................................ 7

2.5.3

Visit sessions...................................................................................... 7

2.5.4

Note feedback..................................................................................... 7

Post Event....................................................................................................... 8
3.1

Event summary / report............................................................................ 8

3.2

Feedback................................................................................................... 8

3.2.1

Collect Feedback................................................................................. 8

3.2.2

Read Feedback.................................................................................... 8

3.3

Social Media.............................................................................................. 8

3.4

Follow Up................................................................................................... 8

3.4.1

Social Media........................................................................................ 8

3.4.2

Questions............................................................................................ 8

3.5

Audit Success............................................................................................ 8

3.6

Lessons learned........................................................................................ 8

3.7

Reach out to DX Feedback........................................................................8

3.7.1

Reuse your topic................................................................................. 8

Evangelist's guide through the galaxy (V. 1.0)

Author: Daniel Meixner
DX Germany

1 Pre Events
1.1 Find a clear mission
Be sure to know why you are at that event. What are your goals? What do you
want to achieve? How could you prove success? If possible define metrics. Make
sure you define metrics that are measureable by you.

1.2 Contact the organizer

Ask the organizer what the audience looks like. Are there pros or beginners?
Developers or decision makers? IT Pros or private users? How much attendees
can you expect?

1.3 Find a call for action

Make sure you have something to point attendees to. Maybe a download of the
latest tools or a newsletter to sign up for. This could be a bunch of links in your
slides or a printed hand-out. Make the audience DO something after you talked
to them.

1.4 Check session list and speakers

Check the other big topics at the event. Are there other sessions covering similar
topics as your session? Make sure to contact the other speakers to split the
topics to avoid duplicates, if necessary.

1.5 Apply for a call for paper

When you apply for the CFP tell your colleagues about it. This helps to avoid
duplicates in applications and sessions and over- or under-staffing.

1.6 Tell your colleagues about CFPs

Tell your colleagues about CFPs that you applied for or that you didnt apply for.
They might be interested in being there, too. If you fear that they might cover
your topic and you wont get the slot tell them that you already applied for it.

1.7 Tell your colleagues & marketing team that you will be there
Tell your marketing colleagues that youll be at the event. They might have
additional tasks and missions for you and might help you in advertising.

1.8 Advertise the event

1.8.1 Use Social Media
Tweet about your session at the event. Use all social media channels that seem
appropriate.

1.8.2 Tell your marketing team

Tell marketing to advertise your session. The official Microsoft channels have a
broader reach.

1.9 Know the logistics

Make sure you know the location, your speaking time. Be there on time. If you
have to build up a booth, make sure it is completed before visitors arrive.

Evangelist's guide through the galaxy (V. 1.0)

Author: Daniel Meixner
DX Germany

1.10 Scan Attendee Lists and find target persons

Scan the attendee list and try to find out whos an interesting target person. Try
to meet and engage with him.

1.11 Infrastructure
1.11.1

Set up your Hardware

Make sure your hardware will work. Think about backing up slides and demos to
Onedrive for business or put them into VS Online. Maybe you can also consider
to setup a Virtual Machine that will work as a Demo-Machine with your working
environment installed. Just in case your hard disk dies. Make sure you have
adapters for video signals and network. Also prepare for a bad internet
connection.

1.11.2

Set up your Software

Make sure your software will work. If you have software that will run out of
licencing make sure you know when it will run out and update the license in time.
(E.g. developer license for Windows Store Apps). Always ensure that the software
installed is allowed to be shown in public and not Microsoft-Internal software or
under NDA. Otherwise use a second machine or a virtual machine.

1.11.3

WIFI/Internet connection

Big venues with plenty of people in it tend to have crappy internet. Think about
the internet connection you will need. Make sure you have an LTE backup, if
possible. Make sure your quota limit wont exceed during presentation. Make
sure you will be able to connect it might not work if youre presenting in the
basement. Even if all thinks should work, they might still fail. Prepare backup
slides or videos that cover the most important parts.

1.12 Prepare your session

Prepare your session. Ive seen plenty of talks at big conferences with crappy
unprepared speakers that didnt have a talking point and didnt seem to have
seen the slides they presented before. As an evangelist you are the public face of
Microsoft. Its your job to spend a big amount of time in preparing your session.
How much time depends on your skillset and your experience. If you have
repeating events with the same messaging it might seem appropriate that you
use your first public session as a test run to find out what your strength and
weakness are and to improve over time. Unfortunately this is not an option: You
are an evangelist - your first run has to be close to perfect and afterwards its
still your job to improve. Your audience deservers an excellent performance.
Here are some point that might help you preparing:

1.12.1

Take your time for preparation

Preparation takes as long as it takes. Make sure you plan for preparation time
when you sign up for a talk. Make sure you have a talking point thats worth the
time of your talk.

1.12.2

Mirror Practice

Do some mirror practicing or cold runs. You dont really have to stand in front of
a mirror, but make sure you talk loudly during the test runs, otherwise you wont
find the words you need, when you are presenting in front of an audience. An
excellent idea is to present to colleagues before to present to an external
audience.

Evangelist's guide through the galaxy (V. 1.0)

Author: Daniel Meixner
DX Germany

1.12.3

Prepare for blackouts

If you are planning demos with live coding make sure you have the code you
need backed up somewhere, e.g. in a .txt file on your desktop. In case of a
blackout, just copy and paste the code instead of live coding.

1.13 Backup Videos

From time to time demos fail completely. Prepare for this situation and have
either a good story you can tell then or a backup video or backup slides.

Evangelist's guide through the galaxy (V. 1.0)

Author: Daniel Meixner
DX Germany

2 During Events
2.1 At the booth
2.1.1 Engage with attendees
Engage with people who are in close distance to the booth (or you) and seem to
be afraid to ask for something. Youre working for Microsoft people might be
afraid to talk to you for a thousand reasons. Show them theres no real reason.

2.1.2 Dont hide behind your device

If you hide behind a smartphone or notebook people wont dare to talk to you. Be
open and dont check you mail at the booth.

2.1.3 Do housekeeping
Make sure you dont eat at your booth, you dont have drinks at the booth and
clean up your booth from time to time.

2.2 During discussions

2.2.1 Be friendly. Always!
People might be very upset for a million reasons. They even might be right with
it. And they even might be totally wrong and telling complete nonsense. Always
be friendly. Always show understanding. Always embrace feedback. Always show
that you care. Think solution oriented. A good way to do so is by asking for
details and more insights. You dont have to come up with solutions instantly but
try to help where you can.

2.2.2 Do not embarrass visitors!

Never ever. Even if the questions are really stupid. They will hate us afterwards. I
know that its tempting to make jokes, but the visitiors just might not
understand. Be careful here!

2.2.3 Do not blame all the fault to other Microsoft employees (or corp)!
Even when critisizm is very hard its highly unprofessional to point to someone
else and blame him when talking to a customer. It seems to be the easiest way
out of a lot of discussions but it just shows that a) you dont have impact b) you
dont trust your own company. None of it should be true. If it is, talk to your
manager after the event but dont make it a topic in public.

2.2.4 Listen & embrace feedback

Whenever people talk to you listen to what they tell you. Ask questions. Dont
talk them down.

2.3 On stage
Make sure you behave appropriate on stage. In Germany use Du or Sie as
appropriate. Dont bash competitors or colleagues or the audience or anybody
else. You are a professional speaker dont use rude slang or dirty words in front
of a professional audience.

Evangelist's guide through the galaxy (V. 1.0)

Author: Daniel Meixner
DX Germany

2.4 After your session

2.4.1 Be available.
Make sure the audience knows where to find you after your session. Be there and
bring time to discuss.

2.5 During the rest of the time

2.5.1 Meet with new people
Engage with people you never met before. They might have totally different
views and can give valuable feedback and insights.

2.5.2 Meet with targets

This might be hard. Try to find the people youve been looking for. Engage with
them. Keep your mission in mind.

2.5.3 Visit sessions

You need something to talk about later. The sessions of others might be a good
talking point. Dont backbite.

2.5.4 Note feedback

If you see/find something relevant for feedback and a good learning note it!

Evangelist's guide through the galaxy (V. 1.0)

Author: Daniel Meixner
DX Germany

3 Post Event
3.1 Event summary / report
Report your event to the DL by using the email template. If you find the time,
add details about the location and general event setup. Choose the To-Line
wisely. Probably there are plenty folks at Microsoft who just dont care. Dont
spam.

3.2 Feedback
3.2.1 Collect Feedback
Try to collect feedback from attendees to every aspect that is of interest for you
and that could help make the event better next time. Sometimes people dont
like to criticize, but the honest opinion of them is the only way to get better. Try
to get people in a 1 on 1 and just ask them to tell you highlights and lowlights. It
will be easier for them to tell the truth when they can also mention something
positive. Dont force them of course. Dont justify afterwards. Just note it and
make sure to consider it next time.

3.2.2 Read Feedback

Try to get the rating score for your session. Take it seriously and check out the
verbatims.

3.3 Social Media

Blog, tweet about the event. Maybe you can write a blog summary and upload
your slides to slideshare.

3.4 Follow Up
3.4.1 Social Media
Check social media for mentions. Engage with the attendees.

3.4.2 Questions
If there are questions left from the event, try to involve and answer them. Tweet
and blog about it, if you dont have a personal contact information.

3.5 Audit Success

Audit your success. What did you want to reach? Did you achieve it?

3.6 Lessons learned

Note the lessons learned. Share them in your team. Consider the notes next
time.

3.7 Reach out to DX Feedback

If you got feedback from a customer that qualifies for DX feedback, inform the
DX Feedback DL.

3.7.1 Reuse your topic

Now that youve done a talk on a session, maybe you can reuse the content in an
MVA course or a blogpost?

Evangelist's guide through the galaxy (V. 1.0)

Author: Daniel Meixner
DX Germany