What's your best advice for giving talks and presentations?

I look at people’s foreheads. It helps me to ignore them, but they think that I am looking them in the eye. I usually like public speaking so I don’t know if that is helpful or not. I always feel the best when I know my lines well though. Confidence in your subject matter is key. I know how smart you are, so I think you will do great. :-)

I sugesst reading the Dale Carnegie The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking my mother had taken the courses and let me borrow the books and this one helped me when I needed to do presentations for my Six Sigma Greenbelt.

I think I have an idea what your presentation is. Be prepared. Know your topic (and I know you have been working on a very important document and suspect they are connected and if they are, you DO know your topic). Keep in mind what the purpose of the presentation is. Are you trying to persuade people that you have a good project, you have a plan and your plan is manageable within the time frame and there is a need for it? If so, make sure you have the purpose in mind and address the concerns people may have.

Breath… take your time… if you feel anxiety is taking over… take a second to calm down.

If it is what I think it is, you will be fine. You seem to be a very thorough person to me and very organised.

Imagine that each person in the room is a jelly. Talk to the jellies, not the professors. And use words we can understand. And explain the pictures. But please don’t read to us. We’re jellies. We want you to talk to us, not talk at us.

I hate giving talks too. People always say I do it well, but I feel like I’m blathering and stammering and talking incoherently. People say I don’t sound like that to them.

Here are some things I do that make it a little easier:

(1) Print out a copy of your slides, a full page apiece, and make notes on them to remind you of comments you want to add and transitions to the next slide. Write large so you can read it without holding it up in front of your face. Use a highlighter to remind you of what to emphasize. You can peek ahead while you’re talking so you move smoothly from one to the next. Staple or clamp them together firmly so the pages don’t get away from you.

(2) Rehearse enough times that you can speak fluently and feel in command of your material. You can rehearse without an audience after you have worn out the patience of your SO, your mother, and your dog.

(3) Can you sit down and speak to your group at eye level? That always helps me.

(4) Don’t be afraid of speaking too loud. Remind yourself to practically shout. Use your playground voice. A presentation coach once made everyone in the room stand up in turn and speak at a high volume and asked, “Do you feel like you’re shouting?” “Yes.” Then she asked the others: “Is that too loud?” Everybody said no.

(5) If appropriate, recap at key points along the way before going forward.

(6) Include pauses. If necessary, write “Pause” in your notes. Give them time to absorb things.

(7) Be very sure you’ve mastered your finish.

One manager listened to me whine about how badly I felt I’d done with a presentation, told me I’d actually done really well, and then said, “You know what? It’s fine not to be so polished. You’ve heard Christie give presentations, right?”

“Yes,” I said. “She stumbles and fumbles all over the place, loses her place, forgets what she was going to say, has the wrong slide up next…”

My manager said: “Yes, and she has everybody’s sympathy when she does it. They all know what that feels like. And you, you just get up there and breeze through like it was nothing…”

“But I’ve rehearsed for hours to sound like that!”

“I know that,” said my wise manager, “but they don’t. They just think it’s easy for you. So you don’t need the sympathy. Christie does, and she gets it. That makes them very receptive to her. Why don’t you try being a little less perfect?”

Practice, practice…practice! Also have an ice-breaker joke, personal story or anecdote to get your groups attention. Then show em your stuff! Video tape it too and watch it. I bet you do better than you think you do!

You’ve got some really good ideas here. The only thing I can add is to practice in front of a mirror. It will get you used to the idea of people watching you.

Good luck! You’ll be great!

And don’t forget to breathe.

:)

Relax. The world does not hang on how well you give your talk.

It’s an old chestnut, but if the people you are giving the talk to are important, imagine them naked. That will be so ridiculous that you will smile.

Ask yourself the question, “What would @bob_ do?”:

1. Remind yourself that you’re fuckin’ smart.

2. Since they’re not grading your public speaking skills, it’s okay to stumble every now and then. They’ve been through the same, so they’re likely to have some empathy. The important thing is the content of the message. You know the content (see Point 1), so think of it as a conversation with five of your peers instead of a public speech.

3. Don’t read off the slides. Have some cards with an outline of the most important points.

4. Jokes are good, but know your audience. If they look pissed, then you should probably skip them.

5. Relax. You’re fuckin’ smart, you’ll be fine.

In my case, I can relax only after I’ve done all the exhaustive preparation. That and nothing else is what gives me the confidence to breathe easy.

Just last week I heard a very smart woman who knew her subject give a terrible presentation: rambling, disjointed, lacking in context and transitions, and, worst of all, boring. I doubt that she’d rehearsed it even once, and she couldn’t have had a peer give her feedback. Otherwise how could she have shown us a slide with an example of some work she did, and say “I worked on this project, and it was very interesting,” without telling us what it was, what she did, or what was interesting about it? Next slide.

Just project the same @nikipedia that you do on Fluther.

You don’t seem to have any problem getting your point across here.

lol. pretend you’re talking to me.

I hate giving talks and presentations and haven’t done many but would suggest the following…

Know what you want to say. Straight from the Department of the Bleedin’ Obvious perhaps but there is no point in even giving a talk unless you have something you want to say. Be clear in your mind what you want to get across.

Know your audience. Adjust your presentation to suit your audience to ensure understanding.

Keep it simple. I’m sorry but most of what you say will be forgotten almost as soon as you say it. Don’t talk too much and talk slowly and clearly.

Leave time for questions and perhaps distribute copies of those text heavy slides and finally, good luck!

You’ve gotten excellent advice here, mainly: Practice, practice, practice. If you find you’re still having incredible anxiety after all of your practice, you might want to take a low dose of Xanax about 30 minutes before your presentation. I’m sure you and your enormous brain will do just fine, though. :)

I would actually say though, and I have been speaking publicly for years, don’t practice so much you appear wooden. You don’t want to speak as if you know every word you are going to say. Keep it natural. Know the themes you want to discuss and practice talking to the key points you want to make. Don’t learn every word of your presentation.

You will be fine!!

How about thinking like you’re walking into a room of jellies and you need to explain your post? Have a conversation with your audience.

I’m extremely shy in person, but love public speaking. I just think of it as a chat with the audience.

Ok. I have practiced a bunch in front of my boyfriend, all of my coworkers, and another friend.

Feedback has been generally positive.

I will print out a copy of everything in the morning and add some final notes.

Thank you all for your advice. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Please do @nikipedia. I was going to send you a message wishing you well.

Now that you’re so well prepared, @nikipedia, you’ll do just fine. I hope it brings you the results you want.

Good luck, girlie!

And?

It went ok. I don’t think I blew anyone away. But I got through it successfully.

Congratulations!

Good job. It’ll go easier next time.

I’m glad it went well, and you didn’t pass out. :)