Assuming you have the content worked out…

1. By all means glance at your slides to remind yourself but talk to your audience. No it’s not
2. Try to look everyone in the eye; it keeps them awake. But find out who the big cheese is and give them a bit more attention All 150?
3. Don’t hold anything. You will fiddle with anything you hold. Check out the body language of Guy Kawasaki, possibly one of the most gifted natural presenters, and he’s holding something! 😯

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3xaeVXTSBg[/video]

Don’t be scared to put up a blank slide (or hit “B” on the keyboard in ppt) mid way if you want people to listen not look.

Yes, I just discovered that tactic. Really effective.

Google “Steve Jobs presentation” Even the biggest Apple-hater has to admit he gives a good presentation!

Some good tips from all the above. Take it steady, be enthusiastic, know your stuff.

And don’t overdo it on the PowerPoint – definitely go with the less is more. This is one of the funnier takes on how people get carried away with it:
Life After Death By PowerPoint

Have fun!

couple of points from my experience. May not be relevant strictly to this current discussion but as we’re offering generaL advice too…

I often present to groups of 50-100 at a time, and often where 75% of the audience don’t have English as their mother tongue.

In this case using very simple slides and discussing the aspects verbally can be an issue. You need to temper good presentation skills with getting the understanding over, so in these cases a bit more slide detail may be a good thing; yes some people will be reading and not listening to you speaking but if they can’t understand exactly what it is you’re saying anyway is that such a crime?

Second. Whatever your audience, keep it simple. Don’t assume everyone knows all the jargon / acronyms, and it’s not a contest to show how much of the dictionary you’ve read. At best you’ll look like a show-off, at worst someone will standup and shout bingo when you deliver the right buzzword. Better for half the audience to think it was a bit undertechnical but the other half thought it was perfect than for half to have enjoyed it and the other half have it go right over their heads (the ones who found it undertechnical probably knew it anyway)

Lastly – be confident. It’s a group of your colleagues, they want to be informed and yes, entertained. It’s a different matter at an industry wide conference ime, where your competitors will be looking to try to discredit your talk for their gain.

Hi thanks for all the advice, some of it proved really really helpful.

I also found some videos on youtube that told me what to do with my hands.

In the end all my powerpoint had a title, a diagram and a key learning at the bottom.

I rehearsed the speech about 6 or 7 times including one this morning to my boss. There were 4 or 5 very senior people in the audience and 2 of them complemented me on the presentation afterwards so it must have been OK!

The only time my nerves got the better of me was after my summary, when I stood there in silence and said ‘I have finished now, so it OK to clap’ luckily a lot of people saw the funny side!

Well done, it’s not easy but with the right prep you can make it easier on yourself.

The only time my nerves got the better of me was after my summary, when I stood there in silence and said ‘I have finished now, so it OK to clap’ luckily a lot of people saw the funny side!

Nice one. 😀