I have been asked to do a presentation at a conference. HELP!!!!!

organic355 – Member

Use the presentation itself as prompts.
dont have too much information on each slide

each bullet point should prompt you to speak about the topic

Practice, practice, practice

yup, that's pretty muich it.
keep the slides simple and use them to reinforce what you're talking about at the time. That way they act as reminders to the audiencce and prompts to you.
Do NOT read off cards, use the presentation, it means you're not fannying about with someoething else and keeps things flowing.
It's hard to gauge pitch, but talk to the back of the room, you want everyone to hear you.
Don't get drunk the night before, hangovers don't help (I know)
Finally, remember, tou're there to deliver the presentation so it's about you not the Powerpoint.

I have to use a powerpoint because i want to show people screen shots etc…

That is the perfect kind of thing to stick in a powerpoint presentation – don't use a template and stick loads of crap around the edges, just stick in the screenshots full screen and talk about them. If you're talking about a picture, anything other than the picture is wasted screen space, especially when you're giving a large presentation, where people at the back will want to see the pictues too.

each bullet point should prompt you to speak about the topic

If you are using the bullet points on the screen as prompts, just put them on your prompt cards, get rid of the bullet points. As long as you speak clearly, people will listen to you. There's actually evidence that sticking text on your slides that you then talk about has been shown to decrease the amount people remember compared to just using pictures on your visual aids.

If you are using a laptop to present on, learn how to setup dual screen mode, and powerpoint presenter view. That way, you get to see a screen with a small version of your slide, notes for each slide, and most importantly a timer showing how long you've spoken for, so you can pace well. Don't overrun your time – it is rude and shows a lack of respect for your audience, and also you inevitably lose the audience as they are looking at their watches, and nothing goes in. There is nothing wrong with going short on your time though – if what you have to say can be said in 10 minutes, don't make a 15 minute presentation, make a 10 minute presentation. Remember, whilst you're asked to do a presentation for a bunch of people, the questions people ask afterwards can really be useful for you – as a presenter, the most important bit is the questions, if you present too short, you get more of the useful stuff (or everyone gets to go to the coffee break early, which makes you popular).

Personally, I write notes for presentations, but I don't actually practice them – I think the best presentations are ones that seem like they're off the cuff, but are concise, entertaining, and include all the important points and no filler. Having said that, I've done tons of them in my time, and a fair bit of stand up in front of people type performing of other kinds too, which really helps. The best practice I ever got for doing presentations was doing juggling acts in front of large numbers of people, which I've done a few times – compared to that, standing in front of a bunch of people telling them about my work is pretty easy – I mean you hardly ever drop all the balls and make a fool of yourself!

I guess thinking about it, how I do a presentation is:
1) Know what you're talking about, back to front.
2) Work out a list of things you have to tell people.
3) Put the list of things in an order as if they were a story and group them (you've already done this with your 3 headings I guess).
4) The way things group up in some way relates to the slides you have, so make a visual aid for each group.
5)Talk about each slide in order. Keep an eye on the clock.

Joe