I have to present to a conference of about 150 people on Tuesday, never talked to a room that big before, anyone got any tips to stop me going to pieces and not sound like an idiot

*Know your shizzle.
*Make sure you do not speak too fast.
*Select spots in the room you will allow your gaze to fall.
*Finish early (everyone likes that).

Last one I did was on a subject I knew little about, in front of 200 key business leaders (i.e. 50% mafia) in Lithuania.

Look sharp and get your IT sorted well beforehand.

Don’t try and ben funny if you are not funny. In fact even if you are a stand up don’t try and be funny. EVER.

Again, know your shizzle!

Have a few bevvies before hand and all will be reet.

😉

OOh that’s short notice….

Tell em what you’re gonna say, say it, then tell em what you said. Basic, but it works.

How long have you got? What’s your subject? Is it an informed audience? Will you have/ do you want to use PPt?

As above really – if you know your stuff you’ll come over far more confidently. If using powerpoint no fancy fades, twirls or noises, just stick the slide up and talk round the points – don’t read the slide
Scan the room every so often as you talk – people think you’re making eye contact and including them (don’t spend your whole time twirling your eyes like mad-eye moody though). If you’re using a laser pointer don’t blind half the front row like I saw someone do once – people were ducking as he swung round, laser blasting away….

Good luck

When you first get up to the front…stop. Then stop again.

Your mind will be trying to race away with the adrenalin, focussing on that second ‘stop’ will give you time to catch up (I know this sounds stupid, but it does work)

Remember, a couple of seconds silence will seem like an eternity. (edit – you you…the audience won’t even notice) Don’t worry about leaving pauses. You may feel nervous, but your audience won’t pick that up. Think swan…graceful on the surface but frantic underwater 😀

The first word is the hardest. Smile as you start speaking, and that’s half the battle. You’ll enjoy it when you get into your stride, nothing beats that rush of delivering to a large group.

Slides – I’m sure you have a great presentation…just remember less is more. If you are using powerpoint/keynote, keep it simple. Get rid of all the fancy transitions and keep 1 key thing on each slide.

As OMITN said, know your stuff. When (if) you get questions at the end…remember TRACT (thank, rephrase, answer, confirm understanding, thanks again). The 1st thank and rephrase will give you plenty of time to get the answer straight in your head before saying it out loud.

Above all though, enjoy it. Nerves are good, and what’s the worst thing that can happen. You wouldn’t have been approached to do it if you weren’t the main man. 8)

Make sure you practice the presentation with a couple of run throughs before you have to give it. That way you will be confident it makes sense and know that the timings work.

As said above, make sure your IT set up works and keep the powerpoint aspect simple.

Spell-check your Power Point 😛

Talk slower than you think you need to.

Pause occasionally – count to 5 in your head. Seems like a long time when you’re stood there, but it’s not.

At an absolute maximum, no more than 1 slide a minute. That still a *lot* of slides. No more than 1 slide every 2 mins is a more sensible *maximum*.

Assuming the audience don’t get a copy of the slides for notes afterwards (depends what the presentation is) try and not have slides with (any) text on. If you put text on a slide, have a good hard think and ask yourself “could I say this instead?” If so, say it! You’re giving a talk, not showing a dull text-based stop motion film!

If people are frowning at you THIS IS A GOOD THING. It means they’re thinking. Quick experiment for you. Find a mirror. Look at your self and nod and smile a lot – looks like you’re not paying attention, doesn’t it? Put on your best “thinking hard” face. Looks like you’re frowning doesn’t it?

If you’re talking longer than 15 mins or so, consciously try and change tone or pace at set points in the talk. Keeps people interested and stops you droning on.

If you can, warm up by talking to someone/yourself loudly for a few mins before you go on. If you go from nothing to public speaking you’re not warmed up. You’ll be too quiet and speak too fast. You’ll notice people tend to get slower, and louder as they go on.. their “speaking muscles” have warmed up.

Make sure you practice the presentation with a couple of run throughs before you have to give it.

But practice to a tame audience. Makes you do it properly.

Failing this, got a webcam in your laptop? Perfect. Turn it on, set it recording and give the presentation. Watch your recording afterwards, see what you did wrong. Do it again, better.

if you’re using powerpoint (lets hope not), the slides are for the audience not you, you shouldn’t need to look at them. speak slowly. tell them what they need to know about the subject, not all that you know about the subject, speak slowly. practice the timing. pretend you’re talking to someone in a bar who as asked about ‘XYZ’

Ignore all of that.

Either have some enthusiasm/passion for what you are going to talk about..or don’t bother doing it. If you can get that over, people will listen to what you have to say…and also you’ll have the drive to say it.

Plenty of people follow the presenting to people 101 but still leave the audience cold.

Make sure you start the slideshow, I’ve seen far too many people present in Powerpoint edit view.
Don’t start with “I’ve got a lot of slides to get through…” or “this is not my presentation so we can muddle through it together…” All seen recently by me.

If you’re using PowerPoint (or KeyNote) then check out: Beyond Bullet Points – his book is brilliant on how to get your message across while keeping you engaged with your audience.

As others have said;

– know your shizzle
– add some passion/enthusiasm/dynamism
– ask questions/”hands up anyone who …”

Another basic premise is to get the audience onside straight away by illustrating the problems/challenges/issues or whatever it is that you’re addressing. That way, if they’re genuinely interested in knowing more, then they’ll at least give you a chance to do your stuff. If they’re not interested then they shouldn’t be there in the first place.

Practice loads. I find it helps to actually speak it aloud when I practice.

Know the content off by hart and anticipate any obvious questions.

If possible, try and aim it at a level that captures the interest of as much as the audience as possible.

Make sure you are within the time given so you are not worried about that.

Don’t put much text on the slides. People prefer pictures, charts and videos.

Generally, if in doubt, keep it simple.

Remember, after the first 2 slides 90% of the room won’t be listening.

Speak slowly, pronouce carefully, but keep smiling and look relaxed (even if you are bricking it inside!).

How long have you got? What’s your subject? Is it an informed audience? Will you have/ do you want to use PPt?

15 minutes on Smart metering with powerpoint, to an internal audience from marketing, finance and IT, so informed, potentially more so than me. And yes, I have written my slides in a tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them format.

clip-art….. people love clip art 😆

ask everyone in the audience to stand up one-by-one and tell everyone a their name and a little bit about themselves, makes everyone equal

take a hammer to whack the desk with loudly if you notice anyone loosing interest

if you’re using a little microphone… make sure you practice beatboxing into it before starting, and wear it to the bathroom afterwards whilst you mutter stuff about that fat one at the front who you knew everyone could smell from the back of the room… audiences love that.

HTH x

Make them have to listen to you, not read the slides – IME don’t be German…

Start with the main message you want to get across and then tell the story behind it. Much better than building to the conclusions as some will be bored by then. Hit them with it on the 1st or second slide.

Remember, after the first 2 slides 90% of the room won’t be listening.

BTW It’s the venue layout that tends to make me nervous, not the number of people.

Recently I’ve been much more relaxed in a hugh dark room presenting to >1000 people, than I have in a small lecture theatre presenting to about 30 where I could see the whites of their eyes.

Usually as soon as I see the venue I pysche myself into a relaxed or nervous state!

Another bit of advice – accept that you will be at least a bit nervous beforehand and learn that it won’t affect your performace.

15 minutes is ideally only about 5 slides or so anyhow, so the first 2 can have most of the message.

15 minutes shouldn’t mean 40 slides and a 5 min video…whilst presenting in a 2nd language… seen this recently. I’ve no idea what they were thinking to even try and get through that much. They got to slide 18 and were chased off the stage…

I do quite a bit of work coaching for presentations, some good advice above. send me an email to info @ simoncarter.es if you want some more pointers and I’ll see what I can do.

‘Remember, after the first 2 slides 90% of the room won’t be listening.’

This is more to do with convincing yourself that not every single person in the room will care if you make a minor mistake like mispronouncing a word or talking about something in slighlty a different order than you had prepared. Basically to put things in perspective to keep you relaxed.

Looks like you’re sorted then, loads of useful stuff up there^^^ . You’ll be fine. Prepare (ncluding stuff about the venue/ technology etc), practice, have a strategy for nerves if you need one, see if you can enjoy it, and congratulate yourself when it’s done.

After years of having to give and be on the receiving end of presentations I think there are very few natural presenters out there, most of us have to employ a whole set of tactics to survive, some lucky ones get comfortable with it and even get good at it. Good luck. 🙂

Thanks for all the replies everyone, some useful stuff.

I’ve got 5 slides, so 3 minutes per slide, it will be a well lit auditorium.

I’m going to visualise the entire audience as naked

Most importantly; DO NOT TALK TO THE SLIDES. They cannot hear you.

Get your knob gags in early.

Rehearse the opening thoroughly to get off to a good start. Once you’re in the flow you’ll be fine. Use the slides as your cues don’t use cue cards or notes

flies…done up…check

5 slides for 15 minutes is good.
Practice in front of a recorder first, it’s amazing how much longer it takes than you think it will.

Smart metering?
I was THE expert in that once upon a time.

Some potentially controvertial suggestions which don’t come out of Powerpoint Presentations for Dummies:

15 minutes on Smart metering with powerpoint, to an internal audience from marketing, finance and IT, so informed, potentially more so than me. And yes, I have written my slides in a tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them format.

I’m thoroughly unconvinced that in a 15 minute presentation you need to waste 2-3 minutes telling them “the agenda” and then another 2-3 minutes “recapping”. That sort of stuff is OK if you’re talking for a long time – but otherwise it seems like you think the audience are a bit thick!

I don’t think I’ve read “beyond bullet points” but there is a very short ebook (I’ll try and find later) which is quite good (with a pinch of salt) and says “NO BULLET POINTS AT ALL”!

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. Visual aids are useful, but can be distracting.

And don’t feel less slides is better. With powerpoint and very simple slides, you can use more slides to make the same point effectively. 5 slides means you’ve a lot of talking on each one.

Whilst I generally have practiced anything critical, and usually have a rough idea what I will say, I rarely have a detailed script, BUT I always know what my opening sentence will be and what my closing sentence will be.

If you get nervous then imagine the audience naked, unless you are presenting to 150 school kids.

Remember, just imagine you’re naked.

I think this is the ebook I was recalling: http://www.sethgodin.com/freeprize/reallybad-1.pdf

How many more times do we need to say that PowerPoint is misused before people take it onboard?

As said above, know your subject inside out. As a youf I had to do big marketing presentations to execs above me. On one occasion I had to present a project I knew very little about and hadn’t much researched, it all fell apart half way thru, it was a terrible experience. I know people who can bu11shit their way thru anything, most people can’t, so research and know your subject like it’s the only thing you’ve been doing for months. If your good at bu11shit then you can fill in the details without much stress.

Other tips, move about a little bit, move from one side of the stage to the other, or forwards at an important point. But not too much!

I seem to always get some moron in the audience who tries to prove they know more than me by asking me questions that they know I dont know, generally on some obscure technical tangent. I’ve found if you stare in silence at them for a bit they get uncomfortable and often answer their own question or a friend comes to their rescue….

If you have a rude audience or start to have people talking don;t be afraid to ask them to keep quiet as it will be really frustrating for those that are interested.

Presenting at my current company is certainly an eye-opener. I mean who thinks it is okay to eat a bag of noisy crisps during someones pitch?!?

Assuming you have the content worked out…

1. By all means glance at your slides to remind yourself but talk to your audience.
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
3. Don’t hold anything. You will fiddle with anything you hold.

You will be awesome.

Preparation preparation preparation.

Know your stuff – what worries my is I can now give 60min plus talks on the day job fairly much off the top of my head but only if people ask for that long.

I dislike poor graphics and pictures – halfway is no way to do it. I crop all my photos to the same ratio so when one replaces another it doesnt jump around the slide.

Don’t bullshit do reason.