Yes, my opening line was often about how nervous I was speaking in front of a large group of people at a dinner. "People always told me, 'imagine the audience naked.' So right now I'm looking at 300 naked farmers with knives. I'm thinking this speech had better be good." It always helps to get them on your side early in the talk.

Paul pretty well nailed it. Never forget that you are the expert, or you had damn well better be before the speech.:D. I used to have to present quarterly financial results (not my forte) to a hostile audience of VP level and above people who were determined to try and poke holes in my presentation. My mantra, stolen from a company called Insignium, was “be brief, be bright, be gone”. And worst case my wife’s words of wisdom were, “just remember, they can’t kill you”. Thanks dear!

It does not bother me like it once did. Holler if you are in Sacramento

I do this all the time. I did a presentation for our engineering. And sales guys this morning (only about 60 people). I’ve presented at technical conferences all over the world.

Do NOT read your slides. Don’t be afraid to go back and forth with your slides (this makes presenters nervous but really shows you know your content and are comfortable with it).

One of the best professional development courses I ever took was ‘Corporate Storytelling’. If you can get your company to find this course, you will love it.

The best presentation ever has 3-4 captivating slides.

Do NOT end with ‘Any Questions’. Instead use ‘What do you think?’ This captivated discussion whereas any questions can be answered with a simple ‘no’.

Ok. I was a speech major.

1. No uhs, ums, or ahs.
2. Practice until you own it. I prefer an outline
3. Get some slides. Put funny crap on them.
4. This is a skill. Just like other things, you can learn this.

If you do the above, you will kill it. All the other engineer geeks will secretly hate you because you were so killer at this.

Practice the presentation several times. It will help. You will not say exactly what you memorized and there will be several 'versions' in your head, but it will make it fluent.

If you work with slides, have key words you recognize to guide you along, including a key word that reminds you what is on the next slide, so you can smoothly transition.

I never had big issues with crowds. I had to read in church as an altar boy, I think it helped to get used to the idea early. If you have kids, make sure they have public speaking opportunities. In the US this is done in school, which I think is great. Other countries, not so much.

G

well..it's official.

i will be traveling around CA. should be fun!! i am going to be super busy at least. doing my regular gig and prepping for this teaching this class.

there are 8 instructors. lots of control freaks. should be interesting. haha.

You got this.

One word: Propanolol.

Propranolol (Inderal) Possible Benefits. Used for short-term relief of social anxiety. May reduce some peripheral symptoms of anxiety, such as tachycardia and sweating, and general tension, can help control symptoms of stage fright and public-speaking fears, has few side effects.

They should rename that to "PropanoLOL"

I was a technical instructor for years. I taught Microsoft engineers about their products, on the MS campus.

You don't need drugs, and there is nothing to worry about. You are an expert in a technical field. This is about the subject matter. The folks in the audience want to hear what you have to say, and you have the experience to back it up.

Introduce yourself, spend a few minutes explaining what you are going to talk about. If your are funny, use that. If you aren't, don't. You can put people at ease by giving them a road map of when you will be taking breaks. Sounds silly, but often times people primary concerns when listening to a talk are A) when will I get to pee B) when will I get to refill my coffee C) when can I smoke.

Don't move on from major subjects without asking if people have questions. If you don't know the answer, so what? I would throw it to the crowd. "I'm not sure, anyone else know?" If no one else knew, I would write it down, and tell them I would find out. Some instructors like to write unanswered questions up on the whiteboard.

You got this.

Oh, and I advocate taking a quick break (5 minutes) every hour, then a longer 15 minute break to divide the morning and afternoon sessions.

Inexperienced speakers talk too fast. Pause every time you say something important and then.....

Pause again. Let it sink in.

Decide the three things (or less. no more than three) that you want them to remember. Weave the entire presentation around those three things. Say them repeatedly, and pause.

Yup. I suffer from the "turn a 30 min presentation into a 10 min one by talking 3x faster". It's soooo hard to slow down and coalesce to the big takeaways.

I find inspiration in watching my peers. Some are technically incompetent but are masters at presentation. One in particular, when we all go to DC once a year to give program updates, leaves me opening my wallet and thinking that it would make the most sense if she took all of my money too.

Said before, you're the expert. You wouldn't be there if you sucked...

HardDrive's comments along with lots of others are very good. I practiced in front of a mirror a few times, dressed like I would for the presentation, and with materials arranged as they would be for it. You don't have to do the whole thing, but a five or so minute stretch of practicing & watching yourself & how your stance, materials, & presentation fit together sometimes helps a lot to give you ideas.

Do it semi-regularly. Personal record was presenting to about 1500 Wall Street types at the Waldorf in NYC. I know my subject matter and I keep it casual. If you need inspiration, go watch any number of TED talks on YouTube. Good luck.

i am trying something new.

i want to be the presentation..not the powerpoint behind me. i am building a pretty sparse presentation. my supervisors hate it so far...it looks barren. it isnt and there seems to be a billion slides.

for example, if the presentation is about cars..i feel it isnt neccesary to have a slide showing, "now this is a car. here are the tires..."

we should all know what a effen car is.

this is more work than i imagined. i still have my regular work. but now i have to go to sacramento monthy for overnight stays in some crap hotel to work on the training.

just awful. the public speaking is apparently NOT the challenging part..so far.

The travel is part of the reason I parred down my speaking engagements...they are a lot of work done properly.

I am on a panel with an boss of mine in SC in October. Last one for at least six months.