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6 July 2006
Speaking & Events

Public Speaking Tips

I got an email from a friend a couple of days ago asking for advice about public speaking. Now I'm no expert, but I have spoken at a few conferences recently, so I thought it may be useful to share my thoughts online, just incase any of you have to give a speak or presentation.

I guess my top tip is be prepared. I know many speakers who prepare their notes the night before they talk, or even just before they speak, and this seems to work for them. However if I took this approach I'd be a mess.

I start thinking about my talk several months in advance and start jotting down notes a good 4-6 weeks before the event. I write everything out in as much details as possible, almost like a transcript, and then read the notes out-loud several times. Once I'm happy with the basic structure I'll move everything into Keynote.

The first couple of times I spoke, I literally wrote everything I was going to say in bullet-point form on my slides. However while these provide you with an excellent prompt, they are pretty dull for the attendees. As such, I've started to pair my slides down so they just show the bare minimum, and dump everything else in the notes section of Keynote.

The next thing I do is to run though the slides and time myself to check the amount of material. It's fine having too much material as you can always skip over bits. However there is nothing worse than running out of material and having to tread water for 30 minutes. When you get on stage you'll most likely be a little nervous and talk faster than normal. As such, you'll need to be conservative with your timing. If it takes you 45 minutes to go through your slides when relaxed, it'll probably only take 30 minutes on the day. Usually I'll slightly underestimate the amount of material I have, so will usually go back and expand my notes or add a couple of extra slides.

I'll then read through the slides again out-loud again, and again, and again. I like to run through my presentation at least three times so I'm confident I know the material. Practice makes perfect, so the more times you can test the presentation the better. Try doing the presentation in front of a small group of friends and colleagues first. This will get you used to presenting the material to a group of people, and should hopefully elicit some feedback and suggestions.

People tend to have fairly short attention spans, especially if it's just after lunch or nearing the end of the day. This is why I try to add visual interest to my slides. Good quality, and preferably funny pictures help people keep interest. Pictures of people are always good as we're naturally programmed to respond to happy, smiling faces. If the pictures you use can back up the theme or concept in some way, even better.

Once the slides are done, I tend to leave them alone and blank them out. Some people like to continuously tweak their slides up to the last minute, but I find this makes me a little agitated. The more you think about having to speak the more anxious you get. As such, I stick my head in the sand and completely ignore the fact that I have to speak in front of a room full of people. I can usually blank this out until about half an hour before going on, by which time it's too late to worry. You just get up, do your things and hope all the planning has worked out for the best.

I subscribe to Jeff Veen's notion of being slightly smarter dressed than your audience. So if everybody is in shorts, you wear jeans, if everybody is in jeans, you wear some smart trousers. This helps set up an expectation of authority with your audience, as well as making you feel a bit more confident about yourself. I also find a good haircut a couple of days before helps.

I also agree with Jeff that stories are a very powerful tool. The human race are natural born story tellers and we like noting better than a good yarn. Rather than simply explaining why something is a certain way, put it into context with a story. When people leave the conference, they probably won't remember all your bullet points, but a good story will stay with them for years.

Getting up in front of a room full of people isn't the most comfortable or relaxing thing you can do, so the natural tendency is to try and get it over with as quickly as possible. As such, your talking pace will quicken and you'll start to um and er a lot. II know because I'm guilty of doing this as well. You don't know you're doing it at the time, but it really stands out on the podcasts afterwards. This sounds like obvious advice, but the way to combat this is to slow down and make plenty of strategic pauses. For a speaker, silence can be intimidating. However pausing for a few seconds after each important point helps the information sink in and improves the flow of the presentation. I also find it helps making eye contact with people in the audience. Doing this helps you engage the audience and can also reduce your nerves as you feel like your talking to individuals rather than a mass of people.

Here are a few more resources to get you started. If you have some of your own suggestions, please feel free to chip in.