Just a few thoughts on a subject that terrifies most people. My best performances have come when I remembered these simple little points:
10 Pointers
- Ratio of preparation to speaking about 12:1.
- Talk at your audience and spray your eyes around the room, pause to focus on a few people for effect.
- Tune up your humility and tone down your ego.
- Always tell a story.
- Speak at 50% of your normal conversational voice.
- Every 15 min do something dramatic to change the pace – you are about to lose your audience.
- The audience are there to have fun, learn and possibly be entertained. They are not there to embarrass you.
- If using slides – write your key story line of each slide and read that instead of the bullet point.
- And if you find yourself using more than 15 slides – curate.
- And use very few bullet points if any – plenty of big bold images like this.
and oh yes, smile a lot and always end on time!
