Disclaimer
This list is not finite and does not claim to be the ultimate truth - I structured my experience in public speaking and chose the most universal tips, the implementation of which will make it almost guaranteed to make a speech at least not bad.
1. Report structure
Paradoxically, many speakers, even at cool conferences, often do not divide their presentation into three main parts - the formulation of the problem, steps taken, and conclusions. The structure may be more complicated, but the basic one is almost always the same, even if the conclusion is “we didn’t succeed”.
The key problem for the listener is the lack of an introductory part. He can draw conclusions himself, but starting late is difficult and unpleasant. He still did not understand that you will be talking about digestion, but you already need to delve into the structure of the epithelium of the small intestine. The result - your report does not reach the listener 100%, but has a chance to fly by completely.
2. Timing
Alas, not everyone rehearses to understand how long it will take to tell. By the length of the presentation and even the printed report, it is extremely difficult to determine the time of the speech if you do not try to tell him to the mirror / wife / sleeping child / co-rapporteur.
Do not get into timing is unpleasant - you feel uncomfortable, not respecting the right of others to speak (and sometimes even manage to grab pies with meat!), You start to rush and just spoil your performance
In the order of self-flagellation - I also do not know how. All my reports break through any time constraints. Therefore, I always try to be the last, if possible))
3. Who is he talking to?
Speakers love talking to the audience with an ass and a nape, at best a thigh and a temple.
There is only one correct arrangement of the speaker - facing the audience. To understand what is happening on the screen, or to signal to switch the slide (if suddenly there is no clicker), it is enough to cast one glance there and one nod of the head.
There is a problem - where to look? There are people there, and it is psychologically difficult to look into their eyes for both the speaker and the victim. Life hack - select one person in the center in the back row and look him in the forehead. Why in the back - so he does not understand that you are looking at him, the same eye position will be for the entire center of the back of the audience. Why in the forehead - there will be no eye contact, and you will not confuse anyone, and at the same time for the whole audience you will look into the hall, and not at the wall / ceiling.
Yes, yes, the following paragraph follows from this ...
4. Do not read from the screen
In addition to the aforementioned minus with the speaker's incorrect location, reading from the screen carries two unpleasant consequences.
First, the presenter loses contact with the audience. If you tell people without dementia, they read to themselves faster than you do out loud, and they are not waiting for you. You read the second point out of five and try to comment on it, and they read the fourth and don’t listen to you - they simply cannot do two things at the same time. Exit - replace the text with images, they are perceived quickly, and the listener is all yours. “I drew a beaver here because our new component is also sharpening fast.”
Second, the report becomes faceless. There is nothing to remember, nothing to catch on the eye. “Do you remember the report about a pulmonary thrombus?” - “Ah, this one with pictures from the“ House Doctor ”?” - “Aha!” Here it works! "The one with the blue letters on a gray background?". Camooon ...
5. Tips
Talking for 20 minutes on a given topic, focusing only on the pictures on the slides, is difficult. I have experience of several hundred speeches, and every time I forget one of the good thoughts recorded in advance in the notes to the slide. But I forget one of the twenty, and therefore the desire to gesticulate and generally have free hands win. I fully believe that an inexperienced speaker can forget half, and this means that without clues in any way.
If reading from the screen is haram, then what? From worst to best:
- A report printed on A4 - too large sheets, small print (or a bunch of sheets) knocks down for reading (but the goal is still to learn to speak live, with your real intonations, that is, to become a speaker, and not a voice actor)
- Cramming is a way out for one report, but a long-term dead end. The process itself is unpleasant, and most importantly - it does not bring you closer to the goal, you do not download the skill of public speaking. But it looks and sounds better than often turning to a large crumpled piece of paper
- Short hints in the phone - access to information is not in one step (the phone is blocked, the application is minimized), you can’t tactfully control the hints while looking at the room
- Cards the size of a third of A4, one per slide - close to ideal. On the card you can place a thumbnail of the slide (to understand what the hint is for) and a few keywords - bread crumbs that will allow you to remember the thought
- Speaker backup monitor - perfect. But not always
For speakers using prompts (other than a backup monitor), the microphone should be hands free. If for some reason he is not there, perhaps it’s worth the time to prepare a report so that he does not fuss and do not spoil it.
6. The quality of the pictures on the slides
Made a slide - moved four meters from the laptop screen and eight from the monitor. If you can’t see the details, something went wrong with the slide.
7. Live demonstration and in general about “I will do everything myself”
Speaker + live demo operator = dead number. "Sooooo, right now we click here ..." - bad. Ask for help from a friend, your team will hardly refuse to help.
Using videos instead of a live demonstration is a good option, but you also need a separate operator for it, because at least at the stage of questions, you may need to rewind. A presenter should not use anything at all except a clicker to switch slides.
8. Speech quality
Smooth, coherent, beautiful speech is one of the main goals of public speaking (along with show off). Everyone has a different starting skill, but it is quickly pumped at first, so the torment is worth it.
If you are not sure that you can do without “eeeee”, “nuuu” and pauses for 16 seconds to select a word - move on. If not, write a report on a piece of paper. Everyone has written speech better than spoken, because the written can be re-read and corrected, and the word is not a sparrow.
What’s next is for everyone to decide, but ideally rehearse in front of an adult (a mirror and a sleeping child will not work, you need a feedback) and decide what is enough for you - to burn skills and experience from a sheet, cards with keywords or still need to be in addition to tips 10-15 times to read the report, so that its base subsides in the head.
9. Who is my audience?
The speaker should ask himself this question and evaluate whether his story gets into the audience.
Is it necessary to dig here very deeply to the level of the code, or is it just worth talking about profits (so that analysts and managers understand why it is needed) and invite interested programmers to grind about the details during a coffee break? Depends on what conference you are at.
Should the report on the basics of investing for an unprepared audience use the words “issuer”, “short-circuit” and talk about the positions of US presidential candidates in relation to oil production? No, it looks like a self-PR, but zero benefits.
10. Contact with the audience
Perhaps it is not worth crawling right away, but reports of “above average” level should be accompanied by dialogue with the audience. Provoke laughs and sighs, ask rhetorical and very specific questions, do not be afraid to get silence in response - bewilderment is also a reaction. So your report will settle in your head better, and you will get much more buzz. Dialogue is always more pleasant than a monologue, and to get nourishment of non-verbal approval from dozens of eyes in the middle of the story is priceless, it is an injection of dopamine directly into the drying brain.
11. Author's style
If you feel that your skills are at a good average level, or you just want it - develop your own rules for presentation and report design.
This applies to everything - how to insert pictures and align elements on slides, what font / color to make headings, how to make out content changes on pages and the like. Advice - do not get carried away very much by gifs, they unnecessarily distract from your words, especially if they are really funny. One or two per report, and preferably either a splash screen (until you say something important), or where they really illustrate the idea very well.
And, of course, this applies to speech (although it’s much more complicated here) - how will you joke, how will you distort the language for your own purposes, what turns of speech and memos will become your trademark and in general whom you will play (because this is a scene, and therefore a bit of acting).
Let's not finish
Go to the comments to tell why my selection is not very, and I will be happy to oppose.