Comments on: Avoiding podium panic: One presenter’s cheat sheet

By: chrystie

chrystie — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 18:21:37 +0000

interesting! i actually did my last program with an outline, as you say, and very little practice, and it went quite well (i think). maybe you’re on to something…

By: Meredith

Meredith — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 20:19:20 +0000

Chrystie, for the first year that I presented, I did that as well. I started to find that it actually added to my nervousness when I did that, as I felt like I had to stick to the script and was less comfortable ad-libbing. I switched to writing a very basic outline and practicing the talk a bunch of times. Then I gave up the outline and just practiced. Now, I practice my talk perhaps once before doing it and my talks usually end up changing every time I give them because I’ll throw in some anecdote I hadn’t thought of before. But it took a while to get to this point. I think the goal is to challenge yourself a bit more each time by giving up a piece of your safety net.

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 08:47:31 +0000

Thanks for the comment, Meredith. There’s a reason “be prepared” is the boy scout motto. I actually know someone who had the exact same experience. Their backup, combined with grace under pressure got them the job.

And Chrystie, shhhhhhhh …. you tipped me off to this “writing the whole thing out” habit, but you don’t have to spill the beans to everyone . It obviously works well for you. I don’t think anyone would have ever guessed, so no apologies necessary.

By: Lee Potts

Lee Potts — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 05:57:51 +0000

Great ideas! I might also add that it’s a good idea to show up early and make sure all the technical aspects of the presentation are taken care of. It’s hard to give a good presentation if you flustered and starting 15 minutes late because you couldn’t get your presentation to work on the venue’s AV system, or if the fonts went all weird or the sound system isn’t working or…

You get the picture.

If you don’t mind, I’d like to mention a blog I recently started that’s all about all the things that can go wrong when you’re giving a presentation (or when you’re supporting someone else’s presentation efforts). It’s called Breaking Murphy’s Law (http://www.breakingmurphyslaw.com).

I hope you like it and find it useful.

Thamks!

By: chrystie

chrystie — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 21:41:49 +0000

once I brought my laptop to a presentation so that I could be in “full control” of my slides (which I had, in character, most recently edited the morning before). when I arrived on site for the program I realized that I had forgot my power cord. The presentation was to be 2-3 hours and there was no way I was going to get through it on battery. I quickly pulled out my trusty memory stick, where I had my happy back up. never, ever, ever go to a presentation w/out a back up (or two).

to this i would add, use slideshare to get other ideas for presentations that you think work well and/or that resonate with you. this can help you develop a personal style.

my personal development plan: get to a point where (1) i don’t get nervous at the beginning of a program and (2) i don’t have to write the whole thing out from start to finish in order to feel comfortable with the presentation.