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Practice, Practice, Practice (or How To Annoy Friends & ROCK Ignite!)

2009 December 30
by Karl

In preparing for my presentation, I’ve read LOTS of tips, watched LOTS of YouTube videos and viewed LOTS of SlideShare slide presentations.

What I gleaned from all of this research is these simple tips to make the presentation work:

  • Avoid DBPP (Death By PowerPoint): OK…this one is simple enough. You have 20 slides at 15 seconds per slide for a total of five minutes! You’ll want to work on making the slides simple so the audience is focused on you & not the PowerPoint slides.
  • Make each slide as simple as possible: All the knowledge out there says if it’s more than 3 sentences…it’s too long. This makes absolute sense too as people won’t have time to read the Declaration of Independence in 15 seconds so a visual or simple test will be better. Talk about it rather than throw it up on the screen.
  • You can CHEAT (sort of): What I mean is that while you have 20 slides you don’t need to have 20 different items. If you need more time on a topic, it’s OK to have the same slide for the time frame (e.g. need 45 seconds on something, then make three identical slides) needed.
  • Practice, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!: The best presenters all say that practice is key. They also say that practicing by yourself is not the same as practicing in front of people, as you’ll be able to handle distractions, etc. better with a live audience than in your bathroom.
  • Mistakes are OK, Learn to recover & keep going: Stumbling on your presentation in your bathroom? Friends staring at you make you a little nervous? That’s OK! It can also happen during Ignite too. What you need to remember is right out of comedy 101 – Recover quickly & keep going! Mistakes happen. Do not let hecklers get the best of you & NEVER respond to hecklers with anger.
  • This is FUN (you volunteered to do this…REMEMBER?!?), so enjoy yourself!: So here you are ready to make a presentation to LOTS of people, many of whom you don’t know. Don’t sweat it; just remember to enjoy yourself. You’ll most likely be your worst critic anyway!

Something I was taught in a ballroom dancing class is that “None of the people watching you will ever notice if you messed up dancing. Keep smiling & as long as you & your partner are enjoying yourself…you’ll look like Fred & Ginger.” As long as you keep going & remember to recover, everything will be fine. The show must go on!

The reality is that the audience will be there to be entertained as well as learn a factoid or two, so just breathe focus & have a great time!

Lastly I’ve added some great resources that I thought really told it well on presenting. Enjoy them as much as I did.

I look forward to seeing you on the 14th!

from → Ignite Anchorage 2

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