7 guidelines to your first presentation

1. Tell stories. Seriously. People could care less about the five ways some XML vocabulary will enable enterprise whatever. Rather, put a screenshot of your project up, tell people what you learned while doing it, then give them a slide that reiterates those ideas in easy to digest bullets. That's do not go from bullet-point slide to bullet-point slide trying to tell people what to think.
2. Show pictures. Got a good metaphor? Use it. "The Web is like a school of fish." But go to images.google.com and type in "sardines" or "school of fish" or whatever. Make it a slide. Then say the Web is like that. Much more powerful and memorable.
3. Don't apologize. Ever. If something is out of order, or if something occurs to you as a mistake during the presentation, keep it to yourself. They'll never know. Besides, nobody cares about the presentation itself. This is really hard, because you know the whole backstory, and you'll be tempted to explain why something isn't quite perfect. Skip it. Also, you don't need to apologize about the color on the projector, or the fact that your mic just popped off your lapel, or that a staff person spilled a pitcher of water. Commiserating is fine, however. "If it gets another 5 degrees colder in here, I'll be able to see my breath!"
4. Start strong. I can't believe how many presenters forget this. Do not get up there and say, "Um, well, I guess we should probably get started." Instead, say, "Hi, I'm Jeff. It's really great to be here, and thank you so much for coming to my session. Today, we're going to talk about...." Make sure those are the absolute first words you say out loud. No need for a joke or an opening or any of that. Just start strong and confident.
5. End strong too. "...so that's why I like social software. I appreciate your attention today. Thank you." Then stand there and wait. Everyone will clap, because you just told them you were done. When they've finished, ask them if they have any questions. If nobody asks anything, break the uncomfortable silence with "Well, I guess I told you everything you need to know then. [heh heh] I'll be around after if you think of anything. Thanks again!" and start packing up your stuff.
6. Stand. Away from the podium. Out from behind the presenter table. Keep your hands out of your pockets. Take off your conference badge (the lights will catch it and be distracting). I pace a little bit around the stage, timed with my points, saying one thing from over here, and another from over there. But don't move too much.
7. Pause. When you say something important, leave a gap after it. Let it hang there for a few seconds. Try it when talking to your friends. "You know what I think? (pause...two...three...four...) I think Bush is bankrupting this country for the next twenty years. (pause...two...three...four...) Here's why..."

Making a Good Speech

• Remember: an excellent speech does not require a brilliant orator - you can do it. Winston Churchill is commonly regarded as one of the greatest speakers in the English language, yet he regretted the lack of practice in public speaking that he would have gained had he gone to university and he suffered from a slight lisp and a stammer. The key is preparation.

• You are probably making this speech at an event which has a programme which has been published beforehand. So make sure that the title of your speech is catchy and then people will be looking forward to it even before the event.

• Making a good speech starts weeks before with thorough preparation. You should have been thinking of themes and points, noting down ideas and sources, crafting phrases and sentences.

• The best speeches tell your audience things they didn't know and/or give them insights they didn't have. So:
  • In respect of the first, research some salient, accurate and up-date facts and figures.
  • In respect of the second, look at the subject differently - think 'out of the box'.

• You should have finalised the notes or text or slides at least the day before, so that you can concentrate on reading through the material, becoming very familiar and comfortable with it, and thinking about the actual delivery.

• Remember: expectation shapes reality. This means that, to some extent you can have won or lost your audience even before you are really into your speech. If people think you're going to be good, that will help them to perceive you as good. So your biographical details in the programme material and how the chair introduces you are both important and you can influence them. Conversely, if people think you're going to be poor, that will condition them to seeing you as poor. So never begin by saying that you were unsure why you were invited to speak or what you should say and, unless it is obvious (for instance because you have a terrible cold), never admit to feeling anxious, unsure or unwell.

• Once you are called upon to make your speech, pause for a couple of moments before actually starting your delivery. If you've had to walk up to a platform or over to a rostrum, this gives you time to steady your breath. If you are nervous as a speaker, it gives you time to take a few shallow breaths and calm those nerves. In any event, it gives the audience an opportunity to settle down and focus on you and your message. But the pause should be a few seconds only.

• If you are not using a microphone, be aware of the need to speak sufficiently loudly that the furthest member of your audience can hear you clearly. Take the opportunity to move around a little which will help to command attention.

• If you are using a microphone, speak at normal volume, but a little more slowly and distinctly than if you were not using amplification. Don't move around because you'll leave the microphone behind (unless it is fixed to you).

• You should convey a sense of enthusiasm for the subject. This will effect your delivery and how your speech is received.

• Occasionally alter the speed, volume and tone of your delivery. Speaking slower or faster and quieter or louder and being more cheerful or more serious all adds dramatic effect and keeps the attention of your audience.

• Regularly sweep your eyes left-centre-right and back and front-middle-rear and back, so that you engage all members of your audience. The actor Tom Cruise once told an interviewer: "A lot of the time, what acting is really about is meeting someone's eye" - the same is true of public speaking.

• Don't make a rambling opening. There is nothing worse than the speaker who starts with something like: "When I was asked to speak on this subject, I wondered what to say .."

• Never apologise for your nervousness or your material. You and your speech are probably better tha you appreciate but, in any event, if you don't advertise any weaknesses in your style or content, they probably won't be noticed.

• Make a dramatic opening which seizes the attention with the very first words. This might be a stirring statement: "This year we are going to make a fundamental transformation of our whole organisation". It might be a challenging question: "How can we turn ourselves into an even more successful organisation?" Whatever you do, don't ask a question that invites a cynical answer from your audience: "Are we the best organisation in the country?"

• Have a very clear structure. A good technique is to tell your audience what you are going to say, tell them, and then tell them what you have said. A good structure is for the core message to be three linked points which can be sub-divided as necessary.

• If it is appropriate, use PowerPoint. It ensures that you stick to your structure and that the structure is clear to your audience. It looks professional and you can use images as well text.

• PowerPoint slides should not consist of simply a few words or conversely a mass of text. Three or four bullet points of four or five words each is ideal.

• Put the main verb early in the sentence, especially if it is a long sentence. So, not: "When we have all the facts and we have considered all the options, we shall make our decision". But instead: "We shall make our decision, when we have all the facts and we have considered all the options" .

• Consider the use of short sentences or even short phrases for dramatic effect. Examples of short sentences: "Failure is not an option" or"The place is here. The time is now. The prize is great". Examples of short phrases: "Never again", "No excuses".

• Use striking adjectives and adverbs. Not simply: "We face many challenges" but "We face many exciting challenges". Not simply: "We will work on our problems" but "We will work energetically on our problems".

• Consider the use of striking images in the form of metaphors or similes. For example: "an iron curtain" (Winston Churchill, 1946), "a paper tiger" (Mao Zedong, 1946),"the axis of evil" (George Bush, 2002).

• Make moderate use of alliteration in phrases or sentences. For example, some phrases: "broadband Britain", "the digital divide", "silver surfers". For example, some sentences: "The ballot is stronger than the bullet" (Abraham Lincoln, 1856) or "Now let us fulfil our mandate and our mission" (Gordon Brown, Labour Party Conference 2002) or "At our best when at our boldest" (Tony Blair, Labour Party Conference 2002).

• Consider the use of rhyme. For example: "We will fight to show that we are right".

• Use contrasts. For example: "Politics is war without bloodshed, while war is politics with bloodshed" (Mao Zedong, lecture, 1938) or "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few" (Winston Churchill, House of Commons, 1940) or "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country" (John F Kennedy, inaugural address, 1961) or "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" (Martin Luther King, letter from jail, 1963).

• Make temporal comparisons. For example: "When the company was first founded .." or "When we first moved to this office .." and "Many challenges are still the same" or "The situation now is so different".

• Make geographical comparisons. Compare and contrast your situation with other companies or other organisations or with other regions or other countries. What does this tell us?

• Use three-part lists. For example: "Government of the people, by the people, and for the people" (Abraham Lincoln, 1863) or "I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished" (Franklin D Roosevelt, second inaugural address, 1937) or "The ultimate case for the third way is that it works - good values, good vision, good policies" (Bill Clinton, Labour Party Conference 2002).

• Very occasionally, consider a longer list. For example, a list of four: "We shall fight on the beaches; we shall fight on the landing grounds; we shall fight in the fields and in the streets; we shall fight in the hills" (Winston Churchill, House of Commons, 1940). Another example, this time of five parts: "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty" (John F Kennedy, Inaugral Address, 20 January 1961).

• Repetition can be very effective. Martin Luther King was the absolute master of judicious repetition. For example: in his Washington speech of 28 August 1963, he used the phrases "I have a dream .." and "Let freedom ring ..." again and again (seven times and eight times respectively).

• Use short, pithy quotes. Clever people over the years have created witty aphorisms, so you should borrow them when it is appropriate.

• Try humour - not by telling a story, but by using a short, witticism. For example: "I don't mind how much my ministers talk, as long as they do what I say" (Margaret Thatcher, 1980)

• Self-deprecating humour often works well. For example: President Ronald Reagan reassuring an audience: "I know you fellows think I'm lazy, but this week I've really been burning the midday oil" or former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher telling a Conservative Party Conference that, on the way to the event, she had seen a cinema advertising "The Mummy Returns".

• Try puns. For example: "Vodafone is now the largest telephone company in the UK which makes its Chief Executive the Lord of the Rings". Another example: TUC General Secretary Tony Monks, when asking for the President of the European Commission Jacques Santer to include a particular provision in a measure, said it would be known as "the Santer clause".

• Sometimes you can use the same word but in a different context. For example: "There can be no whitewash at the White House" (Richard Nixon, Watergate broadcast, 1973).

• One way of commanding attention is to use a redundant, but attention-seeking, short sentence. Tony Blair is very fond of "I say this to you" or "Let me be clear".

• KISS (Keep it simple, stupid). Don't try to impress with over-complicated terminology. For example: when he was Labour's Shadow Chancellor, Gordon Brown famously praised "neoclassical endogenous growth theory and a symbiotic relationship between investment in people and infrastructure" (1996). In the introduction to his compilation "Speeches That Changed The World", Simon Sebag Montefiore states: "As a rule, simplicity of language marks superb speeechmaking".

• Remember that 50% of statistics are meaningless (see what I mean?). So, if you are intending to use statistics - and some well-chosen figures can add credibility and authority to your arguments - be sure that you understand them, that they are meaningful, and that they are both reliable and up-to-date. Be ready in the question and answer session, or if approached later, to be able to source your statistics and supply the full context.

• Make clever use of the pause. If you expect laughter or applause or you would like to create a sense of drama, pause for a couple of seconds, before continuing your speech.

• Finish with a strong, affirmative statement, possibly referring back to the opening sentence or question (note how many film scripts end with a variation of a line from the beginning of the movie).

• Only use the techniques appropriate to the occasion. A speech in the mode of "We will fight them on the beaches" is not ideal for opening a church bazaar. An after-dinner speech needs lots of jokes, whereas an academic lecture needs lots of facts. In many respects, the most difficult speeches are family occasions like weddings and funerals - there are many sensitivities here, so think carefully about what you're going to say.

• If you are speaking to an international audience (especially if your words are being translated into other languages), don't use any of the language-specific tips such as alliteration, rhyme or puns and be careful not to use culturally-specific allusions or organisational jargon. I once gave a lecture on British industrial relations to a group of Russian trade union officials and they were baffled by my apparent reference to a department store which never closed. I had mentioned the "closed shop"!

• Beware of speaking for too long. The British aristocrat Lord Brabazon once said: "If you cannot say what you have to say in twenty minutes, you should go away and write a book about it". Abraham Lincoln's address at Gettysburg in 1863 lasted a mere two minutes, but it is one of the most memorable speeches ever delivered. Nobody ever complains that a speech is too short - and there's usually a question and answer session to use up the rest of the time and to make further points.

• When it's all over, consider creating an on-line version of the speech. If you put the text on a web site, you can add hyperlinks to more detailed information and provide up-dates to keep the material topical and relevant. In this way, you have a 'live' document and you reach a much wider audience.

Making Good Presentation - Part 01

• Do use PowerPoint if the facilities are available. Although some speakers seem to have taken an aversion to PowerPoint, it is so convenient and ensures that your presentation has a clear structure and something for your listeners to take away.

• Be very clear about how much time you have - and stick to that time in preparing your presentation. It's very difficult to 'cut' a PowerPoint presentation at the event itself, so it's a great mistake to run out of time. Most presenters prepare too much material; but nobody ever complains that a presentation was too short (it always allows more time for questions).

• Be very clear about your key message - and ensure that everything in your presentation is both consistent with, and suppportive of, that key message. You should be able to articulate the message in a phrase or a sentence and indeed you might want to use that phrase or sentence in one of your first slides, or one of your last, or even both.

• E-mail your presentation to the event organisers in advance. Ask them to load it onto a laptop, run it through, check that it looks fine, and confirm that with you. Then you don't have to worry about the technology when you arrive at the venue; you can concentrate on the delivery of your material. Also it enables the event's organisers to run off copies of your slides, so that they are available to them in good time.

• The first slide should announce the title of your presentation (try to make it catchy), the event and date, and your name and position. This may seem terribly obvious, but many speakers miss off some of this basic information and then weeks later listeners (or their colleagues back at the organisation) are not clear who made the presentation or when.

• The second slide should seize the attention of your audience for your presentation. It could be the central proposition of your presentation or a conventional wisdom that you wish to challenge or a relevant or witty quote from a leader in your field. If it is amusing or controversial or both, so much the better.

• The third slide should set out the structure of your presentation. The default structure should consist of three themes that you intend to examine. For a very short presentation, there might only be time for two; if you want to look at more than five areas, write a book instead.

• Each theme should be the subject of a small number of slides. Again, a good working assumption is that three slides for each theme is about right. Less than two and it isn't substantive enough to be a separate theme; more than five and it should probably be broken up into two themes.

• Each slide should have clear heading. A question is often a good way of winning attention - but, in that case, make sure you answer the question in the body of the slide.

• Each slide should normally contain around 25-35 words, unless it is a quote (when you might use more) or contains an illustration (when you will probably use less). Too many words and your audience will have trouble reading the material; too few words and you're likely to be flashing through the slides and spending too much time clicking the mouse.

• Each bullet point should consist of an intelligible phrase, rather than merely a word or two that is meaningless on its own or conversely a complete sentence that is better delivered orally. So, for instance, do use "Focus on profitable and growing markets" rather than simply "Focus" or "Markets" or "It is necessary to focus on those markets which are profitable and growing rather than those which are loss-making and declining". Consider this test: your slides should make sense and be useful to someone who was not present at your presentation.

• Make appropriate use of pictures. It's a good idea to break up text with illustrations and it is true that a picture is worth a thousand words.

• The last slide should set out all appropriate contact details: certainly e-mail address and possibly snail mail address, the web site of your organisation, and any personal website or weblog if you have one.

• Make copies of your slides available. It is a matter of preference whether you do this at the beginning of your presentation or at the end. If your listeners have copies at the beginning, they can take notes simply by annotating the slides, instead of having to note down all the information on the slides. On the other hand, you might feel that, if they can see in advance the slides you are going to use, you lose the element of control or surprise. It might depend on the content of the presentation: if you are going to show detailed tables or graphs with lots of figures, your audience will probably find it easier to have a copy on their lap. It might depend on the circumstances of the presentation: if there is a large auddience, people at the back may not be able to see the screen clearly and would really appreciate having copies of the slides.