Public Speaking

photo credit: SarahDeer

Tomorrow at Cognifide we are having a conference and I will be talking there about microformats. Reasons for choosing this particular topic are for another post but the fact is that tomorrow will be my public speaking event (not the first one and definitely not the last one).

Since choosing subject of my presentation there were couple steps to follow: research the topic, break it down to a 30 minute long plan, design slides according to plan and finish making the presentation. It is all done. What is left is to deliver the talk.

This sounds like a great post idea, so let’s think about what to focus on while speaking in public.

Be clear - this is most important part. Deliver a clear message and repeat it over again. Divide your speech into three parts. In part one tell the listeners what you are going to tell them. Then tell them that. And in part three tell them what you have told them. This way you can increase level of understanding between you and listeners giving them more by saying less.

Rehearse to get the timing right - there is nothing worst then running out of time in the middle of your speech. Do a test run  of your talk. Focus on what to say when and on leaving spare time for Q&A

Talk to the public - don’t look on the slides to much. Those are to guide you not for you to read from. By talking to the listeners you are making eye contact thus engaging them more. Additionally it allows you to react based on your public. You will notice if the listeners are getting bored or need a little bit more of explanation of a particular part.

Don’t practice too much - doing a test run to check your timings is one thing. Practicing whole night and learning your lines by heart is another. By practicing too much you are loosing your freshness and natural feel. And this is something that listeners are expecting. They want a real live human being talking about something interesting not a robot delivering perfectly timed speech.

Grab every occasion for public speaking - practice makes perfect. Training to be better public speaker consists of mainly of speaking in public more. There are two benefits of this. One, you build up your street-credit as a public speaker and two, when “the big and important talk” will come up your way you won’t be a freshman in the subject of public speaking and will handle it much better.

There you go. My tips for delivering a better public speech. I hope it was helpful for you. Tomorrow I will test those tips on myself so keep your fingers crossed.