How to be comfortable with your presentation
Read the slides!
Reading the slides out loud helps a lot - try to go somewhere quiet, I get embarassed by this if someone is listening.
If possible, practice presenting to a friend
Once you’ve got some slides, try actually presenting them to someone. This does a couple of things:
- It lets them ask questions, or point out things they didn’t get
- It gets you an idea of how long the presentation will really take
The two most common problems
(I do both of these! Still, after lots of years of doing this)
- Trying to put too many words on a slide. I always want to do this, but remember people can get distracted reading instead of listening to you, and also too many words means the text has to get smaller and harder to read :)
- Talking too fast. I do this when I get enthusiastic! The best way round this is to remember to breathe. Follow the punctuation as well.
Getting comfortabl on the day
I like to move a chair, or something.
And it really helps to plug in your laptop early in the day an convince yourself the slides do come up on the screen!