How to be a Good Presenter and Actually Enjoy It!
Additional Tips and Tricks For Presenters
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A Game of Answers and Questions
The Question and Answer part of the session may seem scary, but it doesn't have to be at all.
Remind yourself that no one has all the answers – there's nothing wrong with being honest if you don't know.
You can help reduce your anxiety by making a list of questions people might ask and the answers.
This 'cheat sheet' can help you feel more confident answering questions, even if you don't actually end up using it.
If you get a question for which you don't know an answer, take it as a learning opportunity and figure it out when you have time, so you'll know for the future.
If you wish (and it's completely up to you), you could offer to connect later with the person who raised the question and offer to provide the answer. This is a great way to network with others who work on projects similar to your own.
Pay Attention: Eyes Forward
As much as you may wish you could, you can't give your presentation with your head buried in your notebook computer.
You have to look up and around at the audience periodically, both to appear more professional, and to to watch for raised hands.
If looking at the crowd makes you nervous, look just over the heads of the people in the back row:
Find three reference points on the back wall and regularly move your focus up to and between them before returning to your notebook.
This gives the illusion that you're looking at everyone when you're really trying to not look at anyone!
Can You Hear Me? Microphone Tips and Tricks
If a microphone is provided, please use it: it's there to give the audience the best experience possible.
Don't just go up front and ask if everyone can hear you without the microphone:
If people in the back can't hear you, they won't know to respond.
If someone back there can barely hear you, s/he may be too shy or embarrassed to respond.
Reality Check: You don't sound as bad as you think you do on a microphone: you're just hearing yourself the way everyone else does normally.
You normally only hear your "interior" voice as it bounces around in your head, but everyone else hears your "exterior" voice, which does sound different.
When you hear yourself via a microphone on a PA system, you're hearing your "exterior" voice as others hear it, like it or not.
If you find that weird, get a microphone you can attach to your home computer and set up the computer to amplify it via attached speakers or headphones. Practice speaking while listening to how you sound. You can also make recordings and then play them back to get the most accurate sense of how you sound to others.
Voice lessons and speech therapy are valid options if you want to improve how you sound.
Positioning a microphone is critical to getting good results from it:
With handheld or desktop microphones, keep it about five inches from your mouth (about one loose fist length away). Any closer and it will pick up too much of your breath, annoying everyone.
If the microphone is overly sensitive (and you don't have access to turn the volume down), you can position it a little farther away.
With small headworn microphones, the mic should rest against your cheek so as to be as unnoticeable to the audience as possible. (Larger 'boom' mics should sit out an inch or two from your face.) Never swing the mic out away from your face unless the volume is just too high and you can't turn it down.
Instead of asking the corny "Can you hear me?" question, ask the more sensible, "How do I sound in the back?" and maybe even send someone you know back there to let you know for certain if the volume is loud enough.
When using a wireless microphone, always keep it muted until you are presenting. Find the mute button before you start and know exactly where it is and how to use it. Very embarrassing things happen when you carry a live microphone around without remembering that it's live!
The Natives are Restless
Don't let it get under your skin when people get up and leave during your presentation.
This is perfectly normal these days at IT conferences, and you've probably done it yourself.
Keep in mind that there's lots of good reasons for leaving early:
They may need to go to the restroom
They may have to go prepare for their own presentation
They may need to take an important call
They may have simply come to the wrong room (e.g. misread the schedule or the time of day)
Similarly, don't be put off with half the group having their noses buried in their own notebooks/phones/tablets
Just assume they're taking notes and be glad you have fewer eyes watching you :-)