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Bradley Wilson
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YourYou are doing most of the right things but I will nevertheless add my "receipe""recipe".

I once read an interview with an actor about stage fright. His take on it was something like "I'm always nervous. If I'm not nervous 5 minutes before a show, not being nervous makesmakes me nervous. It's all about controllingcontrol, not about getting rid of nervousness."

The first thing to remember is that, however, well you prepare, the delivery rarely goes according to your plan. However, the audience rarely knows your plan, so things that look like a stumble to you will not, in general, look like a stumble to the audience. In other words, the audience judges the actual performance based on what they see, whereas you judge your own performance based on your own idealized version of the presentation. As a result, things are rarely as bad as the presenter thinks they are.

Second, admit that delivery is subject to random "disruptions". Maybe a person in the front row will annoy you by playing with a pencil, maybe there will be no chalk for the board, maybe the bulb of the projector will burn. I remember a lecture where I had brought coloured chalk sticks, which all fell on the floor and broke when I leaned over to pick up a piece of paper... in front of 135 students.

While perfect delivery cannot be guaranteed, what you can control is the contents of your presentation. If your handwriting is difficult to read, make slides in standard fonts. Make sure that figures are large and clear to be well understood, etc. You can be forgiven for imperfect delivery, but not for imperfect preparation of the contents.

Remember that less is more: a presentation is good once you have removed from it all that makes it not good.

Third, practice practice practice. Experience shows that speakers tend to get tripped when they think they forgot something and want to ad lib additional material at some point in the presentation. If you have prepared your material well, and have practiced your presentation, you will know that a particular argument will be brought up later and you can avoid wandering too far off-script.

Also, practice gives you confidence about the pace of your delivery. If you have gone through the presentation a few times, you will know that you don't need to rush through to finish in the allotted time.

Friends rarely want to be critical so film yourself. These days you can easily do this with an iPad or a cell phone so you can get an audience perspective of your presentation.

Fourth, stick to the script. This complement the previous point. If you prepared the material well, and are confident about the contents of your presentation, bullet points with complete or partial sentences will keep you on the right path and will prevent you from ad libbing into an unprepared territory.

Fifth, watch some talks at all levels, and try to dissect why you like some talks and not others. Focus on the amount and technical level of the material, the speed of the delivery, how "cluttered" is the presentation, and other such factors.

Your are doing most of the right things but I will nevertheless add my "receipe".

I once read an interview with an actor about stage fright. His take on it was something like "I'm always nervous. If I'm not nervous 5 minutes before a show, not being nervous makes me nervous. It's all about controlling, not about getting rid of nervousness."

The first thing to remember is that, however well you prepare, the delivery rarely goes according to your plan. However, the audience rarely knows your plan, so things that look like a stumble to you will not, in general, look like a stumble to the audience. In other words, the audience judges the actual performance based on what they see, whereas you judge your own performance based on your own idealized version of the presentation. As a result, things are rarely as bad as the presenter thinks they are.

Second, admit that delivery is subject to random "disruptions". Maybe a person in the front row will annoy you by playing with a pencil, maybe there will be no chalk for the board, maybe the bulb of the projector will burn. I remember a lecture where I had brought coloured chalk sticks, which all fell on the floor and broke when I leaned over to pick up a piece of paper... in front of 135 students.

While perfect delivery cannot be guaranteed, what you can control is the contents of your presentation. If your handwriting is difficult to read, make slides in standard fonts. Make sure that figures are large and clear to be well understood, etc. You can be forgiven for imperfect delivery, but not for imperfect preparation of the contents.

Remember that less is more: a presentation is good once you have removed from it all that makes it not good.

Third, practice practice practice. Experience shows that speakers tend to get tripped when they think they forgot something and want to ad lib additional material at some point in the presentation. If you have prepared your material well, and have practiced your presentation, you will know that a particular argument will be brought up later and you can avoid wandering too far off-script.

Also practice gives you confidence about the pace of your delivery. If you have gone through the presentation a few times, you will know that you don't need to rush through to finish in the allotted time.

Friends rarely want to be critical so film yourself. These days you can easily do this with an iPad or a cell phone so you can get an audience perspective of your presentation.

Fourth, stick to the script. This complement the previous point. If you prepared the material well, and are confident about the contents of your presentation, bullet points with complete or partial sentences will keep you on the right path and will prevent you from ad libbing into unprepared territory.

Fifth, watch some talks at all levels, and try to dissect why you like some talks and not others. Focus on the amount and technical level of the material, the speed of the delivery, how "cluttered" is the presentation, and other such factors.

You are doing most of the right things but I will nevertheless add my "recipe".

I once read an interview with an actor about stage fright. His take on it was something like "I'm always nervous. If I'm not nervous 5 minutes before a show, not being nervous makes me nervous. It's all about control, not about getting rid of nervousness."

The first thing to remember is that, however, well you prepare, the delivery rarely goes according to your plan. However, the audience rarely knows your plan, so things that look like a stumble to you will not, in general, look like a stumble to the audience. In other words, the audience judges the actual performance based on what they see, whereas you judge your own performance based on your own idealized version of the presentation. As a result, things are rarely as bad as the presenter thinks they are.

Second, admit that delivery is subject to random "disruptions". Maybe a person in the front row will annoy you by playing with a pencil, maybe there will be no chalk for the board, maybe the bulb of the projector will burn. I remember a lecture where I had brought coloured chalk sticks, which all fell on the floor and broke when I leaned over to pick up a piece of paper... in front of 135 students.

While perfect delivery cannot be guaranteed, what you can control is the contents of your presentation. If your handwriting is difficult to read, make slides in standard fonts. Make sure that figures are large and clear to be well understood, etc. You can be forgiven for imperfect delivery, but not for imperfect preparation of the contents.

Remember that less is more: a presentation is good once you have removed from it all that makes it not good.

Third, practice practice practice. Experience shows that speakers tend to get tripped when they think they forgot something and want to ad lib additional material at some point in the presentation. If you have prepared your material well, and have practiced your presentation, you will know that a particular argument will be brought up later and you can avoid wandering too far off-script.

Also, practice gives you confidence about the pace of your delivery. If you have gone through the presentation a few times, you will know that you don't need to rush through to finish in the allotted time.

Friends rarely want to be critical so film yourself. These days you can easily do this with an iPad or a cell phone so you can get an audience perspective of your presentation.

Fourth, stick to the script. This complement the previous point. If you prepared the material well, and are confident about the contents of your presentation, bullet points with complete or partial sentences will keep you on the right path and will prevent you from ad libbing into an unprepared territory.

Fifth, watch some talks at all levels and try to dissect why you like some talks and not others. Focus on the amount and technical level of the material, the speed of the delivery, how "cluttered" is the presentation, and other such factors.

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user5410
user5410

Your are doing most of the right things but I will nevertheless add my "receipe".

I once read an interview with an actor about stage fright. His take on it was something like "I'm always nervous. If I'm not nervous 5 minutes before a show, not being nervous makes me nervous. It's all about controlling, not about getting rid of nervousness."

The first thing to remember is that, however well you prepare, the delivery rarely goes according to your plan. However, the audience rarely knows your plan, so things that look like a stumble to you will not, in general, look like a stumble to the audience. In other words, the audience judges the actual performance based on what they see, whereas you judge your own performance based on your own idealized version of the presentation. As a result, things are rarely as bad as the presenter thinks they are.

Second, admit that delivery is subject to random "disruptions". Maybe a person in the front row will annoy you by playing with a pencil, maybe there will be no chalk for the board, maybe the bulb of the projector will burn. I remember a lecture where I had brought coloured chalk sticks, which all fell on the floor and broke when I leaned over to pick up a piece of paper... in front of 135 students.

While perfect delivery cannot be guaranteed, what you can control is the contents of your presentation. If your handwriting is difficult to read, make slides in standard fonts. Make sure that figures are large and clear to be well understood, etc. You can be forgiven for imperfect delivery, but not for imperfect preparation of the contents.

Remember that less is more: a presentation is good once you have removed from it all that makes it not good.

Third, practice practice practice. Experience shows that speakers tend to get tripped when they think they forgot something and want to ad lib additional material at some point in the presentation. If you have prepared your material well, and have practiced your presentation, you will know that a particular argument will be brought up later and you can avoid wandering too far off-script.

Also practice gives you confidence about the pace of your delivery. If you have gone through the presentation a few times, you will know that you don't need to rush through to finish in the allotted time.

Friends rarely want to be critical so film yourself. These days you can easily do this with an iPad or a cell phone so you can get an audience perspective of your presentation.

Fourth, stick to the script. This complement the previous point. If you prepared the material well, and are confident about the contents of your presentation, bullet points with complete or partial sentences will keep you on the right path and will prevent you from ad libbing into unprepared territory.

Fifth, watch some talks at all levels, and try to dissect why you like some talks and not others. Focus on the amount and technical level of the material, the speed of the delivery, how "cluttered" is the presentation, and other such factors.