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43Folders.com is Merlin Mann’s website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.

Open Thread: Your best tip on doing presentations

As I mentioned yesterday, I’ll be leading a discussion on Tinderbox and “the trusted system” tomorrow. Probably running a few Keynote slides, but mostly just casually chatting with a small group of enthusiastic Tinderbox fans.

I’m not a seasoned public speaker by anyone’s estimation, so I’ve made my share of rookie mistakes in the past (hint: avoid doing a rambling, overlong talk without slides at ETech; people get confused, hungry, and eventually want to defenestrate you).

So, as I prep myself for tomorrow, I turn to you guys:

What’s your best presentation tip? What’s the “never break it” rule for PowerPoint/Keynote decks? What’s your favorite site, article, or link on great presentations? How do I get that Lessig-, Jobs-, or Veen-like fu that makes audiences so giddy? (Self-links are okay within reason here)

I’ll be over here imagining people in their underwear, but I’d love to hear your best advice on this stuff.

Update 2005-11-19 21:37:26

I’ve posted the slides from my talk today along with links to some of the posts and cool applications I mentioned.

Summary: went well! Very enthusiastic group – great questions and conversations. And no one threw rotten vegetables. Elin liked it, and that’s good enough for me. :-)

TOPICS: Off Topic, Tips
Adam's picture

Best tip I could give...

Best tip I could give you: treat your practice runs beforehand exactly like you’d treat a dress rehearsal for a play. That means

  1. If you screw up, don’t stop or go back, plow right through to the end and then try it again.

  2. Practice as much as you can in the exact space you’ll be giving the final presentation. This is unbelievably useful for getting confidence and timing, and associating your speech with a physical location will give you memory cues later on.

 
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