This month's meetup was a Public Speaking workshop for Novices with Trisha Gee and lots of great input from Mazz Mosley.
Trisha's slides can be found on slideshare here.
LWC member Sarah Knight has taken some excellent notes which you should definitely check out. The below are rough notes taken by Ines throughout and roughly organised into categories (given a lot of the great content from the night was a result of questions asked by everyone there). Pull requests welcome for any changes and additional points worth sharing with everyone!
- Set expectations upfront on whether you’ll have time to answer questions
- If you’re super nervous at the end of the talk, it’s ok to say ‘I’m sure you’ll appreciate, it’s pretty nerve-wracking to be up here so I won’t be taking any questions from the stage but come find me after’
- If you get a question and you don't know what some of the terms are referring to: "Can you clarify for everyone what x y and z mean to make sure everyone’s on the same page?"
- Always take things in the best possible way. If people don’t ask any questions, that must mean you've already answered all of their questions!
- It's ok to say you don't know, but point people in the direction of who does
- For calls for proposals, make titles either catchy or buzz word filled (and indicate the level your talk is aimed at)
- Recommended reading for putting together the actual presentation: Presentation Patterns
- Find 3 big things you want to impart and build your talk around those
- Repetition is good - it'll be awkward for you, but it's positive!
- Everyone has different ways of practicing - you could practice once or write out your whole script verbatim
- Practicing a 5 min talk is more about just checking you're not going crazy over time
- For longer talks - practice at least once out loud
- Live demos: Practice out loud quite a few times with the full demo run-through
- Tips:
- Try out your talks at meetups
- Try them out especially at meetups that film you and watch it back (hint: LWC London will have optional recording of talks from April 2015 onwards!)
- Start a book club and have everyone present for 5 mins, teaching or talking through something that you struggled with
- Co-presenting is a really great way to get started
- For eye contact: Just scan the crowd; you don't really have to make eye contact
- On speaking slower: Don't be afraid of silence, it's ok to stop. For a 50 minute talk, try to have max 40 mins of content so you're forced to slow down.
- On what to do with your hands: Get someone to take a short video of you when you're comfortable and talking to your friends, then figure out what you're doing with your hands and mimic that
- Remember people aren't in your head, don't worry about that one example you forgot to mention - no one else knows!
How can you tell if people are paying attention? Usually you can tell. Body language is relatively relaxed, people are looking engaged.
Be yourself. If none of this works for you, do exactly what feels comfortable. No more, no less