I have to speak infront of groups between 2 and 8 times a month in my profession. I've been doing so for about 5 years.... and I still get nervous a bit beforehand , every time . My advice would be , know your subject inside and out , get lots of sleep the night before, and dress to kill ... So you feel confident... Cos I said so :)
I've done presentations and the things I have learnt are these. speak slowly.. Most try to hurry it up to get it over and done with... You lose the audience because they don't understand you do to go even quicker.
Enjoy yourself... Most of the audience want you to succeed so they'll forgive your mistakes.. Also make light of your mistakes, it shows your human and the audience will identify with you more.
As name Jamie said know your stuff.... Don't be scared to admit what you don't know though. Tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you just told them... In other words a brief overview so they know where they are going.. The main topic, then a recap.
Stick to dry subject matter in your presentation and get a feel for the intelligence of the audience by questions they ask. You then proceed to inject humor based on what you think they can understand. If no questions are allowed during the presentation just stick to the dry subject matter until given indications the audience is receptive to humor.
This post was edited by O-uknow at March 28, 2017 12:49 AM MDT
I find it very difficult to keep the humour out of it. Of course, you drop it in tentatively, testing the water. When you get a feel for the response you can run with it. Or not. :(
The key to public speaking is preparation. Know your audience, the subject matter, and be confident. It gets easier the more you do it. You also need to have good speech-writing skills.
This post was edited by Thriftymaid at March 28, 2017 5:17 AM MDT
I've heard that one way to overcome stage fright is to imagine that the audience is naked - but I'm not sure how that helps. Surely being aroused would make you even MORE self-conscious?
righty1 