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Posted: 9/4/2015 6:17:27 AM EDT
[#1]
They're engineers, I mean c'mon how much do you think it will take to impress them?
JK I'm head of the engineering department here. |
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Posted: 9/4/2015 6:23:33 AM EDT
[#2]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
rehearse rehearse rehearse. I speak frequently in public, and also give tech presentations a lot. start small with yourself, OUT LOUD. Not in your head. Spoken language flows differently than internal dialog. Then practice with a couple people. wife, kid then some coworkers and a smaller group by the third time through you'll be pretty smooth at it, and you'll also get a feeling for how it flows and what the stumbling points are for you. . There's a guy named Peter Cohen or Cohan that wrote a book about stunningly awful demos. He has a lot of good tips. I'll summarize: 1: break your presentation down to 2-3 main messages. Think plank speech for a politician 2: Begin with a short summary of what you are going to show or explain.. Give the audience a chance to internalize that 3: Do the demo/Presentation. 4: Summarize what you said you would show/tell and then what you did show/tell general tips: 1 - speak s l o w. Like glacially slow. Nerves will speed you up, and when you are fighting to stay slow, you'll be about right. Nerves tend to crank up your speed and you'll be yammering like a chipmunk. So SLOW DOWN. Nice and easy. 2 - do NOT do an engineering "Wall-o-text" slide. people hate when you just read stuff to them. Use a single word or a few words, and then talk around it. To explain all the parts of an AR15, don't make a bullet list of the parts, just have an image of the gun, or a single word describing your message: SIMPLE then explain it. 3 - Use images, where you can. They must relate to the topic in some way. It binds the message 4- Move the slides along fast. Try not to spend more than a minute per slide, image whatever. 5 - Tell Stories. Do not just communicate data, wrap it in a story. Humans are story tellers and listeners. It helps them relate to a topic 6 - Humor. This is hard. Some people are funny, some are not. Most technical people think they are funny, when they are not. Just accept it. If you can use humor, do it. It's endearing and like stories, helps people relate to what's going on. If you have never been told "you're funny" by someone that's not a wife or a kid, reconsider. If you weren't voted class clown, or when you tell jokes, people look at you weird, then play it straight. It's hard to gauge you here. As I said, about 95% of people who identify as funny, are about as funny as a hemorrhoid, if you are not sure, you probably aren't. And so take it easy on the humor, just go for endearing and friendly and helpful. Eager Boy Scout vibe 7 - Use silence. You don't always have to be talking. Ask a question, and the wait. Let them wonder. Let them process. Maybe start a discussion or ask a question. Audience involvement helps a TON with engagement 8 - no filler words. When you feel an "um", "uh", "ah" coming on, just silence. Just stop. Pick up your train of thought and go on. most of all, just do several dry runs and you'll be fine. Last: Be real. Be OK with telling people you're nervous. They'll side with you. Be human and open and short of shitting your pants on stage, almost nothing can go wrong. This! I'm glad crashburnrepeat pounded this reply out and you should be too. I'm a professional speaker, as in, companies hire me, pay my travel and I get paid to tell a story. This is all I do and my wife doesn't work outside the home. I speak to diverse groups. Groups from the space program to groups of toilet paper-makers. This monthI will speaking at the Architect of the Capital in just over a week, followed by a gravel company in Dallas, then a power company in Wyoming wrapping up the month at a mine in Tennessee. I would add, to the "Tell them what you're going to tell them, Tell them, then tell them what you told them" tip. Video yourself going through your presentation. Watch it, then watch it a day later. Look for flailing arms, stammering speech and your cadence. Again, people will me more attentive if you can make things personal with real stories and relay "data" through your stories. Other than knowing more subject matter than you'll need, I don't know what else to add off the top of my head that Crash didn't cover. IM me if you have any questions. Good luck! 
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Posted: 9/4/2015 6:29:10 AM EDT
[#3]
I've had to speak many times in front of groups of 20-30 and a few times to crowds of 10,000+.
I got over my fear of public speaking by trying to have some fun with it. Tell a good joke....work a few humorous remarks into the meat of the speech if it looks like you're losing the audience, but don't overdo it--remember that you aren't a stand up comic. One of the things that really helped me out was getting out from behind the podium. If I can walk around the stage while I talk, I can bring more of the audience into the 'conversation'. I also learned that when I don't have the podium to hide behind, I get to use my hands and body language to emphasize my points. It looks more natural--less robotic. Make eye contact with everyone in the audience--you should be scanning the faces the whole time because you're speaking to individuals. Let your gaze linger on one person every now and then for about 2 seconds. It's a small thing, but really personalizes the talk. Good luck, and remember that 30 seconds after your closing statement, nobody will remember anything about the way you carried yourself during the presentation......unless you do something really memorable like telling a racist joke or shitting yourself. 
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Posted: 9/4/2015 6:32:20 AM EDT
[#4]
Quote HistoryI'd bet half the people here have no idea what you're referring to. Feel old?
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Posted: 9/4/2015 6:34:07 AM EDT
[#5]
LOOK! She's presenting!!!! 
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Posted: 9/4/2015 6:34:48 AM EDT
[#6]
I've had to speak many times in front of groups of 20-30 and a few times to crowds of 10,000+.
I got over my fear of public speaking by trying to have some fun with it. Tell a good joke....work a few humorous remarks into the meat of the speech if it looks like you're losing the audience, but don't overdo it--remember that you aren't a stand up comic. One of the things that really helped me out was getting out from behind the podium. If I can walk around the stage while I talk, I can bring more of the audience into the 'conversation'. I also learned that when I don't have the podium to hide behind, I get to use my hands and body language to emphasize my points. It looks more natural--less robotic. Make eye contact with everyone in the audience--you should be scanning the faces the whole time because you're speaking to individuals. Let your gaze linger on one person every now and then for about 2 seconds. It's a small thing, but really personalizes the talk. Good luck, and remember that 30 seconds after your closing statement, nobody will remember anything about the way you carried yourself during the presentation......unless you do something really memorable like telling a racist joke or shitting yourself.
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Posted: 9/4/2015 6:34:50 AM EDT
[#7]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I'd bet half the people here have no idea what you're referring to. Feel old?Quote HistoryQuoted:
I'd bet half the people here have no idea what you're referring to. Feel old?Always. 
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Posted: 9/4/2015 6:37:35 AM EDT
[#8]
Some tips I got from a friend who is used to an executive at JCPennies
1) OK to walk around little bit 2) Before meeting, raise your arms above your head. More testastrone and more confidence 3) Know your materials. |
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Posted: 9/4/2015 6:39:06 AM EDT
[#9]
As someone who was a professional speaker for a large part of my life (DJ), I can tell you, practice, practice, practice. If you have a 20 minute talk, then your practices should run about 25 minutes (you WILL speed up when you are in front of the crowd). In your practices, go for pace, give the audience a chance to digest what you said, but don't do unnatural pauses. If you can practice in front of some folks, all the better.
Then, at game time, just remember, always, you know more about what you are saying than anyone else, period. |
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Posted: 9/4/2015 6:51:11 AM EDT
[#10]
Just remember. Chances are everyone in the room is smarter than you and knows the subject better than you. They will likely see you for the charlatan you are. Hope that helps.
Kidding. I am a lawyer. When I have a big argument I always moot court. Meaning I have other lawyers listen to my argument and ask me tough questions. The tougher the better. When I am mooting someone I give them absolute hell so that the actual argument seems like a walk in the park. You should consider doing something like that to polish your speech and work any kinks out. |
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Posted: 9/4/2015 7:05:56 AM EDT
[#11]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Remove "uh" from your vocabulary. Have someone use a shock collar if you have to. Yes |
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Posted: 9/4/2015 7:07:48 AM EDT
[#12]
Remember OP, you are the SME. Be the SME
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Posted: 9/4/2015 7:09:28 AM EDT
[#13]
Lot's of good advice here. I love public speaking and miss that I don't get to do it as often as I used to.
One bit of advice a friend passed on to me had to do with notes, if you have them, print them in the biggest font that is reasonable to go on the page. It makes them easier to read with less of a chance of stoppage to try and make out what the note says. |
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Posted: 9/4/2015 7:10:42 AM EDT
[#14]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
+1000 on "don't read the slides to the audience." Be confident - you're the expert*. *To be "the expert" you don't have to know more than anyone else in the world, just more than anyone else in the room. This last point. Know your material, and know it well. You shouldn't have to rely on the slides, they are for supplement only. I present (again) Wednesday night to our Anesthesia group. I always love these meetings since they go to the most expensive place in town. |
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Posted: 9/4/2015 7:14:32 AM EDT
[#15]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I tend toward introversion, but public speaking doesn't really bother me. I don't do it a lot, but it isn't some huge deal. Speak, answer some questions, sit down. Done. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Can someone explain why most people are afraid of public speaking? Where does the fear come from for me, in church, business, and college, it's always just been a fun distraction to speak in front of others. Sometimes for a few days straight to train hires. Not any more fear than talking to a pile of stuffed animals you are the first one i've ever heard say they enjoy public speaking. i can't stand public speaking. a large part of it for me is that I get nervous in larger groups of people. i also really don't enjoy interacting with most people, so there is that also I tend toward introversion, but public speaking doesn't really bother me. I don't do it a lot, but it isn't some huge deal. Speak, answer some questions, sit down. Done. I love it and have done almost an hour long one before. Doesn't bother me at all anymore, but drives my coworkers to puke if they have to. |
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Posted: 9/4/2015 7:15:58 AM EDT
[#16]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
This last point. Know your material, and know it well. You shouldn't have to rely on the slides, they are for supplement only. I present (again) Wednesday night to our Anesthesia group. I always love these meetings since they go to the most expensive place in town. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
+1000 on "don't read the slides to the audience." Be confident - you're the expert*. *To be "the expert" you don't have to know more than anyone else in the world, just more than anyone else in the room. This last point. Know your material, and know it well. You shouldn't have to rely on the slides, they are for supplement only. I present (again) Wednesday night to our Anesthesia group. I always love these meetings since they go to the most expensive place in town. there's also Atenolol |
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Posted: 9/4/2015 7:16:59 AM EDT
[#17]
It's a bunch of nerds how hard could it be?
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Posted: 9/4/2015 7:19:28 AM EDT
[#18]
Breathe.
Speak slower than you think you have to. Speak more clearly than you think you have to. That pretty much sums it up. |
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Posted: 9/4/2015 7:27:29 AM EDT
[#19]
Practice Once a day, everyday until your presentation. Do it while exercising, and doing different tasks, and in front of a mirror.
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Posted: 9/4/2015 7:27:32 AM EDT
[#20]
Be bold, be brief, be gone.
Rehearse. Seriously, if you practice it a few times, first alone, then in front of your significant other, it will go fine. |
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Posted: 9/4/2015 7:44:53 AM EDT
[#21]
Powerpoint slides are just the cliff notes edition. What you say should relate to the slides, but be more in depth. If the audience will ask you questions during the presentation, it is critical that you be able to seamlessly transition from answering the question to your presentation. For proper slides, it should take you 1.5 minutes or so to cover one slide. This varies a bit, but helps you pick the proper length for your presentation. A huge mistake I see in noobie presentations is folks have so damned many slides that they haven't even gotten to the main idea of their project when their time is up.
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Posted: 9/4/2015 7:49:47 AM EDT
[#22]
There's always someone (or more than one) in the audience that feel the need to be smarter than you and tear your presentation apart.
Ignore them. Focus on the rest of the audience that is there to learn from you. |
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Posted: 9/4/2015 7:53:50 AM EDT
[#23]
Engineering conference you say? Try to not look at your feet when you speak. Make eye contact with the feet of the guy sitting in the front row.
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Posted: 9/4/2015 7:58:23 AM EDT
[#24]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Engineering conference you say? Try to not look at your feet when you speak. Make eye contact with the feet of the guy sitting in the front row. Nobody ever sits in the front row.
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Posted: 9/4/2015 8:03:41 AM EDT
[#25]
Practice until you are comfortable.
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Posted: 9/4/2015 8:03:44 AM EDT
[#26]
http://www.toastmasters.org/
Find a club close to you and go. They will help. |
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Posted: 9/4/2015 8:27:05 AM EDT
[#27]
Engineering ?? I would rather listen to a presentation on quantitative genetics !! Everyone there is going to think they know more than you about the subject.
A Priest, a restaurant owner, a surgeon, and an engineer were playing golf one day. They noticed the foursome in front of them was hitting balls all over the place and had someone to take them to the ball where they would hit again in some different direction. They were very slow and the groups were starting to back up behind them. The club pro came through and the guys asks what was happening. The pro said these guys are local firefighters. A year ago when the club house caught fire there was an explosion and it blinded these guys. We like to get them out here every once and a while to help them relax and take their mind off things. The restaurant owner said "that is sad, perhaps I can feed them for free and we can have fund raiser for them". The surgeon said "I know some eye specialists I will talk to them and maybe they will be able to help them and restore some vision." The priest said " I will get the church involved in the fundraiser, we will put them on the prayer list, and we will see what we can do to assist their daily lives." The engineer said "They can't see. Couldn't they just play at night?" In addition to what the others have said- power point slides - son't read them. They are engineers they can read and will read them on their own. Tell them additional information that relate to the points on the slide. Put pictures in the slide. No one likes wall of text. I always put in quick slide that is on about 6 seconds and a quick comment. It is a slide that is a joke slide related to what is join on, or how you feel some how- example- a shark jumping out of the water at a seal and say "I know how the seal feels today. I am just trying to survive this presentation." I doubt they will laugh. Engineers have no sense of humor. Don't stand there and death grip the podium. If possible, move around. Don't be monotone. Raise your voice, lower your voice. You have arms and hands that work. Use them for gestures. Keep them out of your pockets. Pause occasionally to let key points sink in. Scan the room as you talk. don't worry if they are checking Facebook on their phones. You will be playing games on yours during their presentation. |
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Posted: 9/4/2015 8:30:27 AM EDT
[#28]
Quoted:
I don't consider myself a bad public speaker, but I'm not particularly good either. I'm giving a 20 minute technical presentation at an engineering conference in a few weeks. Any tips? A good trick to make your presentation memorable is to pull your dick out on stage and wave it about. Of course, if everybody starts doing it, it tends to lessen the effect; but currently, that is still a relatively unknown technique in many professional areas. |
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Posted: 9/4/2015 10:40:03 AM EDT
[#29]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
rehearse rehearse rehearse. I speak frequently in public, and also give tech presentations a lot. start small with yourself, OUT LOUD. Not in your head. Spoken language flows differently than internal dialog. Then practice with a couple people. wife, kid then some coworkers and a smaller group by the third time through you'll be pretty smooth at it, and you'll also get a feeling for how it flows and what the stumbling points are for you. . There's a guy named Peter Cohen or Cohan that wrote a book about stunningly awful demos. He has a lot of good tips. I'll summarize: 1: break your presentation down to 2-3 main messages. Think plank speech for a politician 2: Begin with a short summary of what you are going to show or explain.. Give the audience a chance to internalize that 3: Do the demo/Presentation. 4: Summarize what you said you would show/tell and then what you did show/tell general tips: 1 - speak s l o w. Like glacially slow. Nerves will speed you up, and when you are fighting to stay slow, you'll be about right. Nerves tend to crank up your speed and you'll be yammering like a chipmunk. So SLOW DOWN. Nice and easy. 2 - do NOT do an engineering "Wall-o-text" slide. people hate when you just read stuff to them. Use a single word or a few words, and then talk around it. To explain all the parts of an AR15, don't make a bullet list of the parts, just have an image of the gun, or a single word describing your message: SIMPLE then explain it. 3 - Use images, where you can. They must relate to the topic in some way. It binds the message 4- Move the slides along fast. Try not to spend more than a minute per slide, image whatever. 5 - Tell Stories. Do not just communicate data, wrap it in a story. Humans are story tellers and listeners. It helps them relate to a topic 6 - Humor. This is hard. Some people are funny, some are not. Most technical people think they are funny, when they are not. Just accept it. If you can use humor, do it. It's endearing and like stories, helps people relate to what's going on. If you have never been told "you're funny" by someone that's not a wife or a kid, reconsider. If you weren't voted class clown, or when you tell jokes, people look at you weird, then play it straight. It's hard to gauge you here. As I said, about 95% of people who identify as funny, are about as funny as a hemorrhoid, if you are not sure, you probably aren't. And so take it easy on the humor, just go for endearing and friendly and helpful. Eager Boy Scout vibe 7 - Use silence. You don't always have to be talking. Ask a question, and the wait. Let them wonder. Let them process. Maybe start a discussion or ask a question. Audience involvement helps a TON with engagement 8 - no filler words. When you feel an "um", "uh", "ah" coming on, just silence. Just stop. Pick up your train of thought and go on. most of all, just do several dry runs and you'll be fine. Last: Be real. Be OK with telling people you're nervous. They'll side with you. Be human and open and short of shitting your pants on stage, almost nothing can go wrong. I've read through this a couple of times now and I really appreciate the tips. I've already incorporated several of them, my slides are just a bunch of pictures that relate to the subject (concrete foundation testing) but I don't expect the audience to read much more than a line or two on a couple of slides, most of the slides are only pictures or diagrams. I might try some humor, I'm usually the funny guy in a room of engineers (low standards for funny), but I only have 16-18 minutes if I want to leave time for questions after so it might not be worth the time. While this isn't my first time being up in front of people, it is my first time in front of over a thousand engineers. This particular subject has caused a fair amount of....upsettedness in the past with other groups but I think this crowd won't be quite so unfriendly. I had the opportunity to watch a retard give a presentation at this conference a couple of years ago and he got laughed off the stage. Good. He had made my project a wreck from his stupid ideas that he pulled from his butt-hole, it was nice to see the rest of the community also think of him as an idiot. But now I've got that in mind as I give my own presentation.... 
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Posted: 9/4/2015 10:46:35 AM EDT
[#30]
Don't tell any jokes. If no one laughs you'll be embarrassed and it'll mess you up.
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