Lesson learnt from last WebJam if you intend to use somebody else’s computer to do a keynote (or powerpoint) presentation use common fonts, not everybody has your chosen font installed.

My advice watch the experts present and learn from them (or just critique other presenters and learn what not to do).

Get up and present more often, webjam, barcamp etc there is nothing better than learn by doing.

Go subscribe to the Presentation Zen feed http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/

Thanks particularly to you Miles for your comments, very useful and appropriate. If you don’t know it’s broke you can’t fix it.

If I may pass through something I found, be yourself. It’s you who is presenting. You wouldn’t be asked to present if you didn’t already know the subject matter, so all that’s left is you.

Next from that is this…. you can’t please everyone, so worry less about the displeased but focus on delivering. Or, as a horse trainer once told me, “spend your 10 mental dollars on riding, don’t waste your money thinking about falling.”

Thanks Miles.

And if you lose your place in your presentation know how to jump directly to the slide you were at, saving us from waiting for you to advance through a dozen such annoying transitions.

I’ve been to quite a few local things over the past year where the audience spent the first 30-40 mins of ‘talk time’ waiting for the person to get organised. People get annoyed waiting for you to get your shit and you also hold other people up.

Earlier this year at semi-permanent so many of the speakers were un-prepared with regards to their hardware or software, one guy even did his entire presentation straight out of iPhoto because his slideshow wasn’t working, while another company brought the wrong adapter or totally forgot it for their mac book to get to vga.

I’ve seen people not having the correct adapters for their mac laptops to plug in to the VGA of the protector, people having sound, but not checking what cables would be needed to get their sound to the audience.

The day prior to the talk, make sure you have all these things and that it all works as expected, I don’t want to come see you talk and then wait 20 minutes for you to get your shit together, you’re supposed to be professional ;)

If you need cue cards, use them, get a large curtin ring and thread them onto this. Why? well if you drop them, you are going to be a mess.

Have your laptop ready to go, have everything launched, have the demo ready to go. And files you need on the desktop please. And clear that desktop of all but the required files.

Backup, have a backup on USD drive, as slide presentation and as PDF, put a copy on a file space on the web, maybe a copy on slideshare. What happens if your computer fails.

Turn Twitter, IM, Gtalk OFF before the presentation.

Start the presentation with a full battery.

Know who the time keeper is in the room, watch them for clues on the time remaining if you don’t know.

Talk slowly

Reduce the dot points or words on a slide. Less is more. Keep it focused and sharp to the point.

Try and setup the computer to mirror the monitor , I know this is not always possible.

Use a laser pointer.

Don’t personalise the talk too much but naming your friends and associates in the audience unless really relevant, that just becomes cliquey and can alienate you audience a little.

Don’t rabid with an introduction and how you got there, or who your are too much. People have already made that choice to come and se your talk, you don’t have to sell them again on the talk, they are just waiting to see you present. Get to the core of the talk quickly.

Practice, Practice, Practice. Go give talks outside of your usual community or associates.