Ask HN: I am giving my first talk to 200 people at my job. Any tips?

19 points by elb0w 12 years ago | 19 comments

I wrote a framework that has gotten very popular at my company. I have only ever given a 15-20 min talk on it in the past to groups of 20, 30 people. My next talk has >170 online viewers registers and 150+ in person. Any tips / advice?

Arjuna 12 years ago |

Congratulations on the fact that your work is getting recognized, and good luck on the presentation!

You might find this helpful:

Public speaking for introverts

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6198997

Note patio11's advice in that discussion:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6199544

avenger123 12 years ago |

I am assuming that the intention of the talk is to convince others within the company to use this framework. So, in a sense, this is a sales pitch.

What I would suggest is to take some time and make a list of all the possible objections as to why anyone in the audience would not want to use your framework. Put yourself in their shoes. Try really hard to see from their point of view. Once you've done that, now go through each one and come up with real answers to each objection as to why they should use the framework.

For some of the reasons for not using the framework, you will not have a good answer (ie. its hard to argue too much with "we have million+ line of code and using your framework doesn't add any value") but for a lot of it, given some thought you should come up with a reasonable argument for your framework.

Once you've done this, you can now implicitly incorporate some of the answers to the objections in your presentation without explicitly mentioning the objection. You will also have given yourself a great chance at answering some good questions that will come up that will likely touch upon these areas.

firebones 12 years ago |

While these are some great tips, don't focus so much on the mechanics (timing, practice, speaking style, slides) that you fail to spend time on honing, improving and buffing up the actual content, or taking it in a new direction. A compelling and memorable demo or example of your framework in action--perhaps using it some novel or humorous way no one expected, or connecting it to some bigger picture need that the community doesn't yet know that they have--is time well spent.

You want people coming away with bigger ideas and better understanding; that's what will persist long after they have forgotten whether you ran 3 minutes over or had too many "ums".

Don't neglect the mechanics though, but first things first: interesting and compelling content makes up for a lot.

teeja 12 years ago |

The advice given to radio DJ's might be helpful: you're not talking to 100,000 people. You're talking to one or two people. In this case they're all sitting in the same room, but you can still pick out one or two who appear to be listening closely.

If you have a set amount of time to fill, avoid any anxiety about that by preparing more than enough material, and knowing ahead of time what you'll be sacrificing.

Since you know your subject well, focus on communicating your enthusiasm about it. We've all sat through lectures by people who sound bored by what they've chosen to spend years at.

amberes 12 years ago |

Look people in the eye. Except, don't look them really in the eye because it'll make you nervous, just look right above their eyes at the hair. From a distance they won't notice.

Make yourself sympathetic (well, that's how I do it, not necessary your thing). After you told them who you are and what your function is, tell very quickly in 10 seconds what you like, some hobbies, where you live, show them a funny picture of your cat/dog.

I like to do things out of the ordinary, it catches their attention.

Engage your audience: Ask questions. DO a little quiz. Here's some examples of what I do in our standard presentation:

I have a slide of a biometric device the competition uses. Next I show different ways people use it, 3 photo's next to eachother, 1 right, 2 wrong. Then I ask the audience who thinks photo 1 is right, who thinks photo 2 is right,... There's always lots of confusion.

Next, I show the biometric device we use and ask them if they can think of a way not to use ours the right way. There isn't.

Another example: When I have told how what our operations does and give them some figures, I ask them 'who thinks we are more than 50 people, raise your hand please'... 'who thinks less than 50'... 'less than 20'.... etc. We're less than 10 and about 40% thinks we're more than 50 so that drops a little bomb.

DanInTokyo 12 years ago |

Engage the folks there in person - look them in the eye (as many different people as you can).

Try to generate some interaction - ask questions, preferably ones that can be answered with a show of hands.

Breathe.

Know your material, but don't try to memorize it. Work it like a TV sports anchor - know what's going on and the details and ad-lib the specifics.

Smile and seem/be genuinely happy to be sharing this information with your audience. Wanting to be there is obvious, and so is not wanting to be there.

beat 12 years ago |

Also, handouts != slides. A good slideshow is sparse, so handouts from it won't have much data. Try to put enough in the slides to make them useful as handouts, and they'll be a mess as slides.

Steve Jobs' unveiling of the iPhone is on YouTube. Watch it! Learn from the master. And watch his slides, and imagine how awful they'd be as a handout, and enjoy how awesome they are as support for his verbal presentation.

marshray 12 years ago | |

I have to disagree on the Steve Jobs advice. People liked his presentations because they buy into the whole product image and they'd be on the edge of their seat to see what he was announcing.

If your audience actually wants get useful in-depth technical information (e.g., to evaluate an app development framework) or new skills, don't try to come off like Jobs.

csdrane 12 years ago |

You're never perceived as being as nervous as you feel.

Pace yourself. Speak slowly and clearly.

elb0w 12 years ago | |

Thanks, right now I feel like im ok on nerves.

beat 12 years ago |

Buy the book Presentation Zen and read it. Build your slideshow based on advice in that book. Practice your talk, with a timer, both alone and with a friendly audience (my dogs will sometimes listen for upwards of five minutes if they think they'll get a treat).

cafard 12 years ago |

Practice a lot, as much as you and your friends can bear. Review the videos between practices.

petervandijck 12 years ago |

- 30 slide maximum for 1 hour talk.

- Speak slower.

- Practice the entire presentation a few times at home.

- Speak slower.

- Answer questions DURING the talk.

Good luck!

palidanx 12 years ago |

I say be sure to dry run your entire presentation and to time it. You will figure out any nuances and time issues with your presentation.

OafTobark 12 years ago |

Slight off topic but what do you call your framework, is it for the company only, and what language is this base in? Just wondering.

andymoe 12 years ago |

Don't say "um" or "uh" etc, instead just pause, and speak more slowly than you think is reasonable.

elb0w 12 years ago |

thanks everyone, some solid advice here

j45 12 years ago |

Be your best self. Talk to people like you already know them (in a good way). The DJ advice mentioned here is great too. Talk with feeling. People want to hear your energy as much as your words. Talk in short sentences, they help line up the next sentence. Don't worry about memorizing your presentation line for line, but more about the major points you want to make, you can trust yourself to make those points in your good style already. If you feel like you stumble or whatever, don't worry about it, you can just pause and go into another sentence or topic.

adamconroy 12 years ago |

Practice