By virtue of giving talks myself and seeing lots and lots of speakers, I have learned a few tips. The following are, by no means, an exhaustive list, but are just suggestions to help people who have to speak in public (whether you are a geek or not). Some of these lessons, I learned myself and some, I learned from other people and have distilled them for you here.

1. Realize that being nervous is perfectly alright.
I have given lots of talks, including a PhD defense, and EVERY SINGLE TIME I have been nervous. Recognize it, embrace it, and admit it to yourself. Then move on and start thinking about the actual topic you want to address.

2. Understand your audience.
If you are talking to developers, make the talk geeky. If you are talking to bloggers, talk it to the level to which they can relate. If you are speaking to environmental specialists, make sure that you touch on the issues that are relevant. Don’t “talk up” – if necessary, “talk down”.

3. Speak CLEARLY and SLOWLY
Slowly doesn’t mean that you need to slur your words, but you have to help your audience. Sometimes your audience’s ability to listen to your talk is hindered by the room’s poor acoustics. Make sure that the participants can listen to what you are saying clearly. Enunciate properly and make emphasis on your vowels and other sounds.

4. Provide an intro, a main body, and summarize in a conclusion.
Some people call this the law of “say what you are going to say, then say it, then say what you just said”, or the law of threes. Make sure that the participants have really grasped your message by summarizing it at the end.

5. Engage the audience
There is nothing more boring than listen to a 45 minute speech without any sort of interaction with the public. Talk to the audience, engage with them.

6. Use visuals.
Whether you use Power Point, a piece of paper, or other kinds of visuals, make sure that your audience can see something other than yourself. I really like a lot of presenters who don’t make presentations with Power Point, and use alternative methods.

7. Don’t read – speak!
I am too used to the talks given by specialists in the humanities, who actually READ from a paper. I guess that comes from the time when papers were read. I actually heard people saying “I’m reading a paper on so and so” – and they DID! EEEWWW.

8. Err on the short side.
I hate talks that drag on, and on, and on. I just attended an academic panel recently where the speaker had 15 minutes and he went on for 30. I was actually praying that the talk would end, by the time he was done, I had left the room. If you need to fill the time, you can always talk to the audience.

9. Provide link love.
This doesn’t mean that you need to link to other bloggers – I mean, link your talk to your fellow speakers if you are in a panel, or provide MANY examples of what you are presenting that are NOT yours. I know that I am guilty of self-citations in many of my own papers, but I also cite LOTS of other academics.

10. If at all possible, provide handouts.
I know that I attend lots of geeky conferences, and that I am all for saving trees, but sometimes, you DO need a physical, printed piece of paper. It’s funny – at EVERY geek event I attend, people ask me for my CARD. I am like “hey, can’t you just go to my blog site?” – but it’s true, people still DO read printed pieces of paper. And handouts really help a reader follow your train of thought.

Of course, I am more than happy to integrate any suggestions. These are the things that I’ve learned through the years of giving talks.

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1. Giving good talks (my Top Ten Suggestions)
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3. I won’t be a good samaritan anymore (at least in Vancouver)