Some speakers seem almost afriad to ask questions in case someone trips them up and they’re made to look bad. I love Merlin’s approach.

Toastermasters teaches people a number of these points – very worthwhile to do a few of their sessions.

Some good points you make here though.

Don’t read off the screen &/or notes.

That drives me nuts. if you’re up there presenting, it should be because you know your stuff well enough that you don’t need to read it.

@folks – Olivia is fantastic at this stuff BTW & teaches it…

- as well as avoiding verbalising your self-talk – get over your mistakes. We all make mistakes when we’re presenting eg: stumbling over a phrase, or not being able to find the exact right word. Mistakes are only a problem if you make them a problem by spending mental time beating yourself up about it -then you’ll make more mistakes. Notice the mistake, then move on.

- I agree what we need to balance imagery with text. But that text doesn’t have to come in the form of bullets. It can be in the form of diagrams and flow charts which visually show the relationships between textual elements.

And I love the idea of ego-talk. That’s a great point

A couple of extra thoughts:
1) I really like the trend towards using symbolic and evocative images in presentations in place of endless bullet lists, however much of the time these only make sense in the context of the presentation, and not when seen later on Slideshare or as a printout. Garr Reynolds of Presentation Zen fame advocates using more images and fewer words in delivered presentations, and then leaving people text-rich handouts or electronic versions with notes. This is more work for the presenter, but delivers the best of both worlds.
2) On the subject of self-talk. Another form of self-talk which undercuts good presentations for me is ego-talk. I respond to presenters who wear their knowledge lightly, acting as a conduit for the information rather than trying to make themselves the main event. Does anyone else get irritated by this?

I find myself increasingly doing presentations in my career, and these are some great points. The point about saying you’re almost out of time and rushing through reminded me of something else – respect your audience, respect their time and interest. If I go to a restaurant and they only give me half the meal I ordered, I’m going to be disappointed. Don’t tell people if you’re not going to be able to give them the whole presentation. Ensure you can give people everything they expect, and have an option to “add in more” if there is time. Or as Seth Godin recently wrote in his blog – “No audience member, in the history of presentations (written or live) has ever said, “it was exciting, useful and insightful but far too short.””

As an aside, I would LOVE to see a follow-up post on how to present with others. I find there are unique challenges associated with working with others in terms of sharing control and differing presentation styles. I’m very interested in some pointers in that regard!