The best public speaking tip ever by Scott Berkun

This is it. This is the big one. It’s the best, simplest advice I’ve ever heard about public speaking: Videotape yourself speaking and watch it.
That’s it. That’s the whole thing.
This is not new (title says best tip, not the most original), but most people are terrified of this and never do it. Well guess what - if you’re afraid to do it, how should your audience feel? Would you hire an accountant that doesn’t do their own taxes? Well, if you’re a speaker, you should, once in awhile, be your own audience.
We’ve all seen thousands of professional speakers, actors and presenters on tv and in the workplace making us all excellent critics of presentations. But what most of us lack is the most basic feedback on how we perform ourselves.
If you watch even 5 minutes of yourself presenting, you can catch:

• Lazy speaking habits, like ummms and aaaaws.
• Lack of eye contact (reading isn’t presenting) and presence.
• Body language issues and distractions.
• Moments when you’re confused by your own material.
• Energy level (do you seem to care about what you’re saying?).
• Personality - are you indistinguishable from a presentation robot?

Watch yourself and take notes. After you’ve caught things like above that distract you as a viewer, videotape yourself again - on the same material - with the goal of doing less of the above, and more or the things you did well. As you repeat the material with these things in mind, more and more of your material will come through. Still think you suck? Do it again and again and I promise you will get better nearly every time.
With the video, you can ask friends to review and give feedback - but pick your presentation minded, critical friends, not the ones who, like your Mom, will just tell you how great you were.
This requires no training, no special Powerpoint voodoo, just your willingness to swallow your pride for an hour or more. Believe me - your audience will appreciate it.

10 common presentation tips by Daryl Mather

As part of my own consulting, as well as mentoring of colleagues and others that I come in contact with, I often give them the following tips on presentations.

This is sort of a small summary of the one day presenting skills course that I have developed over the past couple of years. I hope it is of use and of interest to you. (And if it is please share it with others)

And yes.. this means you need to revisit that presentation and cut it to ribbons.

1. Drink water about 20 minutes before speaking. It makes you think better. (Fact!) THis is good for interviews, exams and negotiations by the way.

2. Don't just use the bog-standard Power Point Fonts. (Fontstock.net)

3. Use open gestures. Do not point at anybody except with the back of your hands. (Flowing movement) Do not hide behind the flipchart. (Please!!)

4. Images win over text. The presentationis not your teleprompter, it is there for the audience. iStockphoto, Google Images, Flickr and Photobucket are all low cost sources of images. (Careful of copyright)

5. If you must use text then be creative. Don't write everything you know, only the points they need to remember. Don't use ten words when two will do, you can add it later verbally.

Do use scrolling, don't accentuate every word. Do change sizes, colors, etcetera.

6. Relax - they want you to succeed. (normally)

7. Remember the rule of thirds. Cut your screen into thirds and make sure that you place items in the right places. (For good perspective)

8. Be conversational, be socratic. (Ask questions)

9. State your claim. In your first minute or two make it quite clear that you have the right to be there talking to them about this theme. The more important you are the smaller introduction you need. (Anybody ever ask "who's Elvis?") So until you are that important you need to make sure everyone is comfortable spending the money they have spent.

10. Take questions during the presentation.

You dont want to get into the situation where a) you take questions from the most important person in the room but not everyone else, or b) you tell the most important person in the room to shut up.

Not an exhaustive list, but a good starting point for anybody about to present.

Another good article is 6 Tips for Presenting without Software