Once you gain experience, knowledge, and credibility, you will start getting invites to address various conferences as a keynote speaker or even as a subject matter expert or a speaker at some panel. And of course, you would feel proud about it as such invites are well deserved and earned with years of hard work and dedication. But if you are a first-time presenter, high chance that more than feeling proud, you will feel nervous!

Speaking in front of a fraternity, that looks up to you in many ways, not just demands a great command over your topic but also a great presentation or public speaking skills. And if you are someone worried about your upcoming interaction with a large audience, here we share a guideline that would help you perform at your best. 

1. Know your topic and objectives.

First thing first, know the topic of discussion and objectives that the organizers want you to achieve through this talk. As every topic can be discussed from various perspectives, you must understand what are you talking about and why. This would help you identify your key points of discussion, examples that you quote, or any sort of audio-visuals you use. According to me, aligning with the objectives is like a half-battle won. So invest time in understanding and evaluating, what is expected from you. Do not hesitate to get in touch with the organizers and ask 10 questions. Bothering them before your talk would be quite better than bothering them afterward!

2. Know the flow and the timeline.

Generally, these conferences have a tight agenda and the time allotted to each speaker is well defined. And you need to adhere to that if you do not want someone coming to you in between to wind up quickly. Also, most of the time the agenda is shared with the participants well in advance so they also are mentally prepared for a particular schedule, and no one likes a speaker who takes 30 minutes more than expected, no matter how good the content is. Also, know the flow of the invention and identify your order of speaking, like, are you the first speaker or fifth one, or are you going to speak during the evening or morning hours or post lunch hours, believe me, it makes a lot of difference. If you are the first speaker of the day in the morning slot, your chances of getting attention are quite high. Against that, if you are a 3rd speaker and your talk is scheduled just post lunch, I believe you need to put an effort into grabbing the attention. The post-lunch session demands more of an interactive, storytelling, or activity-based approach to make it effective. So, know the flow of the conference, the time allotted to you to speak, and in which slot.

 3. Preparing your content. 

Now that you know what is expected from you and how much time you have, it is time to start working on what exactly are you going to talk about. Follow this step-by-step process for the same. 

1. Brainstorm: You want to say a lot, but you can’t include everything as time will always be a crunch, brainstorming will help you collect all your points in one place, prioritize, and give it a good flow. This way, you would not miss repeat, or overlap anything, watch this video to learn how to brainstorm. Link: https://youtu.be/WpMZ-H2YYAk?si=d4sqtB3wX5mBZRpk (Watch time approx. 7 minutes)

2. Write your speech draft: Of course, I don’t want you to memorize it word by word, but it is a good idea to write it once word by word. That will help you gain more clarity and you will be able to design a smooth and logical flow with suitable transition. Divide your speech into 3 parts, the opening, which grabs attention, the body, which communicates key points with relevant examples and the conclusion which leaves a lasting impact. 

3. Create a PPT/Cue card: Once you are ready with the structure of the talk, decide on how would you present. Not every talk needs a PPT presentation. Sometimes a heartfelt direct interaction creates a better impact. Decide on this based on the nature of your topic, access to audiovisuals, and your personal preference. 

·If you decide to use PPT: Consider that no one likes to look at boring slides with a lot of text and no appeal. You need to come up with something interesting that keeps your audience connected. Check this playlist of tips on presentation skills if you need help in this area. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdDnamn1fR-JeOvjjpUqllgF5BgKSJrp3 (Watch time approx. 15 minutes)

·If you decide to go without the PPT: In this case, you can use cue cards while presenting. By using cue-cards, you will be able to maintain your flow, you will have your reference material handy in case you miss any points, and of course, it looks way more professional and comfortable than taking your A4 size printed speech draft on stage. Wondering what is cue cards and how to use them? Check this video, https://youtu.be/yqDht28opZU?si=TYitZPuSHXUmtKu1 (Watch time: 6 minutes approx.)

1. Video record yourself.

I cannot insist upon this anymore. If there is one technique through which you can take your presentation to the next level, it's by evaluating your video recording. Through this, you would get to know,

·Is everything going well in the flow as you visualized?

·Are you making any mistakes or errors while speaking some specific words or data?

·Do you have a confident body language or do you have a lot of unnecessary body movements?

· Does your voice seem exciting or dull?

·Are you able to finish within the given timeline?

As they say, self-evaluation is the best way to improvise. Practice your talk 5 times, ask someone to record it for you, and then learn through self-evaluation and I am sure you will find various key points that you can improvise on within the next few days. 

2.  Fake it till you make it. 

Even after preparing everything and doing all that is required, if you still feel nervous, remember, that your audience is there to learn from your experience and knowledge and they are not there to focus on your silly mistakes and grammatical errors. You sound more confident than what you generally feel. So put your all negative thoughts aside, wear a smiling mask, and go ahead and do it. Anyway, your audience does not have your script. 😊 So if you are somehow able to manage, the audience will never get to know how you felt. 

We would like to hear back from you if all these tips help you. Do share your thoughts with us and if you see someone struggling in this area, share the link of this blog with them and help them in making it right.