

Ask HN: I am giving my first talk to 200 people at my job. Any tips? - elb0w

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 &gt;170 online viewers registers and 150+ in person. Any tips &#x2F; advice?
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Arjuna
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](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6198997)

Note patio11's advice in that discussion:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6199544](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6199544)

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avenger123
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.

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firebones
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.

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teeja
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.

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amberes
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.

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

Pace yourself. Speak slowly and clearly.

~~~
elb0w
Thanks, right now I feel like im ok on nerves.

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beat
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).

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

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petervandijck
\- 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!

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palidanx
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.

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OafTobark
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.

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

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elb0w
thanks everyone, some solid advice here

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j45
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
Practice

