

Tips on giving a big speech - grellas
http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/10/10-tips-for-giving-an-important-speech.html

======
patio11
In over a decade of public speaking experience, the biggest bang for the buck
I've ever gotten was about eye contact. First, do it. Second, pick three
people in the audience (left, center, right) to do it with. Speak individually
to each one, rotating to the next after about a paragraph, cycling as many
times as required. While you're speaking to someone, they are your proxy for
the audience: if she nods the audience is nodding, if she laughs the audience
is laughing, if she looks confused the audience is confused. Adjust as
required.

Here's how the audience perceives what you're doing: everyone will think you
spent roughly one third of the speech talking to them, specifically, which is
enough to be flattering but not enough to be creepy. The constant movement of
attention means you keep moving [+] and don't stare at one person for the
entire speech. Your audience will come away with a feeling of closeness and
emotional rapport because you were "listening" to them during the speech via
your proxies.

\+ Don't give a speech seated or standing behind a podium/lectern: weak
speakers have a tendency to hide, and the body language tends to come across
as fidgeting even when it isn't.

~~~
lionhearted
Likewise, that's some of the best advice on speaking I've gotten too. I always
picked five people - front right, front middle, front left, back mid-left, and
back mid-right, and just cycle through them. If you know one of the people
personally, all the better - they're more likely to give you a little nod or
otherwise encourage.

Definitely move around.

Also, people forget - first and foremost, you've got be entertaining. If
you're informing but not entertaining, people will tune out. Energy levels
higher than normal. It's hard to have too high energy so long as you're not
out of control. It's very easy to have too low of energy. Rarely has a speech
been bad because the talker was too enthusiastic (I know there's memorable
counterexamples, but they're really truly the exception).

~~~
philwelch
_Rarely has a speech been bad because the talker was too enthusiastic (I know
there's memorable counterexamples, but they're really truly the exception)._

 _Very_ few people even have the capacity to cross the line between
"enthusiastic" and "Ballmeresque".

Even then, many of the exceptions only look silly on video, which is naturally
out of context. Howard Dean seemed way too enthusiastic in this clip
(<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5FzCeV0ZFc>) but from the crowd itself it
was a lot different (<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQh0BEUlJWY>).

------
wallflower
It's easier to give a long speech. In Toastmasters contests, the time limit is
7 minutes and 30 seconds. I used to own a couple DVDs of the World Champion of
Public Speaking competition. At that highest level, the content, delivery,
timing, story, presentation are all super polished and honed to a sharp edge.
Yes, they all tend to be a tad too motivational but that's what the best
speeches tend to be (and the best speakers aspire to be...).

Here are a couple examples (from the same guy - most of the winning public
speakers seem to now professionally coach speakers for a living and don't
share their speech videos online):

[http://darrenlacroix.com/2010/06/darren-lacroixs-winning-
toa...](http://darrenlacroix.com/2010/06/darren-lacroixs-winning-toastmasters-
speech-at-nsa/)

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qovsP1aaEQY>

------
bbuffone
Having talked at many conferences there are a bunch things I do:

# Practice, seems simple but when I don't then it will not be as good as when
I do.

# Go early and talk to a couple of the people that will be watching the talk.
This calms me down as I now have a couple people on myside. It backfired once
when I started talking to someone and they turned out to be a jackass, but I
moved onto someone else.

# Use the people I talked to as my eye contact, there now friends I should be
able to look at them

# Take everything out of my pockets and anything I might start fiddling with
off.

# Slide Remote is key as you can interact with audience better.

# Simple slides - one phrase or simple list is usually best, for tech talks I
write a snippet on the slide

# Pause and Breathe, it may seem like a long time since the previous word but
its not. This tends to be why people start adding filler words (aww, like...)

------
charlesju
My biggest speaking advice is to spread your legs a little further than
shoulder length. I do not know why, but this simple stance will give you a lot
more stability and stop the fidgeting.

------
wyclif
Recommended for those looking for helpful reading material:
[http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Art-Great-Speech-One-
How/dp/08144...](http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Art-Great-Speech-One-
How/dp/0814470548/)

------
sharpn
If you find making eye contact unnerving, look directly at the gap between a
person's eyebrows whilst speaking - to them it's indistinguishable from actual
eye contact.

