I'm giving a presentation. Any tips on speaking to a group effectively and minimizing nervousness?

Answer 1

I think you just have to do it. If you already know the info then practice won't help - you already know it. The problem isn't the facts, it's the presentation - getting up in front of people. I used to be nervous about speaking in front of a crowd. Now I can go up cold and present charts I've never seen before.

I think the biggest change happened when I gave one presentation at a technical conference when I was about 22. I was totally nervous and my boss took me out for a drink (I wanted to stay in the hotel and practice, but he said I HAD to go out and enjoy myself). I wound up getting fairly hammered and completely forgot my nervousness.

The next day the viewgraphs were mess up (back when we had viewgraphs) and things were out of order and I was a mess all over again. I gave my talk for 20 minutes and opened the floor for questions. The first one was so basic it took me a few seconds to realize I wasn't missing the point. The next was also trivial. I soon realized I knew about 1000% more than anyone else in the room about my particular subject, and instantly all nervousness left me. To this day I have the same feeling whenever I give a presentation, and I haven't really felt nervous in years, even when talking in front of 500 people.

Answer 2

1. Practice - especially to friends instead mirror. It helps you to reduce nervousness by making eye-contacts. Go over the facts and all the source if you are making an informative presentation.

2. Exercise - I would run a couple laps that morning, because you et relaxed after the work out.

3. Have a good sleep a night before (or at least try) instead doing last minute preparation. And tea really helps me, too.

Best wishes.

Answer 3

1) Always try to have eye contact with the crowd. It's okay if you have a page of notes in front of you, but try making eye contact with one or two people from each 1/3 or 1/4 of hte audience. So spend a few seconds at the left, the center, and at the right.

2) Include some jokes so that your audience will appreciate your speech more.

3) Try to integrate the audience. Questions are a good way of doing this - make your audience feel like they are PART of your speech.

Answer 4

The most important thing is remembering to do what you have to do in order to perform the presentation. Do what feels comfortable for you. Deep breathing typically works for me. For my first COM presentation, I rehearsed how I would move, stand, and scan the crowd to make eye contact. As far as standing in front of a group of people, just remember that there's nothing to worry about, just imagine that you're carrying on a one-sided conversation with them, like you're telling them a story in the form of a presentation. Public speaking used to scare me to death until I started this regiment.

Answer 5

Make sure that you get plenty of rest the night before the speech. Practice ...practice...practice...The more you practice the speech the easier it will be to do when you are nervous. Before you start the speech make sure to take a deep breath and don't forget to breath while you are up there. Sounds silly now but it happens. Make sure to not focus on just one person in the room. Keep your focus moving around the room . Jokes are okay but only if you are sure that everyone will get them. And remember that nobody in the history of speaking has ever died from giving a speech...okay Ceaser but he was stabbed and I doubt that will happen to you.

Answer 6

Everytime I get up to speak to a group of people I think:
" F#$k it! just do it! whats the worst that can happen! "

Its hard to speak in front of other people, but honestly, they aren't listening most of the time.