Practice makes perfect. Rehearse in front of helpful but critical colleagues. Experience builds confidence.
Do your homework. Research your audience, venue and any technology you plan to use.
Warm up. Before your speech prepare yourself psychologically. Use affirm-ations and visualisation techniques. Voice preparation gives energy.
Passion. Presenters are much more memorable and energetic when they are talking about topic that interests them. Use anecdotes and humour but keep jokes to minimum.
Image. Are your clothes and hairstyle appropriate?
Know your material. Use bullet points and cards — never read your speech unless you want to send your audience to sleep.
What is in it for your audience? Make sure you know and they know.
Body language. Hold eye contact, smile and have relaxed upright posture. This allows your diaphragm to
function properly. Use fluid gestures to communicate energy and confidence.
Don’t apologise. Most of the time your nervousness does not show. If you apologise for any problems, you’ll only be calling attention to them.
Confidence. Audiences want speakers to be interesting. They want you to succeed so have positive attitude and believe in yourself.
