I attended a small combined tech meetup arranged by ILUG-D. I felt like there were a lot of things off during this tech meetup. One of them being the speakers not exactly knowing how to talk.
All of the speakers were talking about amazing things but due to the lack of presentation skills, it felt off and boring. Here’s a very loose checklist of Do’s during your tech talk presentation -
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Curb your curse of knowledge. Almost all of the time, people are not on the same thought train as you are when you’re speaking. Explain as much as possible. Assuming that something is a common knowledge is not a good thing. If you want to assume for the sake of time then just mention that you’re assuming things.
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Be loud, clear and confident. The stage is yours, talk the way you talk to your friends. If you don’t know or clear about something, just mention it. Crack some jokes, take a chill pill.
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It is okay to make mistakes while speaking. Just mention that you said something wrong and not to consider that section.
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Concise and to the point presentation. Do NOT write an essay on every slide. A single point is good enough for people listening to you. They don’t want to read Kafka’s Metamorphosis on your slide. They are there to listen to what you have to say. Make speaker notes and put extra hints there so you don’t forget things while talking.
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Don’t drift away too much from the topic. I have seen this happen a lot when a speaker who’s very passionate, about the thing they’re talking about, presents something. I love your passion but please try to stay on topic. People who are interested in your talk will definitely connect with you and consume your knowledge.
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Conclude. What was the key takeaway from the talk?
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Q/As are important. Answer as much as possible. If time is not on your side then ask others to contact you or ask questions during the end of the meetup.
As a bonus, here’s a basic structure that you may follow –
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Introduce yourself! (And the topic you’re presenting)
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Table Of Contents (It’s also good to mention what they’ll be taking away from your talk.)
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Interaction is necessary. But do not overdo it, it’s not a school class (￣ー￣).
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Conclusion is important at the end of the talk.
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Ask for offline feedback. Criticism will make you better.
There are multiple other things to take care of but I think the above mentioned points are a good set of rules that you may follow.