You’ve mastered the first rule and have submitted a session to present at a SQLSaturday, local user group or at your office, excellent. Your presentation is written, all the details are there…slides, demos and you’ve got your patter. You’ve followed the second rule and the presentation is all you. What’s next?

Practice makes perfect

 

Time to run through your presentation multiple times so that you know it well and can give it without any problems.

You might have a demo heavy session and need to practice those demos over and over, getting them just perfect. It could be a presentation that’s all theory with multiple slides; run through them, know what’s on each, understand each statement that you have put out there. Do you smell BACON?

It really doesn’t matter the kind of demo just practice it over and over again. Drive your dog crazy by holding it a captive audience as you present while holding a strip of bacon just out of reach.

Don’t worry if you don’t have a dog as a cat, spouse, girlfriend, boyfriend or fluffy bunny rabbit will work just as well.

The more you run through your presentation the more comfortable you will feel with it. This comfort is going to be vitally important for when you first get up in front of that “live studio audience”.

When those nerves kick in (and they will) you’ll have the mind muscle memory to carry you through. After all you practiced it until it was second nature to present, there’s not going to be anything to worry about come presentation time…right?