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I have compiled 10 tips on giving a great talk in this post 🙂
Getting ready to give your first talk? Or just looking to improve your game a bit?
We can ALL do better at giving talks.
Talks are tricky and there is a great variety of them too:
- talks given to your research group
- talks given to your collaborators at a telecon
- talks at a conference
- talks at a poster session
- talks at an outreach event
- talks at a job interview
Although these are distinct from each other they can be improved by following these tips on giving a great talk.
Here goes!
1. Understand your audience and what ONE THING you want them to take away from your talk.
This is key to any kind of communication. When you make it all about your audience, they win, and therefore, you win. You HAVE to keep them in mind. It CAN’T be about you.
So, think: what ONE thing do you want them to take away from your talk. The more clear this is to you the more clearly you can present it and show things to support it in your talk. Make it easy, stupidly easy for your audience to understand THE THING of importance.
2. It’s a performance!
Start with something that blows their mind!
Motivate your talk — Why should anyone care about what you’re about to say!
Hold the audience’s attention by
sounding excited about your work
making eye-contact with your audience members
using voice modulations, avoid the monotone!
using dramatic pauses! Sometimes, the best thing is to just stop talking for a second and let the awesomeness sink in..
Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. But not so much that you sound like a machine at the talk. Retain spontaneity.
Dress up! I say, at least, business casuals.
3. Repeat yourself.
One of my favorite undergrad Physics professors, Prof. David Haase (NCSU) used to say:
- “Tell ‘em what you are going to tell ‘em
- Tell ‘em
- Tell ‘em what you told ‘em”
This is in line with making the ONE THING clear to the audience as clear can be!
4. Always tell them something they know already!!
This is muy importante. People love to hear what they know already. This greatly helps them to cope with anything NEW you might tell them. If EVERYTHING you tell them is NEW to them, you are in trouble. That is too much.
Dedicate at least 25% of your talk telling people things they know already – do not underestimate how much this will help them and therefore, help you.
5. Never undersell your work or your contribution to the work
You want to give credit where credit is due but also own your own contributions. Do not undersell your part. Take pride and be excited about the work you did. If you don’t think your work is important, then why are you even giving a talk, right? You must give the impression that YOU believe in yourself, your work, and that it is WORTH people’s time to listen to you speak about the work.
6. BREATHE.
Do not talk so fast that everyone including you gets overwhelmed and you faint from not having a chance to breathe in between talking! I am serious.
7. Don’t information overload
Avoid too many words in one slide, use visuals, have enough white space.
Remember a “Picture speaks a thousand words.”
So don’t put more than one or two pictures in a slide either!
8. Be clear
Make words readable
Make the font big enough
Remember when picking the font colors that it may not show up on the screen as you expect
Label axes of plots!
Break down complexity
9. Don’t run over.
This is especially important at a job talk!! Run over to automatically get rejected. It is important that you remember to value people’s time and appreciate that they might be on a schedule.
10. Take questions like a pro:
Don’t lose your cool – if the question-asker is being mean, the audience will sympathize with you, I promise. Unless you react like a jerk.
If you don’t know, say you don’t know. Plain and simple.
Repeat the question for the audience. Then answer it.
Relax, make sure you understand the question first before attempting to answer it.
Special thanks to Prof. Todd Thompson (OSU) for sharing their tips on giving a great talk.
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