How To Speak Good

Ted Roche

Ted Roche & Associates, LLC

http://www.tedroche.com

What Is This?

• This is a presentation...
  • ... about making presentations...
    • ... ... during which I'll make a presentation...
• First, I'll present a presentation template
• Then, use the template...
• to make a presentation... about presentations.

What Are We Going to Talk About?

• What, Who, How?
• Listeners and Speakers Both Benefit from Outline Structure:
  • Organizes your thoughts
  • Maps the show for audience
• One Sentence Summary: "In this hour,..."
  • "If you get nothing else from this presentation,..."
  • If you can't summarize it,...

Who Am I?

• Free Advertising Goes Here!!!
• (also the first and last slides)
• Qualifications
• Relevant to the subject
• Plug Your Book, Product, Services

Ted Roche

• Principal in Ted Roche & Associates, LLC
• Data-Centric Software Development
• Consulting, Mentoring and Training
• http://www.tedroche.com

How to Make an Outline

• First, You Get Their Attention
• Then, You Tell Them What You are Going To Tell Them
• Then, You Tell Them
• Then, You Tell Them What You Told Them
• Think: Who, What, When, Where, How

What You Will Learn Here

• What is the Main Message ?
• Lesson One
• Lesson Two
• Lesson Three
• Think in Threes!

Lesson One

• Lesson One

Lesson Two

• Lesson Two

Lesson Three

• Lesson Three

What We Learnt Today

• Lesson One
• Lesson Two
• Lesson Three
• No New Material!

So What Will We Learn Here?

• Set the stage
• Set their expectations
• Do and Don't, Tips & Trix
• Exit Stage Left

Set the Stage

• Start all applications in advance
• Move all files so they appear in the Open dialog
• Put all typing in a notes file
• Create a folder with all the shortcuts you need
• Use Properties to set Start directory, parameters

Set Their Expectations

• Tell 'Em What You're Gonna Tell Them.
• Audience appreciates repetition
• Some may chose another presentation - good!
• Keeping The Customer Satisfied

Do's and Don'ts

• DO repeat back questions
• DON'T read your slides verbatim
• DO use large fonts, check colors for readability
• DO limit text on slides to "Telegraphy"
• Do rehearse, rehearse, rehearse!
• DON'T USE THE BOTTOM OF THE SLIDES: IT CAN'T BE READ

Tips and Tricks

• F7 spell-checks a presentation in OO.o
• Your Audience Knows More Than You!
• Minimize Slide Viewer Chrome
• Practice with co-workers or User Group
  • 2nd session is ALWAYS better
• Large fonts, large toolbar bitmaps
• Handling flubs...

Exit Stage Left!

• Clear out when you're done!
• Only 15 minutes between sessions
• Immediately unplug and ask attendees to hold questions for a minute
• Let the next speaker set up
  • Clear out your junk, glasses, candy wrappers
  • Offer to help the next speaker

So, What Did We Learn?

• Set the stage - prepare in advance
• Set their expectations - Tell 'em...
• Do and Don't, Tips & Trix
• Exit Stage Left - Clear Out!

Thank You!

Questions?

Ted Roche & Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com

(603) 746-5670

This document was edited with the Taco HTML Editor, http://www.tacosw.com on the Mac and with SciTE, http://www.scintilla.org/ on Windows and Linux. Interoperability is Good.

The templates for the document and instructions on their use are the Simple Standards-based Slide Show System, S⁵ developed by Eric Meyer and available at http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/tools/s5/ under a Creative Commons license. Thanks, Eric!

About the presenter:

Ted Roche learned to program BASIC on a PDP-4 at the age of 15. He was conferencing and IM'ing on the Dartmouth Time Sharing System in the late 1970s. (IM and chat rooms are old. So's Ted.) He shipped his first commercial app in 1978, which ran on a WANG 2200. His first public domain software was a quad-density Epson printer driver for the Commodore 64 GEOS operating system, hand-coded in 6502 assembler. Amigas were his favorite computers, although PCs are getting better. He ran the electrical plant on a nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine until the Russians gave up, and then there wasn't any challenge in it any more. He has coded with "ohs."

Since 1987, Ted has worked fulltime as a software developer. He has worked for state agencies, insurance companies and consulting firms. He established Ted Roche & Associates on July 4, 2001. Ted Roche & Associates, LLC develops Web, client-server and LAN-based applications using Python, PHP, Apache, Linux, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Microsoft Visual FoxPro, SQL Server and other best-of-breed tools. Based in New Hampshire, his company offers consulting, training and mentoring, on-site and long-distance, as well as software development services. Ted is author of Essential SourceSafe, co-author of the award-winning Hacker's Guide to Visual FoxPro series, and a contributor to five other FoxPro books. In addition to numerous magazine articles, he's a popular speaker at conferences worldwide. Ted is a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer, Microsoft Certified System Engineer, and nine-time winner of the Microsoft Support Most Valuable Professional award. He's working this fall (2005) towards the MySQL Professional certification.

Ted has worked with Linux since 1999. The Ted Roche & Associates, LLC intranet and extranet run on Apache, TWiki (Perl), PHP, Python, WebMin, MySQL, PostgreSQL and other LAMP applications. Ted's office automation tools include OpenOffice.org, FireFox, Thunderbird, Camino, SciTE, Subversion, CygWin, PuTTY, WinSCP and OS X Tiger. He is one of the team teachers for the LAMP certificate at the New Hampshire Technical Institute's Center for Training and Business Development (http://www.nhti.edu/ctbd) and an activist in the Greater New Hampshire Linux User Group (http://www.gnhlug.org).

The most current contact information for Ted can be found at http://www.tedroche.com

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.