Starting and finishing

Someone was asking recently about advice for public speaking. This was specifically for in-person events now that we’re returning to actual live conferences.

Everyone’s speaking style is different so there’s no universal advice. That said, just about everyone recommends practicing. Practice your talk. Then practice it again and again.

That’s good advice but it’s also quite time-consuming. Something I’ve recommended in the past is to really concentrate on the start and the end of the talk.

You should be able to deliver the first five minutes of your talk in your sleep. If something is going to throw you, it’s likely to happen at the beginning of your talk. Whether it’s a technical hitch or just the weirdness and nerves of standing on stage, you want to be able to cruise through that part of the talk on auto-pilot. After five minutes or so, your nerves will have calmed and any audio or visual oddities should be sorted.

Likewise you want to really nail the last few minutes of your talk. Have a good strong ending that you can deliver convincingly.

Make it very clear when you’re done—usually through a decisive “thank you!”—to let the audience know that they may now burst into rapturous applause. Beware the false ending. “Thank you …and this is my Twitter handle. I always like hearing from people. So. Yeah.” Remember, the audience is on your side and they want to show their appreciation for your talk but you have to let them know without any doubt when the talk is done.

At band practice we sometimes joke “Hey, as long as we all start together and finish together, that’s what matters.” It’s funny because there’s a kernel of truth to it. If you start a song with a great intro and you finish the song with a tight rock’n’roll ending, nobody’s going to remember if somebody flubbed a note halfway through.

So, yes, practice your talk. But really practice the start and the end of your talk.

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Previously on this day

7 years ago I wrote 100 words 021

Day twenty one.

7 years ago I wrote Relinkification

I put this moment over here.

7 years ago I wrote Forgetting again

The most pernicious of falsehoods is the idea that the internet never forgets.

8 years ago I wrote Higher standards

Fighting for the web.

11 years ago I wrote Lazy loading on Huffduffer

Lazy responsiveness or responsive laziness.

11 years ago I wrote Respond

Another way of ensuring Internet Explorer gets your layout styles.

15 years ago I wrote Fogbound

I’m going to San Francisco.

19 years ago I wrote Gladiator's Stroke Of Genius

There’s a reason for this post’s unusual headline: I’m doing some small scale googlebombing.

19 years ago I wrote Where's my flying car?

Now I know I’m living in the future.

20 years ago I wrote The Random Masturbation Synonym Generator

Twisting the sheriff and waiting for the posse to come.