Talk Tips by Rick Lathrop

*BY FAR* the most important tip is: practice, practice, practice.
Remember the joke about the tourist in New York.

For starters, practice the talk several times in full dress rehearsal
to yourself at home standing in front of a mirror, timing it with a
watch so you know exactly how long it takes to deliver.

You want to give the practice talk *several* times in front of a live
audience before you give it for real.  Then, after it's over, go
around the audience and ask each person to say at least one thing they
liked about the talk, and at least one thing that could be changed to
make the talk better.  You'll get lots of great feedback this way.

Structure: You want to have an Introduction where you tell them what
you're going to tell them, then 2 to 4 major sections, then a Summary
where you tell them what you told them.  The Intro should state right
up front what it is about the talk that they'll find interesting ---
i.e., it should immediately answer the question, "Why should I stay
awake and listen to her when I could be happier daydreaming instead?"
The major sections should have a logical development.  The Summary
should restate why they were interested and point out that you
satisfied that interest.

The Simple Story: Organize your talk into sections by deciding what
the "Simple Story" is --- the 2 or 3 sentence short summary.  A great
example is Caesar's "Simple Story" of his conquest in Asia Minor ---
"Veni, vidi, vici", or "I came, I saw, I conquered."  This simple
story summarizes a major military campaign in the ancient world.  It
would be used to organize a talk into an Intro, 3 major sections, and
a Summary.  The first major section, "I came," would tell about the
preparations and the journey.  The second, "I saw," would describe the
situation he found when he arrived.  Then the third, "I conquered,"
would describe the campaign itself.

Creative Repetition: The listener can't go back and re-read, so it's
important to repeat the main points several times --- "Tell'em what
you're gonna tell'em, then tell'em, then tell'em what you told'em."

Transitions: Transitions are hard for people --- when you transition
from the Intro to the first major section, from one major section to
another, or from the last major section to the Summary.  You have to
draw explicit attention to the fact that you're changing the subject.
Use the transition to restate the previous section and preview the
next.  ".... So that was the first major section.  You saw that the
important points were A, B, and C.  Now we're going to turn to the
second section.  The important points will be P, Q, and R. ...."

Avoid Too Much Detail: You don't have the time, and your audience
doesn't have the attention span, for you to tell everything you know
about the topic.  You have to pick what you're going to tell and what
you're going to leave out.  This means, leave out the details.  This
is also how you control the length of a talk --- more details, longer
talk; less details, shorter talk.

Give Enough Details To Be Interesting: However, often it is the
details that are most interesting, because they make the talk "real."
The best compromise here is to pick *ONE* of the major sections,
whichever is most interesting, and go into details *ONLY* in that
section.  Keep the other sections at a brief high-level overview.

Provide Background Information: Be sure to provide the background info
your audience needs to appreciate the talk.  Don't worry if it seems
like you're saying simple things that the audience already knows ---
half your audience won't know them and will appreciate your saying
them, the other half will get to feel good about themselves because
they're so smart they already know them.  Be sure to go ahead and say
the simple background things the audience needs to know.