Someone messaged me recently to say he had just been selected for his first-ever conference talk, and since the talks of mine he'd seen in the past were so inspiring he wanted to know if I had any advice for new speakers. Since flattery will often get you somewhere, I offered the following advice. I figure it's generic enough that I should share it more widely. :-)
- Expect to be nervous. Even experienced speakers are nervous. If you're not nervous, that's when you're going to screw up.
- Practice. Practice without people, practice with people. Nothing in your talk should be a surprise to you, including your transitions from one topic to another. That means practice until it's old hat to you. How many times you need is up to you, and can vary widely.
- The slides are demonstration and punctuation for you talking, not a replacement. If the audience could get as much value from just reading the slides as they do from you talking, then you are not adding any value by being there. Don't make the slides carry the talk. You carry the talk.
- Set a timer you can see while presenting. Many slide tools have it built in, but make sure you can see your time so you can pace yourself. While practicing as well so you can calibrate.
- If you stumble or screw up, just roll with it and keep going. The audience wants you to be awesome, so they'll give you a lot of leeway for small goofs or stumbles as long as you do as well.
- Don't open the talk by telling people it's your first talk. :-)
- Go to the bathroom just before you present. That's the last thing you want to worry about during the presentation.
- Turn off or mute every notification-generating application; Twitter, Slack, Discord, Email, whatever. You don't want to receive any notifications at all during the talk.
- Make sure you have cool water, but not ice water, readily at hand. An in-person conference ought to provide this for you (some don't; those conferences are doing it wrong), but for remote presentations you naturally have to provide your own.
- Have fun! You've earned your place there already. You don't have anything to prove, just something to share.
Go forth and enjoy sharing your knowledge!