Tips on good presentations

I know there are many of you out there who would love to present at conference. You have the ideas! You have the passion! You're just not sure about the actual presentation. I'm much like that myself. Give me a coffee and a comfy seat and I'll go on and on for hours. Unfortunately that skill is no use in a presentation situation. "Stand up? In front of people and talk to them? You have got to be kidding!" is my usual reaction.

With that in mind I started trawling round the internet looking for tips on giving good presentations.

5 ways great speakers connect with their audience from Penelope Trunk's Brazen Careerist
"The art of public speaking is actually the art of connecting." Five tips to help presenters connect with the audience.

Death by PowerPoint (and how to fight it) from Alexei Kapterev via SlideShare
"How to make a presentation and not to bore your audience to death." It's not just about using PowerPoint. There are some great tips on structuring a presentation. (Warning, could be a slow watch on dial-up.)

Presentation Tips from Garr Reynolds
"Organization & Preparation Tips", "Delivery Tips" and "Slide Tips".

Really Bad PowerPoint from Seth's Blog
"Communication is about getting others to adopt your point of view, to help them understand why you’re excited (or sad, or optimistic or whatever else you are.)" Includes "Four Components To A Great Presentation".

Talk Good: Giving Effective Presentations from Peter Bromberg via Library Garden
A list of resources that "...speak for themselves."

Are you inspired to give it a go? Abstract submissions close Friday May 2.

(And of course there will be some great books at your local library!)

Calling all abstracts

Visit the abstracts page at the conference website to find out about the abstracts submission process for the 2008 LIANZA conference. The programme team is keen to receive abstracts on a wide range of topics and from presenters who can think of innovative ways to engage an audience. And so session times have been increased to allow an unhurried presentation and more space for questions and discussion.

There is a choice of format types: oral presentations, workshops, panel discussions, and hands-on computer sessions. Intending presenters are asked to state their primary audience and broad topic areas. This is to help conference goers make good choices about the sessions they attend.

Poropitia - Outside the box is a conference at which both the content and how it's presented should deliver something beyond the obvious. Submissions are due on 2 May. The abstract review and selection process will take place during May-June. Successful authors will be notified by the end of June. The review team will then read the full papers so that presenters receive feedback and advice before the conference itself.

Give it a think!

• Do you want to present? Know someone who should? Nudge them into action.
• A topic you want to learn more about? Keep visiting the blog and add comments so that you are helping to shape the conference programme.

Ideas for presentations, workshops, panel discussions - some of these have been blogged before, others have been mentioned recently. These are topics people want to hear about.

• The social context: libraries and legal compliance ... accessing and using legal information. Official information. Public Records legislation. What do we need to know and why?
  Online social networking and collaboration: how's it being used at work (and maybe for work).
• Getting the best out of the relationship with the IT team: what across-team approaches maximise our effectiveness?
• Training >> learning and development. What are the trends? Where are the gaps? What does the research tell us?
• Knowledge management: alive and well? dead? dying? Someone want to arrange a panel discussion with audience involvement?
• Blogs, wikis, et al. and e-citizenship. What's the scope?
• Marketing - internally, to your manager ... to the executive. What works? Why?
• Writing to impress. Telling your library's story succinctly and complellingly.
• Libraries contributing to community outcomes. What are the challenges for measuring success?
• Story times: what have you tried and evaluated for success? Library-parent relationships.
• Your experience of working outside the sector or overseas ... what are the learnings others need to hear?
  

Do plan for a full-on conference: 3.5 days from Sunday 2 - Wednesday 5 November. More details over the next week or so will convince you that Poropitia-in-full is where you'll want to be.