David Heinemeier Hansson does it again, more inspiration for doing your own startup. He's REAL.

I recently had to do another presentation and pitch for university. I wanted my presentation to be good so I researched my technique and planned my assault on the audience. The following are key points from my findings.

So I pitched my idea – Wikidtutorials.com (coming soon), I had ten-fifteen minutes to present, with 10 minutes questions. I chose not to read from cards, some people do, and I have in the past, but you just end up reading exactly what is written on the card, making you less flexible and rigid.

Know your subject  

Sounds obvious, but knowing what you are talking about and this will give you confidence in presenting it. Knowing enough is going to help with any unexpected questions thrown at you as well.

Rehearsal  

Probably the reason I had a decent presentation. very effective, run through my presentation once in front of someone else, getting an idea of the time, questions that could be brought up. Slept (a little),  ran through the presentation out loud but to myself again, so I see a slide, and I know what to talk about. Yeah I’ve been there thinking I could make it up on the spot before, even if you know the stuff with the pressure in front of people, you'll struggle. Our brains are impressive things; run through the presentation with the slides there a few times, when it comes to the pitch, you see a slide and you'll know what to say (it will also sound less scripted and flow better than reading from something)

Key points 

Keep going over these to yourself, in sentences, so you can get them across well. Think of the important things you want to get across if you only had 1 minute to pitch, then rehearse saying them.

Gestures 

Use hand gestures, they can help you communicate better, make you look and feel more confident, helping the presentation flow better overall. Don’t stand rigid, show some passion for what you are talking about. 

Questions 

Question time at the end can be a scary thought, but it can be enjoyable, its not all critical, they might even like your idea ;) My point here - think of possible questions you may be asked and prepare answers for them 'What makes this project enough work to warrant being a third year project?' was a gem I had. 

The Zone 

The Zone may be a horrible and clichéd phrase but basically it's getting in a good state of mind, watch a film before, watch a scene from a film, listen to music,read some affirmations; anything to get you feeling positive, hyped up, good.

Slides 

Keep them short and sweet, people switch off if they see a lot of text, with 3 sentences maximum people will read. Include images, even if its just some dice to show risk (yeah I done this), but a lot better if relevant. Pictures show more than words, easier to convey info with them. If you want, write all the info you want to show them, then half it, divide by 4, then half it again. I used these slides as a very rough guide for setting out my slides, we all like something to work from.

A presenter I like is yongfook, he adds humour to his presentations and is to the point, this is a presentation of his that helped.   

Books that helped with presenting: The Oxford Union Guide to Successful Public Speaking,