Learning Public Speaking

Definitions: Pecha Kucha (20 slides at 20 seconds each) and Ignite (same format but 15 and 15, giving a 5-minute presentation).

If you want to give a Pecha Kucha presentaion or Ignite Talk, remember five things:

1. Speak on a topic you know: It does not have to be related to your work. But make sure you know the topic.

You have to know it well enough to condense down to 5 or 6 minutes

2. Plan the presentation before you touch a computer. Use notecards to plan out the presentation. You will need 20 note cards for Pecha Kucha presentations and 15 for Ignite

Sketch out the presentation first. What do you want to say. In what order do you want to say it. If you do it on notecards, it will be easier to shift thinking on notecards as opposed to the Powerpoint deck

3. Focus on images instead of words. In the speech, explain the image and how it impacts your topic. The slide is not the presentation. It is a supplement to the presentation.

4. Practice your speech. Make sure you can get your speech in under the timelimit

5. Slow down. People tend to pick up the pace with their presentation because you only have 15-20 seconds per slide. But you have time to get everything in.

6. Find out what type of system you will be using. If you use a Mac and Keynote (like I do), you would need to export the file into Powerpoint. That could cause some changes to your file. Of course, it is possible that the system on speech night is a Mac. So you would need to covert it to Keynote.

Ellen Finkelstein gives you some tips on how to change the animination on Powerpoint.

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