Gay Chat V11 - Were you expecting something funny? - General

Can anyone here do public speaking confidently? I know I can do this presentation without any notes and I won't even have to do that but I'm concerned that as soon as I stand up in front of a large crowd I'm going to get too nervous and just mind blank on everything :s Sigh.

[QUOTE=gerbe1;46213651]Can anyone here do public speaking confidently? I know I can do this presentation without any notes and I won't even have to do that but I'm concerned that as soon as I stand up in front of a large crowd I'm going to get too nervous and just mind blank on everything :s Sigh.[/QUOTE] Here are a few tips: - Prepare and memorize the first few sentences of your presentation. First impression is important and you can only make it once. It'll also help you gain confidence if you don't fuck up in the very beginning. - Start with introducing yourself, then tell your audience how long is your presentation going to last, what are you going to talk about, what is the point (i.e. what new stuff do you expect them to know once you're done) and how is that going to happen. - Don't look behind you to see what's on the screen, look at the monitor instead (it's best not to look at all but I can't do that myself either). - Be sure to give your audience more ways to participate in your presentation than just looking at the screen. The easiest way of doing this is handing out leaflets or giving some kind of quiz. Good luck :)

[QUOTE=Khub;46213786]Here are a few tips: - Prepare and memorize the first few sentences of your presentation. First impression is important and you can only make it once. It'll also help you gain confidence if you don't fuck up in the very beginning. - Start with introducing yourself, then tell your audience how long is your presentation going to last, what are you going to talk about, what is the point (i.e. what new stuff do you expect them to know once you're done) and how is that going to happen. - Don't look behind you to see what's on the screen, look at the monitor instead (it's best not to look at all but I can't do that myself either). - Be sure to give your audience more ways to participate in your presentation than just looking at the screen. The easiest way of doing this is handing out leaflets or giving some kind of quiz. Good luck :)[/QUOTE] -Or have a paper with short notes about each point of your presentation. Not a whole presentation printed, looks unprofessional as fuck. -Also keep the articles in presentation short so audience pays attention to you, not screen.

[QUOTE=Dom Pyroshark;46214324]-Or have a paper with short notes about each point of your presentation. Not a whole presentation printed, looks unprofessional as fuck. -Also keep the articles in presentation short so audience pays attention to you, not screen.[/QUOTE] Try to not use filler words such as 'like', 'uh', 'also' and other words. You will sound like you know what you're talking about, and not fumbling through your speech. Also, a pause for thought can make the audience take in what you say a bit more.

[QUOTE=gerbe1;46213651]Can anyone here do public speaking confidently? I know I can do this presentation without any notes and I won't even have to do that but I'm concerned that as soon as I stand up in front of a large crowd I'm going to get too nervous and just mind blank on everything :s Sigh.[/QUOTE] yeah. i've given a coupla lectures and the past three years i've been staff on a leadership training course. what I really find it boils down to is how well you can elaborate on what you're speaking. never read directly off what's written on the screen behind you; hell, I never really even mention it (expand on it; they can read the slide themselves). you don't need to memorize it word for word. know what each bit's about, but this is so you can expand on it. if you're blanking, and it's acceptable, ask the audience. involve them; have them read stuff if that's relevant, if not, try to bring them in on something there. as for the actually speaking and being the presenter, make eye contact with people and move it to someone else after a couple of seconds. speak clearly, but better yet, a bit slower than you might normally talk. this will both let you think a bit more about what you're saying (so you don't have to say all those other filler shit that people above me mentioned), let people hear you better, and lengthen out your presentation. don't worry if you're silent for a moment or two - you do not have to move on through your presentation insanely fast. space it out. finally, what i consider the most essential, don't acknowledge your fuckups and pretend like they didn't happen. also, move periodically but not too much. don't overdo it with your legs or your hands.

Not being able to sleep is the worst. Time for tea and blankets for the rest of the night...

[IMG]http://puu.sh/ca3bc/6deba255ad.png[/IMG] Yay, one year older!

I had a nightmare about [url=http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_small/12/124278/2676918-2676916-hellboy__the_crooked_man_v2008__1___the_crooked_man__2008_7____p_gina_15.jpg]THIS[/url] thing last night. [B]Warning: NSFL. Nothing against the rules, but it's not image tagged for a reason[/B] :v: Also, been feeling kinda hollow lately. I talked to my uncle about GED stuff, so hopefully something comes of that.

I like how you say it's nsfl and give loads of warnings but don't day what it is. [editline]13th October 2014[/editline] I get night terrors so I know how you feel.

[QUOTE=Roll_Program;46218184]I like how you say it's nsfl and give loads of warnings but don't day what it is. [editline]13th October 2014[/editline] I get night terrors so I know how you feel.[/QUOTE] It's a drawing of a really fucked up looking guy from Hellboy. He's called the Crooked Man. Aptly named I suppose.

I want to live somewhere hot and dry. Somewhere where you don't need to care about what the weather might be like later.

I'd move to somewhere like the American Southwest sometime if I could. Somewhere where skiiable mountains are still only a couple hours drive away too.

[QUOTE=Saza;46216486]yeah. i've given a coupla lectures and the past three years i've been staff on a leadership training course. what I really find it boils down to is how well you can elaborate on what you're speaking. never read directly off what's written on the screen behind you; hell, I never really even mention it (expand on it; they can read the slide themselves). you don't need to memorize it word for word. know what each bit's about, but this is so you can expand on it. if you're blanking, and it's acceptable, ask the audience. involve them; have them read stuff if that's relevant, if not, try to bring them in on something there. as for the actually speaking and being the presenter, make eye contact with people and move it to someone else after a couple of seconds. speak clearly, but better yet, a bit slower than you might normally talk. this will both let you think a bit more about what you're saying (so you don't have to say all those other filler shit that people above me mentioned), let people hear you better, and lengthen out your presentation. don't worry if you're silent for a moment or two - you do not have to move on through your presentation insanely fast. space it out. finally, what i consider the most essential, don't acknowledge your fuckups and pretend like they didn't happen. also, move periodically but not too much. don't overdo it with your legs or your hands.[/QUOTE] It's funny because i do almost the direct opposite of everything you say here and i became exceptionally well known in highschool for my presentations and was greatly accredited for my presentation skills while in University. I would actually have various teachers have their classes sent to my class room while im presenting for them to learn how to do it. Especially the movement part and fuckups. I legitimately acknowledge i fucked up but use it as a segue or as a way to level with the crowd. I roll with it and end up piquing the interest of my audience. By pretending they didn't happen it causes an awkward vibe to reverberated throughout the room and anxiety to pile on causing additional stress. I've given advice directly opposite of what you've given in that aspect and it's only helped the individuals. Also i move around a lot while doing presentations, but it is important to remember to not be sperging out while up there. I speak though my body heavily and will walk around a bit but mostly i'm gesticulating heavily, which is something i've again actually been complimented on several times as it actually engages the audience as well. Additionally i'm assuming this is a classroom environment setting. If this is, you want to avoid silences at all costs, and you also want to keep your presentation short unless specifically told otherwise. Most classroom environments will only give presenters 10 minutes max. Going over that time frame is incredibly bad and heavy penalties will results. You also don't want to be too short. While you want to elaborate as best you can, you want to elaborate in the most efficient and shortest way possible. At a point elaboration becomes droll and boring, while simultaneously redundant as you will repeat yourself, or make your elaborations convoluted adding fluff to your presentation. Boring your audience and if this is a class, your instructor. Be interesting while presenting. Make the presentation fit your needs, so if it is a purely technical presentation, take it seriously and don't be fooling around. If it's a casual environment, don't hesitate to add a bit of humor within your presentation skills. Engage your audience as best as you can, tell them what they NEED to know, and if time is still available, elaborate on what they could know but don't need to know. Also, while finishing up - ASK YOUR AUDIENCE FOR QUESTIONS. Ask them if any one has questions whether it be about the subject material, or your actual presentation. I still think the fatal sin of doing presentations is reading from the board/projector/paper. You can bring notes, but bring NOTES. Not the actual paper itself if you're presenting a paper. If it's a powerpoint presentation type deal, keep information basic on the slides. The slides themselves are only there to serve as basic notes for the crowd. The slides have the general concept or topic/bullet points. You give the content.

[QUOTE=Viva;46218601]It's funny because i do almost the direct opposite of everything you say here and i became exceptionally well known in highschool for my presentations .[/QUOTE] just a note: my presentations were usually supposed to last at least 60 minutes; one was supposed to be 90 and only had about 20 slides if that. most of this really does depend on what you're actually speaking on, though. obviously if you're teaching math or something and you do something wrong yeah fix it but some other things aren't necessarily worth going back and tripping yourself up. what i found to work most to making the presentation better was having self confidence (not being crazy about it) and i think you might've misinterpreted some of what i said i'm also not saying elaborate for ages and years and forever, though. you've agreed with me for a good half of the points i've made, though, so i don't know why you say direct opposite. i posted about moving but not too much, as have you, plus mentioning involving the audience.

hence why i said nearly the direct opposite.

semantics

What i mean is that you list to not acknowledge fuck ups, while i said to actually acknowledge them for the sake of the audience. You also said to move occasionally, i move actually frequently and heavily heavily gesticulate with my hands. I'm not hurriedly pacing around. You also said to not be afraid of silences: Unless you're doing a business presentation, you absolutely do not want to be silent for more than a few seconds. You said to lengthen it: I shorten it. But this is purely based on what the objective of the presentation is. You mention you do hour long presentations. If this is a school type setting, you will seldom be expected to give anything about 20 minute presentations and will heavily be penalized for going over. More so than if you were under actually as most teachers find being longer worse than being shorter.

[QUOTE=Viva;46218672]What i mean is that you list to not acknowledge fuck ups, while i said to actually acknowledge them for the sake of the audience. You also said to move occasionally, i move actually frequently and heavily heavily gesticulate with my hands. I'm not hurriedly pacing around. You also said to not be afraid of silences: Unless you're doing a business presentation, you absolutely do not want to be silent for more than a few seconds. You said to lengthen it: I shorten it. But this is purely based on what the objective of the presentation is. You mention you do hour long presentations. If this is a school type setting, you will seldom be expected to give anything about 20 minute presentations and will heavily be penalized for going over. More so than if you were under actually as most teachers find being longer worse than being shorter.[/QUOTE] yeah i didn't mean minute long silences though. i meant don't worry if you pause for a moment or two, it's not terrible. i starkly disagree on overly moving around too much, though. i've found it to distract a lot of people to what i'm physically doing than what i'm talking about.

It's all about moderation. However i never heard of movement being distracting for the audience unless you are like actually up there never standing still. If you're not standing still at all there's a problem.

It's all about the speaker and their own take, especially if they have experience speaking they know what works for them and have built it up in different ways. I kinda gave the wrong impression in my post (I was just really stressed out at the time). What everyone said I think is really good commentary to take on board and I'd like to emphasise how grateful I am that people reached out to help, but it's stuff I kinda already knew. My question was more to do with dealing with nerves and I didn't make that clear. I have been doing speeches and presentations since I was in grade two but one thing that has never changed has been the nerves I get beforehand. I stress and I worry and people tell me "oh gerbe1 you shouldn't worry you are going to do well" and I don't believe them and so I stress and worry more that they think I'll do well. Same thing happened with this presentation except something entirely knew: very few nerves. Usually I get up in front of a tonne of people and just really get nervous as I am going up and if I can overcome that then it's fine. This time I just never left my original state of being slightly on edge. It was really good. Unfortunately I had been freaking out beforehand and telling people how concerned I was that I was doing the speech just off of notes and if I blank I am screwed etc etc and then I did really well so I look like an egotistical idiot for being a drama queen about it. A random lady told me my speech was awesome in the end so that was good. I also showed up most of the other presenters who - despite this being a third year, internship program, open to the public showcase of my university and the five hour workshop we did on presentations the week before - mostly just read off a piece of paper and if I hadn't been with them at the workshop would swear they had never seen any of the advice you guys all gave. And just to again emphasise it's all a matter of personal preference: this was a highly technical, professional presentation with a number of industry experts present and I was very much non-serious about it and made it out to be very light hearted and entertaining (or at least I tried and apparently it worked, I was most concerned about me completely blanking). Despite all this I got royally screwed by the questions they asked afterwards. As I said, these are industry experts and I am just a student. I had no clue half the words in their sentences existed and from what I made out of the questions I think a whole section of my speech was pretty much wrong. People who only knew a little liked it at least. Anyway I feel much better. Oh and yes I only needed notes for brevity, as you can tell from above I have difficulty with that. I could have done the whole thing without notes, it just would have taken a lot longer.

This is a lot of text for one page :v: Edit: I just realized it looked a fuck-lot bigger on phone than it did on a computer. Whoops.

I had a dream where I was in my fantasy metal band, Whiteshirt, with my best friends. We were playing in Oslo and I was absolutely wrecking this guitar with an amazing solo. My girlfriend was in the front row, but so was George Washington, and he was really upset and it made me feel kinda bad, but I had this "the show must go on" attitude.

How to be good at presentations: be interesting, engaging and ask for questions after.

[QUOTE=Grim2o0o;46198024]Oh man what a thing to wake up to, [url=http://store.steampowered.com/app/327390/]Sid Meier's Covert Action[/url] is finally on Steam! Wooo. [editline]10th October 2014[/editline] Oh man I still have some notepads from when me and my brother used to write down all our clues and who to arrest first, this game is so fucking great.[/QUOTE] Thanks to certain [url=http://facepunch.com/member.php?u=48009]someone[/url] I now got it on Steam, thanks bud. He has also made me clutter up my monitor. [t]http://i.imgur.com/W9AUGaR.png[/t] Never enough CLUES.

[QUOTE=~Kiwi~v2;46223784]So I can't get up this morning with out having an argument with the girlfriend because I wanted to get up in peace and not disturb her sleep, then she proceeds to demand a hug when I actually seriously have to go to the toilet. :v: and now she's incredibly upset and mad at me quit being a tool and let the guy go.[/QUOTE] Shit in the bed and shout "THIS IS WHAT YOU MADE ME DO!"

I used to give talks in a venue that had a pub in it, so half the talks I gave I had a beer in hand as I walked around.

[QUOTE=Zillamaster55;46222458]I had a dream where I was in my fantasy metal band, Whiteshirt, with my best friends. We were playing in Oslo and I was absolutely wrecking this guitar with an amazing solo. My girlfriend was in the front row, but so was George Washington, and he was really upset and it made me feel kinda bad, but I had this "the show must go on" attitude.[/QUOTE] George Washington lived in the 1700s so of course he's going to be upset if you bring him to the modern day and drop him in the middle of a metal show in Oslo

Hiya guys.

this morning it was 30 degrees and then in the afternoon it was 71. Maine sometimes really sucks

[QUOTE=The Worm;46227611]this morning it was 30 degrees and then in the afternoon it was 71. Maine sometimes really sucks[/QUOTE] but maine is really pretty tho