Speaking in front of an audience of any size can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t need to be. With preparation and practice, anyone can improve their presentation skills and become a great public speaker. In this post we want to share useful resources that can help get you there, and introduce our new mentoring program for speakers!
101 of public speaking
Indeed there are certain characteristics that can give you an advantage when speaking publicly. However, even if you don’t feel like you’re a “natural”, that doesn’t mean you can’t become a great public speaker. Greatness comes with practise. A lot of what public speaking needs are soft skills, being able to communicate clearly and openly in front of your audience, and most importantly listening. Contrary to popular belief listening is crucial for public speaking.
“Let’s remember that the first rule of public speaking is to know the audience. In order to do that, we must set aside our assumptions about the members of the audience, and take the time to ask them questions and listen before we shape our content.” – Sims Wyeth
There is a lot of useful content out there that digs into the details of how to approach public speaking. We have read it and curated it for you.
Resources to get you started
- The Top 9 Characteristics of Effective Public Speakers (article)
- 14 Must-Haves to Be a Great Public Speaker (article)
- Managing Presentation Nerves, How to Calm Your Stage Fright (article)
- Be the BEST Bad Presenter Ever, Break the Rules, Make Mistakes, and Win Them Over (video tutorial)
- Demystifying Public Speaking (book)
What makes a presentation valuable?
Don’t start your presentation by creating your slides. Presentations are fundamentally about educating and sharing knowledge. As a public speaker it’s your job to teach your audience. Start by recognizing what value you can share, and go from there.
There is also an art to structuring your talk so that your audience stays engaged and is able to digest all of the content you are sharing. Here is another specially curated list of helpful articles and books to help you structure your presentation in the best way possible.
- How to give a killer presentation (article)
- Talk Like TED (book)
- Presentation Zen (book)
- The secret structure of great talks (video)
How to host a successful workshop?
Presentations and workshops have a lot in common, mainly that they both aim to educate. Workshops are longer, more in-depth, with a smaller audience, so a different approach is needed. Workshops are a great way of teaching a skill with your participants in a hand-on setting, so they do require detailed planning.
Here is a useful article that discusses designing a training workshop to get you started on time.
New WCEU Speaker mentoring program
We understand how stressful it can be to prepare for a presentation or a workshops, and a lot of people are worried to take to the stage. This year we want to offer a mentoring program that will help you overcome your fears.
WordCamp Europe is excited to collaborate with Aimee Gonzalez-Cameron, a UX practitioner and founder of Aimee Gonzalez Consulting, who has created a program that calls on teaching and learning techniques to get to the root of presentation anxiety, and help experts strengthen how they communicate for more impactful, effective presentations.
We’re planning to offer this speaker mentoring program to a limited number of our selected speakers.
If you are hesitant to apply to speak or host a workshop, but have something valuable to share with our community, hesitate no longer! We will provide the support to help you excel.
We hope you find our resources useful! If you have some great resources share them with us in the comments below!
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