I’m preparing for a few forthcoming conference speeches at the moment, and I thought it might lead to an interesting blog post.

Being invited to speak at a conference is a nice experience and I generally accept most invitations. Speaking at a conference is a good exercise for the following reasons.

1. preparing your speech focuses your mind on to the important topics you will talk about, and helps you marshal and organise your thoughts on your area of expertise
2. having a specified amount of time to speak for makes you think how best to communicate these topics
3. nothing – nothing! – speeds your heart like public speaking, and most of us could do with the practice
4. engaging with other speakers helps improve your performance and it helps you see where your area fits into the wider environment
5. it helps cement your reputation as an expert in a field

Below are my 12 tips for a good conference presentation. I think these can be applied both to academic and business conferences, and are my thoughts having seen and delivered some good (and really quite toe-curlingly awful) presentations.

1. Follow convention

People attend conferences to be briefed on topics which they need to know about. They have busy lives and want to leave the conference knowing something new. They want to hear an expert talk about their area of expertise, calmly, authoritatively and factually. If they wanted jokes, they’d go and see a comedian. The main rule of public speaking – stand up, speak up, shut up – holds true. Be interesting, be clever and be engaging, but if the organiser asks for 20 minutes on the future of the Irish widget industry, it’s because that’s what he has told the delegates they will get, and it’s what the delegate has paid his fee to be told. We have all seen really bad speakers try to be funny or unconventional or quirky, and it usually doesn’t work. Keep it simple, follow the rules and give the audience what they demand.

2. Agree to the terms of reference

Usually a conference organiser will invite you to speak on a general topic and you’ll agree the points you’ll cover. If you commit to covering those points, then cover them. Not to do so is defrauding your audience and letting down the organiser. Of course, things do change, and you may need to update your presentation to take into account something new, but if you’re going to divert from the outline in their conference programme, tell your audience at the outset of your speech.

3. Speaking alongside a Famous Person

Conference organisers like to invite a Famous Person to give a keynote speech because it’s a good hook to get people to attend their event. You might be lucky – you may be the Famous Person; if so, well done. But it’s more likely that you’ll be on the agenda alongside a government minister, international expert or media star. Think carefully if you’re scheduled to speak before or after the Famous Person – while you may be able to bathe in reflected glory, they do have a tendency to overshadow other speakers, and possibly the event as a whole. I’ve seen really good speakers lose the attention of their audience when the Famous Person arrives in the middle of their speech, and all eyes turn away from the speaker and towards the Famous Person. It has happened to me, and it’s not much fun.

4. Assert your authority

You’ve been invited to speak at a conference because someone thinks you’ve something interesting to say which the delegates should hear. You’ve got to explain to them why your opinion on the topic is the one they should pay attention to. Outline briefly why you know your stuff and the audience will pay attention. Plan your speech to tell them something they didn’t know or couldn’t know by reading the papers or trade magazines. A PhD thesis is awarded for making an original contribution to knowledge – try to do the same in your speech; be factual and new, and add to the audience’s knowledge.

5. Flexibility

Ask the organiser for a delegate list and get a general idea of who is attending the conference and what their expectations are, and fit your presentation to that. You need to go to the audience; they won’t come to you. An academic audience has very different expectations from a business audience and you should be careful to give the right speech to the right crowd. You should also fit your speech to the time of day – in general, speeches in the morning are more formal than speeches in the afternoon when the delegates have had a chance to mingle, chat and relax. If you’re speaking immediately after lunch, then you’ve got to try twice as hard to get their attention because they’ll be sleepy. If you’re the last speaker of the day, then it’s likely that the conference will be running late and the audience will be thinking about going home. Don’t delay them or you’ll be the person they blame for getting home late. These are important factors to take into account when preparing your speech.

6. Listen to previous speakers

It’s not always possible to attend all of the conference but you should at least listen to a couple of speakers before you, so you can gauge the mood of the event. Each conference has its own atmosphere and a good speaker will be able to read that atmosphere and adapt their speech to fit it. Some conferences are serious and the audience will sit in silence and not ask any questions; others are more interactive and you should be able to cope with both. I’ve seen lots of very good speakers fail to read the audience and give a totally inappropriate speech (including one memorable occasion when a series of well-rehearsed jokes fell completely flat after working brilliantly at a similar event a week before.)

7. People can’t read and listen at the same time

If you use PowerPoint and have a slide showing a complex graph, give the audience a couple of seconds to decode it before you start talking. If the audience is reading your slide, they’re not listening to you. If they’ve been given a print-out of the presentation, it’s likely they’re reading it and not listening. It’s also likely they’ve turned to the last page and are mentally counting the seconds until you reach the last slide.

Remember that people are doing this. Remember the rule – show, don’t tell. If you begin your presentation by telling people you wish to discuss the three main trends in your business sector, then your audience will expect to be told what they are, and be reminded which of the three topics you’re discussing at any given moment.

Ask the conference organiser if delegates will be emailed a copy of the PowerPoint or if it will be put online. If not, tell the audience you’ll email it to them if they ask for it. This means they’re not going to spend your presentation writing everything down for fear of missing anything. They can put down their pens, sit back and listen to you. It makes for a better presentation.

8. Keep it simple

In a 30 minute presentation (the maximum time you’re likely to be given) you’re not going to say everything you want, so distil your message into three or four of the most important topics. If a topic doesn’t naturally fit into your overall message, miss it out and concentrate on your core issues. Look at the audience and get their feedback. Are they confused? Are they taking it in? Do they need a rest for a second? Are you boring them or confusing them? Do they need more background information? Can you skip a section? Can you miss out some of the background information and go straight to the heart of the presentation? If you’re not sure what their body language is telling you, ask them. It does no harm to say: “Sorry. I see some confused faces. Should I repeat that point?” You may find that a previous speaker has already covered some of the background. If you attend the conference, you’ll be able to see what ground has been covered and miss it out. Assert and re-assert your main points throughout your speech.

9. Take time to summarise

At the end of your talk, wrap it up. Don’t just finish, say “thank you” and scuttle off the stage. Take a moment to summarise your thoughts and re-assert your message. You’re not giving an after-dinner speech which is pitched to leave your audience wanting more – you’re briefing an audience and you should leave them knowing more, and understanding more than before you spoke.

If you run out of time (and it does happen, especially if you feel the need to expand on a particular point because the audience needs it) don’t skip the summary. Skip an earlier part instead.

10. Find out if you need to take questions

The conference organiser will have told you if you’ll be answering questions or if there’ll be a panel discussion after your speech. A good tip if you’re taking questions is to repeat the question you’re asked – not everyone in the audience will have heard what the question was, even if there are microphones, and the experience of repeating the question will help you gather your thoughts. Answer the question, and if you think your answer is too long, invite the questioner to make contact with you later, and discuss it over coffee or after the conference is finished.

11. Make sure to leave your contact details

If you’re using PowerPoint, make sure your email address is clearly shownyou’re your presentation contains a lot of links to websites, sources of information or charts, offer to email it to anyone who contacts you. It’s amazing how many people will contact you and ask a question they were too nervous to ask on the day, or which only occurred to them when they were driving home. Even though the speech is over, you’re still on duty.

12. Stand up, speak up, shut up

Good luck.