1. Learning to present and becoming good at it
Have you been thinking about presenting at a user group? Are you being asked to present at your work? Is learning to present one of the keys to advancing your career? Or do you just think it would be fun to present but you are too nervous to try it? Well take the first step to becoming a presenter by attending this session and I will guide you through the process of learning to present and becoming good at it. It's easier than you think! I am an introvert and was deathly afraid to speak in public. Now I love to present and it's actually my main function in my job at Microsoft. I'll share with you journey that lead me to speak at major conferences and the skills I learned along the way to become a good presenter and to get rid of the fear. You can do it!
James Serra
Big Data Evangelist
Microsoft
JamesSerra.com

2. About Me Microsoft, Big Data Evangelist
In IT for 30 years, worked on many BI and DW projects
Worked as desktop/web/database developer, DBA, BI and DW architect and developer, MDM architect, PDW/APS developer
Been perm employee, contractor, consultant, business owner
Presenter at PASS Business Analytics Conference, PASS Summit, Enterprise Data World conference
Certifications: MCSE: Data Platform, Business Intelligence; MS: Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions, Design and Implement Big Data Analytics Solutions, Design and Implement Cloud Data Platform Solutions
Blog at JamesSerra.com
Former SQL Server MVP
Author of book “Reporting with Microsoft SQL Server 2012”

3. Agenda My history Why present? Goal Setting
Always Be Thinking of Presentation Topics
Promote your presentation
Where to present?
Tips to getting your abstract chosen
Creating your presentation
Preparing for your presentation
Pre-presentation Tips
In-presentation Tips
Post-presentation Tips
Final thoughts

4. Why present? You can learn a subject better by presenting it
Helpful to your career
Way to network and build your personal brand
Become a better public speaker
Because you care or are passionate about something
Every person presents for a different reason...most present on a topic because they care or are passionate about something
Don’t let nerves get in the way..  absolutely no reason for that!  

5. My history Asked to do a presentation to my team - Scared to death!
75% of people have some degree of anxiety when public speaking
Realized good for my career to get good at presenting
70% of people who present regularly agreed that presentations are critical to their success at work
Over the years just kept presenting
Goal was to present at bigger and bigger events
Took a while, but finally got comfortable presenting
For my current job, I get paid to present
Now I either don’t even think about it or I look forward to it
75% of people who present would like to improve their presentation skills
Every person presents for a different reason...most present on a topic because they care or are passionate about something
Don’t let nerves get in the way..  absolutely no reason for that!  

6. Goal Setting What is your ultimate goal for presenting?
Set 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year plans
Track your progress
Reach out to others for help/mentoring

7. Always Be Thinking of Presentation Topics
Write subjects down in OneNote
Does not have to be unique!
Keep list of your presentations: title, abstract, dates presented and location, upload slides to slideshare.net
See

8. Where to present? Brown bag session at work
Local user groups/Meetup.com
Virtual PASS chapters
SQLSaturday
PASS Summit (new speakers encouraged to present)
Submission process

9. Promote your presentation
Upload slide decks on LinkedIn (slideshare.net can do automatically)
Mention on twitter
Mention on your blog

10. Tips to getting your abstract chosen
Find a subject that hits a pain point, hot topic, or new product
Know the decision makers!
Build your personal brand:
Get others opinion on the abstract
Use GroupBy.org (Brent Ozar)

11. Creating your presentation
Know your topic well
Create an outline
Build your slides – make each slide it’s own topic/story
Don’t put a ton of words on slides
Pictures tell many words
Know your audience
Balance educating with entertaining
Most listeners will recall no more than 25% of your presentation

12. Preparing for your presentation
Practice makes perfect
Run through presentation in your head
Do speaker training
Toastmasters
Watch or attend sessions of the best speakers

13. Pre-presentation Tips
Wear a watch or display clock/Timer+ on your phone
Ask room monitor to give you signal 10 minutes before end
Have a backup laptop or deck on USB memory stick
Get a page-up clicker (Logitech Wireless Presenter R800 has laser pointer, timer, vibrating alert)
Install Zoomit:
Bring air card/jetpack/phone personal hotspot
Turn off power/screen saver on your laptop
Bring water

14. Pre-presentation Tips
In PowerPoint, turn off auto advance of slide
Arrive 15 minutes early to test out equipment
Test your voice for online presentations
Upload your PowerPoint presentation instead of sharing your desktop (do five minutes beforehand)
In Skype, know about the “Mute Audience” button
Upload your deck
Dress like your audience

15. In-Presentation Tips Use sticky to remember a couple of pointers
Check time and speed up or slow down
Avoid filler/bridge words: Um, ah, you know, right, like
Be animated, energetic, excited, vary your voice
Have a sense of humor, smile
Show passion
Ask questions, engage them, but someone will still fall asleep
Don’t talk fast, have pauses
Watch your body language (65% of communication is done nonverbally)

16. In-Presentation Tips Have eye contact with everyone in the room
Ok to walk around, but not too much (stand still for seconds – stand like Superman). Only move between important sentences
Don’t read the screen – glance at it but don’t talk when glancing
Speak clearly, especially if foreigners in room
Talk loud
Use personal experience, use cases, tell stories
Be humble, don’t come across as arrogant
Repeat questions, without extra’s, if session is recorded

17. Post-Presentation Tips
Challenge audience with a “Go do”
Hand our surveys and read feedback
Hang around to answer questions
Encourage attendees to you with questions
Please note that for every hour of presentation there has at least 8-16 hours of preparation…. So feedback should be constructive and without to much emotion…

18. Bonus: Bob Ward presentation tips
Show energy and passion
Tell stories, especially after a number of slides to break of the monotony
Use pictures, diagrams and animations in your slides
Choose topics that you are passionate about
Be very knowledgeable about topic
Goal is to have 75% of audience walk away with information that did not previously know
Show how something works (architecture)
Think ahead of questions you will get
Go back and listen to questions you were asked and review feedback. If session not recorded, jot down the questions you were asked right after session
Prepare hard
Repeat the same presentations
Give a lot of thought behind the session abstract. That will become the basis of your deck. Create an outline first and then fill in the slides
Demo during the presentation - don't save it until the end. Building the demo will lead to a lot of slide content
Put yourself in attendees shoes when thinking of deck content
Make the demo's available right away. Tell audience at start of session where demo is so they know they can review it later
When building deck, enter allotted time for each slide in comments and add them up to see if you have too much content
Make sure to get your major message across during your allotted time
If extra material in deck, put in a bonus material at end of deck and tell audience
Don't get dejected if your abstract is not accepted
Get advocates for yourself to have better chance of getting abstract accepted and higher speaker scores
Be personable. Be yourself. Get who you are - talk about your family and hobbies
Have a passion to transfer your knowledge
Find your niche (i.e. case studies for our products, understanding how something works)
Sell what you are talking about
Find out what topics are needed to present about
Do not take offense to people who leave or sleep during your session
Be empathic to the audience
Ask audience to raise hands to get them engaged. How many already know XX? Ask leading questions. Ask "Is this helpful?"
Have spontaneous humor
Avoid transition works (um, ah, you know). Pause instead
Check font size of deck beforehand. Check view from back of the room
Pre-display and pre-load all windows screens beforehand for demos
Use the Windows Mobility Center and turn on presentation settings
Use ZoomIt
In Windows 10, turn on "Quiet hours" to avoid getting messages
Apply all Microsoft IT and Windows updates before presentation to avoid a forced reboot
Record demos as a backup, especially if using Azure. Use Office Mix to record demo
Always included demos in your presentation and have readme files with step-by-step instructions
Get over your fear of questions being asked by the audience
Let audience know question protocol at start of presentation: Whether to hold questions to the end or questions can be brought up during the presentation. Let them know your for future questions
Reduce number of words on your PowerPoint slides (no sentences) so audience does not read slides instead of listening to you

19. Final thoughts Take risks!
The path to a great presenter starts with their first presentation
Have fun!

20. Questions? James Serra, Data Platform Solution Architect
me at:
Follow me
Link to me at:
Visit my blog at: JamesSerra.com (where this slide deck is posted under “Presentations”)