Ask HN: What are the things keep in mind while giving/preparing for a tech talk?
Always do at least 1 full rehearsal with a timer, preferably two full rehearsals where the first one you do keep a timer but also have a notebook (physical) present to quickly write down adjustments you want to make.<p>Do a live demo, people love live demo&#x27;s, but be prepared for when disaster strikes (it will), if possible run your live demo on a physical device with you during the presentation.<p>Most places allow you to have 2 devices connected, or quickly switch the HDMI cable to the demo machine.<p>Do not use a linux machine, I know this sounds harsh, but with all the types of beamers&#x2F;screens out there, a windows or mac machine will just have a much higher success rate. (I learnt this the hard way, in the end I could choose between mirrored 640*480 or full hd on the beamer only, which makes live demos much harder).<p>Create short slides, the slides are there to guide you and the audience. Try to prevent reading the slides out loud.<p>Use images and videos, they can tell more then a thousand words.<p>I often use the STAR approach to tell my story, this helps structure your talk. You don&#x27;t need to follow star exactly, but if trying to explain something, it often helps to first give a bit of background why you did what you did.<p>Make sure you let the audience know if and when you will be answering questions, some talks really benefit from interactivity, but if you are short on time, let people know they can ask their questions later (perhaps add a slide at the end with sources and your contact information).<p>Also, relax, the audience has already decided they want to listen to your presentation.