Re: Giving my first Perl presentation -- any tips?

[Danny Faught]

The two references that people offered jive pretty well with my experience. I've blown most of my morning looking through them - really good stuff that you rarely find in writing. I'd also recommend the book "How to Run Seminars and Workshops" by Robert Jolles if you get into longer presentations later.

Andrew Savige wrote:

I am soon to give my first Perl presentation to Sydney.pm.
Panic! I have never done this before. Worse, I have never
attended a Perl conference to learn from the masters.

It certainly helps having seen people who are very good speakers, but it also makes you more nervous about meeting their standard. :-) I try to to pick up tips by watching them, but I know it'll be a few years before I'm really a knockout speaker. I get better every time.

I have heard Dominus mention the importance of entertainment and
theatre but I have no idea how to do that.

Somewhere on my "I want to do that someday" list is to take a movement class (which is related to dance) so I'm more aware of the space I'm working in and my relation to it.

A big of googling found these two:
 http://axpoint.axkit.org/
 http://ppresenter.org/
Which is better? Or are there better alternatives?

First consider whether you need slides at all. Some of the most memorable courses I've taken used no projector. But if you're using code samples or explaining complex ideas, you probably have to go that route. I recently tried doing live demos of Perl scripts, and it went very well - it also doesn't take as much preparation for the slides as long as you know the code well.

The most important thing in general is that you find a topic that you're passionate about and that you have experience with. If you're only discussing 10% of what you know about the subject, you'll be able to field most of the questions that come up. I find that I could talk for hours when I talk about a topic that I'm excited about, and people really notice that excitement even when I'm not consciously trying to be overly enthusiastic.

With that said, keeping to the allotted time is very important - keep a clock where you can easily glance at it, and don't be reluctant to take a few seconds (which will seem like eternities to you) to check it regularly. Ending a few minutes early will get vastly different results compared to ending a few minutes late. If there's opportunity and desire to answer additional questions and explore additional ideas, do it after coming to a logical conclusion and giving people implicit permission to leave if they want to.

Good luck!
--
Danny Faught
Tejas Software Consulting
http://www.tejasconsulting.com