Do you ever give presentations?

I learned more about holding an audience as a drama student than I ever learned in a speech class. For public speaking it is all about timing and pace. And rehearsal!

My most significant tip is KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE and show them that you know them in one way or another.

Damn straight. protip.

I tell new teachers/instructors that our profession is really just acting.

...except when it's really just applied psychology.

xp - True in part, but imo it's also connecting with people in a real and genuine way, esp. if your classes are not in a content area but are more skill-based. It's not a The Teacher Show, it's a collaboration.

does skill based have a hyphen? i don't know. i don't even care, really.

Has anyone here used prezi? I'm tempted to use it for some presentations I have to do this semester but I'm a bit intimidated by the possibility of not using powerpoint, oddly.

I have to give an hour-long presentation in St Petersburg to about eighty university heads, teachers and government officials with variable levels of English. I don't really have anything to tell them. I can't really bring myself to be nervous about it but i have no idea how it's going to go.

^^^This is one case where the "minimal text on your slides" approach is to be avoided ime. When I was lecturing in China this summer the main advice I got from more experienced hands was not to say anything that's not on the slide because if you do, many of the students won't be able to follow.

True in part, but imo it's also connecting with people in a real and genuine way, esp. if your classes are not in a content area but are more skill-based. It's not a The Teacher Show, it's a collaboration.

sure but good acting is too!

^^^This is one case where the "minimal text on your slides" approach is to be avoided ime. When I was lecturing in China this summer the main advice I got from more experienced hands was not to say anything that's not on the slide because if you do, many of the students won't be able to follow.
Good example of "know your audience".

Also I don't know the first thing about acting, so I will take your word for it Alfred. I always imagine myself tap dancing up there when I'm just kinda trying to get/keep their attention.

look at this adorable picture of gene kelly!

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/252/30632449.jpg

I give presentations at work. My powerpoints are awesome.

Has anyone here used prezi? I'm tempted to use it for some presentations I have to do this semester but I'm a bit intimidated by the possibility of not using powerpoint, oddly.

I like prezi, and have always had a positive response when I've used it. It's more visually engaging than powerpoint, and keeps you from being overly reliant on text.

I once took a whole college economimcs class til the final presentation (=final exam) and then ditched the exam b/c of stage fright!

Oh god, studio reps give presentations most Thurs/Fri at work and 99.5% of them just read off the powerpoint. Half of them TRAVEL to us to give them, and it's like they're seeing the slides for the first time when they give the presentation, it's maddening.

My favorite reps put up the powerpoint and then actually tell you cool stuff about the movies, or tell us their honest opinion of the movies. It's so much more pleasant when that happens.

The worst is when the quarterly presentations come out with charts and statistics and zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh done! It went well, we ran out of chairs because so many people showed up, it was definitely the beginning of a conversation rather than the beginning and end of an informative session. Good class! I'm competent. Yaay.

I wish all of my classes were only an hour long though, geez.

My presentation went relatively well, i think. There was lots of nodding and laughing in the appropriate places. That said, i spent the rest of the day nodding and laughing at presentations in Russian i only understood about 20% of, so that's not necessarily a great guide.

I wasn't nervous in the slightest, which surprised me. This may have had something to do with drinking a concoction that was equal parts double espresso and Moldovan cognac at 9:30am to prepare myself.

The chief presenter referred to me as her 'young and very handsome' colleague three times, which was over-egging the pudding rather.

Everything was going swimmingly until it turned out that they hadn't paid for the conference hall, the filming or lunch and i was expected to come up with roughly US$1000 in cash, which is not particularly easy to do at short notice in the middle of St Petersburg.