Data-scientist who loves to use #datascienceforgood, especially in ecology, energy and the environment. Bonsai, gardening, bikes and music when I'm not at a keyboard.
First off: well done. Commiting to deliver a talk at any public event is a very positive thing to have done. As an organiser of events, we really appreciate when the rest of the community steps up to help an event work.
Second: your prepared display materials are single most important thing to make your talk work, which is tricky because you have to balance for 3 competing goals
To convey enough meaning to your audience to support your speaking
To not try to cram to much in that you effectively are reading from your slides or that your audience are hit with a 'wall of text' that effectively makes you redundant
Giving you enough of an anchor at each part of the talk so that you know what you are supposed to be talking about or leading up to
It's a very fine balance but remember that your slides aren't the focus, YOU are, and your slides are only there to help that.
The other thing to try and do is 'tell a story'. Audiences don't respond to a large set of abstract facts as much as they do to something that has a continuous, developing thread through the work. This is hard to get right when working on 'technical' topics, but of you can do it you will have the audience attention from start to finish.
First off: well done. Commiting to deliver a talk at any public event is a very positive thing to have done. As an organiser of events, we really appreciate when the rest of the community steps up to help an event work.
Second: your prepared display materials are single most important thing to make your talk work, which is tricky because you have to balance for 3 competing goals
It's a very fine balance but remember that your slides aren't the focus, YOU are, and your slides are only there to help that.
The other thing to try and do is 'tell a story'. Audiences don't respond to a large set of abstract facts as much as they do to something that has a continuous, developing thread through the work. This is hard to get right when working on 'technical' topics, but of you can do it you will have the audience attention from start to finish.
Good luck!
Thanks for the tips and the luck!
I'll definitely try to incorporate some storytelling in my session.