I’m doing my first ever conference presentation next month at the 2010 Rittman Mead BI Forum.
My presentation is called Performance Testing OBIEE, which is something I’ve spent a lot of time working on over the last few months. I think the challenge is going to be distilling it all into a session that’s not going to overwhelm everyone or bore them to death! Well, actually, the challenge is going to be the presenting. I can talk geek one-on-one, but talking to a whole bunch of people, not wittering but staying focussed, holding their attention….uh oh.
I’d love to hear from anyone, particularly seasoned conference speakers, with any suggestions for not making a complete foul-up of my presentation :-)
I put the question out on Twitter yesterday and got the following helpful advice from Pete Scott of RittmanMead 
and from Lisa Dobson: 
I’ve sat through enough death by powerpoint presentations where all too often the contents of the presentation go in the deck, and then someone reads through them. 
Ultimately there has to be something that I add by being in the room instead of just emailing the deck to everyone! Do I go brave and take after Doug Burns’ “How I learned to love Pictures” and do minimal slides and then talk & demo? Is having ppt slides a useful crutch for someone not used to presenting?
So - help out a newbie - post your hints, tips, suggestions & comments here please :)
