Once an initial draft of your talk and slides are finished, it’s all about repetition (repetition, repetition!).
You will undoubtedly make tweaks to your talk as you practice. You’ll probably realize you might want to add an additional slide here, or you might want to cut out an irrelevant detail you talk about over there. Furthermore, you undoubtedly will make tiny adjustments to the amount of seconds that certain slides play for as you practice.
Note Cards / Cheat Sheets
While it’s OK to start off practicing with note cards or paper in case you have trouble remembering what to say next, note that you won’t be allowed to have note cards or cheat sheets to read off of on event night. This is a rule because watching someone give a talk as they read off of something is… boring. It takes more effort to work off of memory, but the difference it makes to an audience is substantial.
Practicing With An Audience
We also highly recommend that, as early on as possible, you practice in front of another person or over Zoom, whether that person is a partner, a friend or a family member. This is because your brain fires differently when you’re giving your talk to someone else. You’ll notice and catch things that you did not catch when you simply practiced alone. From our experience, the clearest predictor of the quality of a talk is the number of live reps had before being given.
Waiting for Slides to Turn
While by no means a hard requirement, we do ask that speakers try to practice to not pause while waiting for a slide to turn. This can come across as a bit awkward, and it’s avoidable. Instead of pausing, simply start to talk about the next thing, even if the next slide hasn’t started yet. This is totally OK to do and ensures things flow more naturally.