I think the most basic requirement to giving a good presentation is that you pretend you’re trying to explain something to your ignorant friend; however, I’m not sure if this changes given a larger audience (say.. >100?).

One thing I’ve done when I’m giving presentations during classes is ask the professor if I can allow the class to ask questions during my delivery.

I’d like to find out what the capacity is for this kind of interaction before OSCD kicks in. Any thoughts? Perhaps the best way to find out is to just keep using this method until I reach maximum capacity.

Talks in which you have new ideas about a commonly held belief or technique, that changes the game.
A heavily organic talk (presenting stories and anecdotes) about a way of life people might not know.
A demonstration of something you’ve done that makes people want to go to your site and get more information.

But I contend the framing is the big difference, the ability to take what you have and give it to the audience in a consistent, clear and informative-without-flooding-them tone. I can only do so much about the content itself.

This was really, really fascinating. I’ve only watched it once, with my dogs running around and my wife watching 30 rock in the background, and I will watch this once or twice more (as that’s how I best learn, sadly), but what I didn’t walk away with, is how do you make people care/be interested in/not be bored about what you’re talking about. I understand presenting well is the most important skill, as that will keep them engaged, but Tony Robbins can keep a group of people rapt for 45 minutes, but in the end I don’t really give a sh*t what he was saying, as I don’t buy it. To be fair, your speeches are far more objective than subjective. Is the basic premise to provide just enough information along with some interesting anecdotes in order to make the audience want to go home and wiki the source material (for example)?

As i posted in my last comment, I loved the n64 platform study and the communication network speech at shmoocon a few years ago in DC, but what I didn’t walk away from this video with is the best way to connect the idea of the speech with how to make people actually take interest. I know you touched on it, and maybe like I said, I just need to to watch a few more times.

That being said, can you summarize your theory between knowledge transfer and interest transfer?

Sorry if this question seems a bit stupid given the speech, (the Q&A session answers some of this) but it’s how I’m built.

Thanks from the drunk guy who you humored at the bar at shmoocon DC a few years ago, who hopes to do something like this someday.