Speaking and presenting at conferences can be a great way to boost your reputation, further your career, meet new people, and gain more experience in public speaking. I’ve been fortunate to have many opportunities to present at national and international conferences on a range of topics, and it’s an experience I recommend everyone to try.

This blog post is the second in a series around conferences. My first post focussed on applying to speak at conferences, and today’s post is going to focus on the next step: speaking at a conference!

For many people, public speaking is a nerve-wracking thought. Getting up on stage or going live a Zoom call to speak to an audience can be a daunting thought. What if I forget my words? How do I keep people’s attention? How do I avoid stage fright?!

It’s worth noting that there is no one perfect way to prepare for public speaking. Different techniques work for different people. But I’d like to share my three personal top tips to help you confidently speak at conferences.

Don’t be afraid of silence

Silence during a talk can feel like it’s swallowing you whole. It can feel all consuming and very overwhelming, and it’s a big fear for many people. Silence can feel like the enemy, a sign that you’ve run out of things to say or forgotten your words.

But rather than fearing moments of silence, I’d encourage you to embrace them. Build them in to your talk in fact! This might sound counterintuitive, but when you use silences and pauses effectively you can:

• Give your audience time to reflect on an important point or question, or laugh at a joke!
• Avoid rambling. Often, to compensate against a fear of silence, speakers may talk far too quickly or end up ‘waffling’. By planning for pauses, you can reset and slow down giving your talk a much better pace.
• Hold an audience’s attention. Silences are a great way to catch people off guard and get them focussed.
• On a practical note, pauses give you time to pause and have a sip of water!
• Connect with your audience. Pausing allows you to look at the people you’re speaking to and see how they are responding to what you’re saying.

Have a friendly face available

The audience can also be a source of fear for many speakers, particularly larger, in-person audiences. It can be hard to know where to look whilst speaking, and looking at strangers can feel uncomfortable. It can also be hard to judge how your audience feel about your talk if you’re only looking at unfamiliar faces.

To combat this, particularly if you’re a new speaker, try and get a friendly face in the audience. Whether this is a friend or a colleague, or someone you met at the conference that morning, find someone who you know who can be in the crowd to act as your anchor. This is someone who you can glance at when you need encouragement or feedback, and will ideally make you feel at ease when you need it most.

If this isn’t practical (maybe because you went to the conference alone, or you’re speaking on an online webinar with no audience), you can try:

• Finding a spot (either on your screen or at your speaking venue) that you can regularly glance back at when you need grounding. You can even take a prop to your talk with you that you can look at, if that suits your talk! Think of it as a mascot!
• Rehearsing your talk in-front of someone you trust multiple times to get their feedback and encouragement, so that when you deliver it live you feel confident in what you’re saying and how it will be received.
• Delivering your talk in front of a smaller audience first, to get used to speaking to a crowd ahead of the main event.

Turn your nerves into energy

Finally, nerves. Nerves affect absolutely every public speaker. I’ve often been asked ‘how do you get rid of nerves before speaking?’, and the truth is: I don’t! I don’t think it’s possible to ever get rid of nerves. No matter how long you’ve been speaking for, that rush of adrenaline you get before you deliver a talk sticks with you. I think that having nerves is a sign that you care about the talk you’re delivering. if you didn’t care about it going well, what do you have to be nervous about?! The trick is to learn how to manage and harness your nerves, and use them to your advantage.

When managed right, nerves can come across as charisma, passion and enthusiasm. They can give us the energy to move around on stage, laugh, and speak louder rather than trapping us into being frozen and quiet. So how do you transform nerves into energy? You can:

• Move around! If you’re speaking in person, make use of the space on stage to help channel the nerves and release some adrenaline.
• If you can’t move around on stage, because of space or because you’re online, move around before your talk. I’ve heard of speakers running up a flight os stairs before giving a talk to try and expel some nerves and bring their energy levels down, and it works for them!
• Smile! This might seem obvious, but research shows that smiling forces our body to relax. It can release tension in our muscles and trick our body into feeling more calm. It’s a trick that long distance runners use during races. It also has the added bonus of coming across as friendly in your talk!