Combatting the Fear of Public Speaking

There's a reason that my fellow BNET bloggers Andrew Hines, Jeffrey James, and Rick Broida have discussed ways to improve your presentation skills. Unless you've given your talk several times before, it can be a terrifying to stand up and shuffle through PowerPoint slides in front of a bunch of people. We need all the help we can get.

Brett Tabke of PubCon writes about that fear, and comes up with several ways to combat the stage fright demons. He's also got some specific and useful tips for the Q&A session that follows, like admitting when you don't know the answer to a question and writing down the questions you're asked so you don't have to keep asking for them to be repeated. And if you feel you must drink to calm your nerves the night before, he's even got some pointers on how to give a talk with a hangover. (Hint: ask for the lights to be lowered so "so people can see the screen better.")