Ask Slashdot: How To Give IT Presentations That Aren't Boring? 291
Dmitri Baughman writes "I'm the IT guy at a small software development company of about 100 employees. Everyone is technically inclined, with disciplines in development, QA, and PM areas. As part of a monthly knowledge-sharing meeting, I've been asked to give a 30-minute presentation about our computing and networking infrastructure. I manage a pretty typical environment, so I'm not sure how to present the information in a fun and engaging way. I think network diagrams and bandwidth usage charts would make anyone's eyes glaze over! Any ideas for holding everyone's interest?"
An Idea.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Record Yourself (Score:5, Interesting)
We do something similar... (Score:5, Interesting)
Once a month we do a brownbag where people come in and do presentations. It's voluntary and fun.
The best thing to do is to have toys to show off. Just recently I walked around with a "coupon", an 8" diameter chunk of steel cut from a pipe. This let me talk about water pressure, safety (there's 4,000 lbs of force behind that coupon in a waterline) and give everyone a visual of that thing coming loose and whacking someone in the face. Perhaps not related, but it let me segue into our control system, and 25 miles of fiberoptic cable, and control infrastructure that lets us control our water delivery throughout 250 miles of waterlines.
Tell stories, illustrate your points with real world events. Don't dwell on statistics or numbers; talk about what those numbers mean and why they're important.
Yes, you are an entertainer. At least if you want to keep your audience from falling asleep.
Bring candy (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes, really. Bring candy, handouts and don't forget one humorous story in the first third, and a joke right before the final conclusion. People like stories, especially if they're in context with the presentation. It gives the less technical people something to relate to when all you're doing is spewing numbers about money saved and man hours reduced. The candy amps up their blood sugar so they stay awake, and the handout is so they have something to reference if they fall behind in the presentation, or try to remember what you said later.