Jonathan Ellis's Programming Blog - Spyced

Jonathan Ellis's Programming Blog - Spyced

Advice often repeated, too-seldom followed. This is sometimes phrased as "make eye contact with your audience," but I've seen that second version interpreted to mean, "make eye contact while reading your slides, so your head pops up and down like a gopher poking out of its hole." So just don't read your slides, no matter what else you're doing.

Some good presenters go to extremes with this, with just one or two words per slide. This is fine as a stylistic embellishment, but not necessary for a good talk. You don't need to be that minimalistic. Just remember that with every transition, your audience will read the new slide before returning its attention to whatever you are saying. (Watch for this the next talk you attend; you will absolutely catch yourself doing it.)

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