Geek Speak / Tech Talk : Public Speaking on Technology Topics

There may be a lot of you who either work in a technology field or who are “techies” yourselves. In today’s job market, there are a lot of technical aspects for every type of job. You may be asked to give a presentation or speech on a technology subject. You may be great a giving speeches but feel reluctant to speak about technology or you may have the expertise and just have a general fear of public speaking (known as Glossophobia).This article will help you prepare for and deliver a great technology speech.

One thing to keep in mind when giving a speech or presentation on technology is to know the audience and have a general sense of what their level of knowledge is in the topic you will be presenting. Are you giving a outline to upper management or are you discussing the new features of a product to a group of programmers. In either case, gauging their level will help you tailor your presentation to a level that everyone is comfortable with.

No matter what the level of experience the audience has, you should never assume that everyone knows how to talk in acronyms. Today’s technology thrives on these little gems of letters and numbers. You should never assume that the audience, even the most seasoned programmer, knows every acronym. However, this shouldn’t prevent you from using them. Just know how to introduce them into your presentation.

Let me give you an example.The acronym WYSIWYG (pronounced “wiz-ee-wig”) stands for What You See Is What You Get. This is a type of editor (sometimes used when describing web page editors) that shows the user exactly what the end result will look like while they are editing it.

You can see how I used the acronym, defined what it stood for, and what it is. Now I can use this throughout my presentation. You may want to remind the audience later in the presentation if you haven’t used the acronym much.

So, you can see how tailoring your topics to the audience’s experience level can give you an advantage when preparing for a technology presentation. Keep the acronyms short, define them when you first introduce them, and make sure your audience knows what you are saying when you are saying it.

Speak well!