####Starting Off
Remember to introduce yourself. Very briefly, who are you? Why are you talking on this subject? What is your experience with it? Why is it important to you? Give your audience a way to know your connection to the material.
for example: "I'm Abby, Lead Developer for Mozilla Science Lab. I started using tool x for collaboration x (weeks, months, days) ago... Tool x changed the way I work in really surprising ways, and so I'm excited we're learning tool x today.""
State the question or topic you'll explore, and what you'll cover. Give your audience a sense of the scale and scope of your talk, and what they'll get out of it.
for example: ""We're going to talk about why and how you'd share your data for re-use. We'll discuss three different scenarios for data reuse that you can implement in your projects."
Start with a story about the topic, to give your audience something concrete to wrap their heads around This could be an example of a success or a challenge or problem that the skill/topic/info you're discussing might address. You may ask the audience to come up with this example.
for example: "What does collaboration mean to you-- what are examples of colllaborative behaviors you've experienced or tried?"
####Crafting your talk Ensure you are using accessible/shared languge. Be sure to define all terms that might be unfamiliar to your audience as those words come up. You might also want to run through to a glossary of terms you'll be using at the start of the talk.
Welcome questions and establish a process for asking/answering Make it clear that you welcome questions from the audience. State this upfront, and let the audience know how you'll handling questions and answers (during the talk, at a period at the end, on stickie notes handed up front, etc... this is up to you).
Build in moments for the audience to participate and share. Ask questions of your audience and give them a real opportunity to respond. They can participate by giving an example, telling a story, defining a term, or putting a concept in their own words. This will help them actively process and interalize the content.
Use concrete examples whenever possible Discussing a specific scenario or a several different scenarios about helps your audience understand and imagine how this information can be or is applied practically in the real world. Examples provide nuance and detail.
Think about sequence What concepts are key for your audience to understand first, and what elements should you introduce later on? This isn't always obvious (and goes hand in hand with defining terms)--sometimes too much detail early on can be confusing, while early oversimplification means that the audience may be lost when the material becomes too complex.
Control the flow of information Be sure pause to give people a break if you're covering dense material. Unpack more complex topics to give users time to understand them. Think of your talk as a variable flow--- don't send out a firehose of informatoon all at once, but also don't provide only a trickle or your audience will lose interest. Vary the amount of information you're giving, and provide space for questions.
Zoom in or out as needed If you are providing details, be sure to zoom out to connect them to the bigger picture. Framing information in this way helps the audience place new information in a meaningful context, and keep track of the topics that are at the core of your talk.
Make a good ending Be sure to wrap up your presentation with a summary or takeawawy, a zoom-out to the big picture-- why this is important, and, again, make time for any last questions or discussions.
Suggest next steps What might your audience do next with this information or skill? Are there further trainings or opportunities available that they can take advantage of?
####About Slide Decks and Visuals Try not to read blocks of text or bullet lists off your slides. This puts people into a focused reading mode, and your presence becomes unnecessary. Slides should not contain more than a sentence or phrase or two summarizing the content you discuss/elaborate while the slide is shown. If you have a lot of stuff to say, break it out into several slides. Put the words in the presenter notes.
Visuals/images that show what you are talking about are great! These can be diagrams, figures, graphs, visuals like logos or symbols, metaphorical images, photos of people doing/working on things, and fun stuff like memes.... All are useful in keeping the audience's attention and making information more memorable-- but the most important part of the presentation is what YOU say-- the slides should complement this, not compete with it!
If more complex specific information is key, put it on a handout or post online for reference later.
Instructional talks with lots of complex steps that people need to walk through may be best done in a workshop or small group format, you give a live demo, followed by people doing hands-on work with intermittent help/troubleshooting from you and any assistants.