Most technical presentations fail before the speaker opens their mouth. Overloaded slides, no narrative, reading bullet points aloud - the audience checks out in the first five minutes. The problem is not nerves. The problem is that nobody taught IT professionals how to move from delivering a slide deck to actually speaking.

With more community events, user groups, and internal knowledge-sharing sessions than ever, the ability to present well is no longer optional for IT professionals who want to grow. Yet most advice targets professional speakers, not the IT admin who has 45 minutes, a PowerPoint deck, and a room full of peers.

This session tackles the five sins of presentation - the habits that turn a good topic into a forgettable slide deck - and offers five practical tricks to break free from them. Built on years of real-world speaking experience as a self-described introvert, the session connects unexpected influences - a smile, running a marathon, science, storytelling, and procrastination - to reveal how each one shapes the way we show up on stage.

The journey moves from understanding why presentations fail, through the mechanics of stagecraft and storytelling, to practical techniques for controlling nerves, owning the room, and finding your authentic voice - even when every instinct tells you to hide behind the slides.

What to expect

- Identify the five sins of presentation and recognize them in your own slide decks.
- Apply five concrete tricks to shift from "doing a presentation" to speaking with purpose.
- Explore how stagecraft and storytelling techniques translate to technical sessions.
- Discover why a smile, a marathon, science, storytelling, and procrastination all connect to how you perform on stage.
- Practice techniques for controlling nerves and managing energy as an introvert.
- Walk through real examples of what goes wrong on stage - and how to recover.

What to take home

- A checklist of the five presentation sins to audit any slide deck against.
- Five actionable tricks attendees can apply to their very next speaking opportunity.
- Techniques for managing nerves and energy before and during a session.
- A reframed perspective on what "being a speaker" means for IT professionals who are not professional speakers.