The house lights went down to black, for this was the era of weak projectors, and the lectern spotlights arced up. Someone showed me another Steve Ballmer stage moment, in which the big guy cavorts in the sweatiest shirt since Elvis played Hawaii. Watching it gave me terrible flashbacks to an incident long ago, and prompts the question: what’s the worst presentation you’ve ever done?

When the green light goes on, he or she jams the accelerator right to the floor. If you're using visuals, turn off the projector and turn up the house lights. Once you've established your connection with the audience, you can begin to use your script or notes, take down the house lights, turn on the projector, and start really getting into your content. With your audience snug in the comfort zone, they're ready to listen, understand, and believe your idea We've all seen it happen. I'm talking about the speaker who opens like the start of