A lot of practical advice in the comments so far. Practice is important. Don't wait in your story to hint at the outcome. Don't give the punch line until it

A lot of practical advice in the comments so far. Practice is important. Don't wait in your story to hint at the outcome. Don't give the punch line until it is time but entice the audience with what is coming early on. Hook them. There are short TED talks on giving TED talks. Here is but one play list. https://www.ted.com/playlists/226/before_public_speaking https://www.ted.com/playlists/226/before_public_speaking If you must have slides -- don't use bulleted text much -- don't use much text at all -- use images, pictures, sketches See how boring that is. And don't read your slides when you do have text. I'm much better at presentations than one on one. I tend to provide more details than I should one on one. There is room for improvement.