To use notes for a big presentation?

[notetakerforlife]

NC so not linked to other posts.

I am short on time and could memorise it but it would take hours many hours if my life however it's a big presentation I have approx 20 minutes, and I want it to be great.

Do you feel the quality of a presentation is regarded when someone uses their notes?

Please be honest or is content more important?

I'm agreeing with most posters here that pointers are great, script is not. I'm assuming the presentation is live. If its over Teams or Zoom i think you can afford to rely on them a bit more provided they're off screen.
Good luck

Just have cue cards, one for each slide, that expands upon your bullet points. Use them as a safety net, not cards to read from word for word. If you really wanted it to be great, you should have devoted more time to it. With your next presentation make sure you allow more prep time, there's nothing worse than standing up in front of peers, customers whomever, and feeling underprepared.

Getting it the right length is important, if it's an interview for a job that involves presenting they want to know you can keep to time, in any situation if you overrun the agreed time significantly you may be cut off and your last slide(s) with the take away messages may never see the light of day!
I usually leave part of the time window for questions, 10-30% depending on setting.
Your timing for the same slides may evolve with practice, mine tend to run longer at first when I'm struggling to recall, get a bit quicker once I can get through it without needing to stop and think, and stress on the day sometimes speeds me up a little. So this is an important area where practice makes a difference. But if it's 20% too long now I'd be looking to cut out at least 10% of the slides and maybe more, it's easier to throw in pauses on the day if you find yourself ahead of time or stop and ask the audience something, than to skip over content and try to make that seem intentional.

I’m a regular presenter, and a paid speaker. I also regularly talk about myself as part of the latter!
You need to ditch the notes. They are unprofessional looking, they hinder your connection with your audience (including virtual) and they stop you from speaking naturally which is far more engaging and enjoyable for you and your audience.
Many times I finish a talk and I get asked a question and I think ‘ooh yes, I should have mentioned that’ but the beauty of speaking from the heart is that it will be slightly different each time.

I speak without notes in hand. But I also taught facilitation and know that having the security blanket of notes is important to newbies. My advice if you have notes is to put them on cards, punch a hole in the top corner and attach them with a key ring. No dropping them, no fumbling, can hang them off your finger if you want to look cool.

On each card you have:

MUMSNET

Pom bears, AIBU, MILs, toilet brushes.

Pom bears quote is "Pom bear anyone" at a dinner party. AIBU stands for Am I Being Unreasonable. And so on.

Number of the page in the other corner.

The reason for this is that if you need to glacé down to see where you are all you need is the number of the page and the topic. If you need a prompt look further down. If you completely freeze and forget your name, there are actual notes to read. No one I trained ever needs the actual notes except for reassurance!

@WishingMyLifeAway

May I ask what your disability is? As a child I could never recite a poem.
As for presentations, I might know the topic but won't be able to remember the words in a presentation setting. I have to have word for word written notes (easier to get away with when presenting over zoom), but I could have a conversation about it no problem. I also struggle with mental arithmetic.
I wondered if I have dyslexia but I don't struggle with spelling. Whatever it is nobody else I know seems to struggle in the way I do, so curious to know what your disability is, if you don't mind sharing.

My point is that it is FAR better to forget a couple of things, but deliver a confident presentation in a natural manner that the audience is interested enough to listen to.

Plus you've over run quite a lot - if it's supposed to be 20 mins, make it 15 and invite questions during the presentation - making it interactive with your audience is a much more enjoyable experience for them. (Obvs if you're delivering to more than 20 people you can't do that - but then you'd have questions at the end if there's that many.)

It sounds like you're trying to memorise a script. That will come across really badly and is a big no-no. Some junior members of my dept presented last week and it was very obvious that they'd memorised a script (including jokes). It came across as wooden and not at all natural.

You've been given lots of great advice on this thread so please don't ignore it (as you seem to be doing).

As for the timer, I didn't mean just time the entire length. You should have an indication of how long each section or point you're making should take in order to meet the 20 min duration. That means using a timer when you practice to ensure you're hitting your time allocated for each section (that way you will know where you need to cut down since you're overrunning at present).

Trouble is I've spent about 50 hours already on it and I just haven't got much more time or energetic to dedicate.

Though I am taking on Baird the comments and while I'll still have notes just incase all goes to shit, I'm going to start the presentation without them

Nice typo

I think what people are struggling with is why, assuming you know the topic well, you need to ‘memorise’ it as such, OP. You know your stuff, so just talk to a few prompts?

........... and I'm now wondering why you have spent 50 hours on a 15min presentation.
Didn't you say it was about you ? So not even researching new legislation or new regulations that have recently been imposed.

"50 hours"?? If literally true (I guess not), that would mean it's your anxiety that's the main problem not the content of the presentation. It really doesn't matter if you don't say "everything" or miss something out. The audience doesn't know what you havent said, and if there is time for questions, they can ask.

Many years ago, a friend once said to me (when I was panicking over making a presentation for a job interview), KISS = keep it simple, stupid.

I still sometimes think of it and it always helps.

I honestly don't understand why it's so confusing? It is in front of about 500 people and surely people get that the mind doesn't work in the same way when in front of an audience and I'm not a public speaker!

Most people refuse to speak in public full stop so to feel I need my notes I have no idea what is so baffling about that?

Most people refuse to speak in public full stop

I'm not sure who these people are that you're mixing with but that's most definitely not my experience. In consulting / financial services people are more likely to wrestle each other to get their hands on the microphone. 😂

Like other posters, I don't understand how you've spent 50 hours on a 15-20 min presentation about yourself and need detailed written notes. Are you pretending to be Elon Musk?

You can't actually say that much in 15 minutes though. I present a lot for work and what seems like 5 minutes is often a lot more.

As for numbers, you have to block that from your mind and focus on what you want to say. If you don't know it well enough without notes, it just won't come across that effectively.

As I said before, my slides are my notes. They trigger my thoughts. I don't get upset if I make a mistake. I either say 'I should have said x' or I leave it out.

Are you really having 500 people interview you for a job? Blimey... (I can't think of any other scenario where you'd be asked to talk about yourself for 20 mins!)

Clearly I just have issues then! Why wouldn't I spend so long on a presentation if I want it perfect?

I also don't understand if notes is such a bad thing why many speakers j have seen have notes and why there's a notes section in PowerPoint?!!

@titchy it's not a job interview!

I used to make bullet points on business cards, linking them together with a treasury tag. That way you can hold them in the palm of your hand.

This might sound strange but my brain stops working on front of a crowd !

Bullet points on cards.
Don’t read the cards.
Use PowerPoint bullets if you can??

You know more than your audience.

Practice going thru it out loud. Get used to your voice saying the words. Do this as often as you can.
Use stop watch on yr phone to time yourself.

For next time remember this:
“Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance.”
You go girl. You’ll be fine.
Good Luck.

I've already spent so many hours on it I'm burned out I can't practice anymore

I'm really upset by it

Are you able to share what it's actually for then if not a job interview?

I think you've worked yourself into a tizz tbh. Have a few notes if it makes you feel more confident. But it absolutely doesn't matter if you miss one or two things out - it's far more important to deliver it fluently and be able to engage with the audience (is it live or on Teams?) which means not panicking if you don't mention sentence 4 on the notes for slide 3.