How to give a killer Finovate presentation

I’m attending Finovate Spring in San Francisco (Finovate.com). We’ve seen a number of great demos, and others that haven’t gone so well. If you think of a classic consultant’s 2x2, with one dimension being strength of the idea and the other the strength of the presenter, probably the most unfortunate quadrant is the one that has a great idea, but shoddy delivery. Here are a few tips to help Finovate speakers give a killer presentation that will have the twittersphere take notice (with apologies to those who prompted the observations):

1. First, before you do anything else, State the Problem that you’re trying to solve
2. Have a demo that works; extra credit for something live
3. Involve the audience, preferably with something live (see #2)
4. Have a catchy slogan
5. Print catchy slogan on a tee-shirt
6. Speak in a Commonwealth accent (Australian, British, Kiwi, South African – they’re all good). Americans think you sound smart
7. Avoid using the terms “security,” “identity,” or “authentication.” These are all terribly important, but from a presentation perspective, you’re starting from a hole ten feet deep.

Good luck to all of you presenting! And kudos, by the way, to Finovate for their iOS and Android apps.