Giving a good presentation requires a lot of research on the topic and practice. You may work on preparing a good presentation for a long time and at the final moment, change your mind and do something different because it will be much better to do it this way.
Remember that the first few minutes of your presentation are the most important ones. You need to greet your audience and introduce yourself. You will need to tell them what topic you will discuss. You need to use your body language and eye contact all the time during your presentation.
You need to develop a good slide show for your presentation. If you don't have Microsoft PowerPoint, you can use any open source software that will do the same job. I am not sure if you have heard of openoffice.org. It is free and does the same job as the very expensive programs from big companies.
Your slide show must not have a lot of details on each slide. People will be distracted between what they see and what you are trying to tell them. They will not be looking at you. You can use the powerfull animations that your software program has to make your slides more interesting.
A picture tells a thousand words. Use pictures to enhance your slide show and make the delivery of the presentation smooth moving from one point to another.
Giving an academic presentation is different from giving a presentation in a company or to sell a product to potential buyers. You have to argue strogly for your point and not make your audience feel bored at the same time.
When you finish your part, invite your colleague to deliver the second part and stand next to him/her until they finish. Your turn will come to answer any questions your audience may have.
You can use humour to sell your point of view. Don't end your presentaion all of a sudden.
At the end of your presentation, thank your audience and invite questions. If you don't know the answer to a question, you can try to find out how many people in the room can give you a good answer and take it from there.
Don't read the information on your slides.
Don't read from a piece of paper in your hand.
Don't keep looking at your slides and ignore the audience.
Don't go too fast so your audience will find it difficult to catch up with you.
Don't speak softly so your audience will find it difficult to hear you.
Don't talk too loud. This is not the Opera House here.
Don't treat your audience as if they know nothing about your topic.
Don't get angry if someone says a silly comment. Take control of the situation and keep focused.
Don't make spelling or grammatical mistakes in your slides.
Don't use only three slides in your slide show. It will be too short.
Don't leave your preparation till the last minute. The quality of your work will tell if you have spent time working on your preparation or not.
Good Luck!
