Perform, don’t read!
If you have this one down, half the battle is won!
If you know the content of your presentation you don’t need to worry about what you will say and can concentrate on how you will say it. I believe that we are all little children who got older. The child in each of us still loves to hear stories. We are still fascinated when someone captures our imagination. Just about everyone still enjoys good “storytelling”. Put life and energy into your delivery.
Perform the material. Put all your energy into making sure that the audience “gets it”. You can’t do that if you are “reading” rather than communicating with your audience. If you must read from a text of any kind, trust your mind. Look down at the material, “grab” a sentence, then look up at the audience and deliver it. Your mind is a wonderful and powerful mechanism. It will allow you to retain the thought that you just read long enough for you to deliver it to the audience. Trust yourself. Organize your thoughts using key words to remind you of the thought you are trying to convey. Write the words in big, bold type so you can see them easily. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse! It doesn’t take long and it pays big dividends.