Biz, after seeing your presentation at SXSW it's clear that you have a knack for public speaking. What's your secret? What tips can you give to newbies, like me?

First, honor your hosts. It's nice, and it displays thoughtfulness. Second, tell the audience what you are about to tell them. This removes humans’ natural anxiety for the unknown. Once you've given your talk, tell the audience what you just told them "in conclusion" so they know it's over and thank them for their time and attention—that's their cue to clap. This sounds simple but lots of people don't do it resulting in many a nervous audience thinking the speaker is arrogant.

I totally agree with Biz's points of intro, body, conclusion, helps create a context. Also, telling the audience how you are going to tell them is important, especially if you have a different style. For example, I tend to be pretty blunt and honest, and I warn the audience (and other speakers if it's a panel) of that upfront, so no one is surprised and offended I guess. And they walk away thinking at the end I was "honest and straight forward."

What do you think, Jonah? I've noticed that your public presentations tend to be funny. Is humor important when speaking publicly?

Who the speaker is matters as much as what they say. You don't have to be funny or clever if people are there to hear YOU speak because they admire your work. You can be straight forward, speak your mind, and tell your story. For example, if you are Biz people will want to hear from the Twitter guy, want to see what he looks like, sounds like, and hear his story directly. Afterwards, people will tell their friends: "I saw Biz talk about Twitter, he is really smart and a nice guy, too".

But if you are a young upstart like Josh, you got to do things to command attention and make people listen. That's when humor, controversy, and performance matter b/c people won't pay attention otherwise. You need to entertain the audience before you can inform them. The audience will only remember one or two ideas from your talk, if you're lucky. They'll tell their friends: "I saw this guy talk, he showed this funny graph of Mormons vs Jews...." If they remember one thing, you won.