How do you prepare for presentations/tech talks?

Question

I tend to rely a lot on "presenter notes" (text that only the presenter, and not the audience, can see), to the point that if the talk is a bit long or complex, I literally read out loud my own notes. This has the advantage of not having to "memorize" anything, and the disadvantage of not keeping a lot of eye contact with the audience.I wonder if most people memorize what they'll say on each slide or just come up with something on the spot. Both options seem really hard and tiresome to me.

mindcrime · Accepted Answer

I don't really "memorize" specific words, and I don't generally rely on a lot of "presenter notes". Instead, I just try to:
A. know the material well enough that I could ad-lib the entire talk with the material on the slides just reminding me what I'm supposed to be talking about as I progress
and
B. mentally rehearse the talk (or at least parts of it) a few dozen times before hand. Again, not trying to memorize, just making sure I can talk intelligently about what I'm supposed to be talking about, for 60-90 minutes (or however long the slot is).
When the actual talk starts, I just start talking and go with whatever comes out. Nobody is ever going to really know if I was "off script" or not, unless I go WAY off into la-la land.