Chairman's and such...

[Lil' Lavery]

Practice practice practice practice practice practice sleep practice practice practice.

Practice is incredibly important to giving a good presentation. Know your part, and your partners' parts, inside and out, backwards and forwards. Don't make it sound robotic and over-rehearsed, but rather have it be fluid and conversational. The judges aren't big and scary, they're regular people too. Treat them as such, as your presentation will tend to go much better.

Don't simply mimic your essay, either. Put new and different information in your presentation, they've already read your essay and don't need it twice. Keep the themes and general topics the same (or at least complimentary to one another), but don't repeat the exact same statistics and examples time and time again. There are certain key issues that you'll likely want to bring up again (whatever the focal points of your candidacy are), but try and present them in a slightly different fashion to what you did in the essay to keep them fresh and interesting.

The questions vary from team to team, judge to judge, year to year, and regional to regional. You're never going to be quite sure what you're going to get. Some will focus on your team and your essay/presentation. Some will be generic to all teams. Some will be specific, some will be broad and overarching. A couple I recall from the presentations I did as a student include:

"What would you like to see change about your school's role with your team in the future?"
"What type of relationship have you fostered with some of your sponsors?"
"What caused you, personally, to become involved wtih FIRST?"

Formats will vary from event to event, slightly. Some judge crews are very strict about the 5 minute presentations, some are not. On rare occassions, I've had judges ask questions during the presentation (though not the full Q&A), rather than wait 'til the second half of the interview session. Some "tones" have been more formal, while others have been more light-hearted and friendly. Be prepared for anything.

But remember, just have fun doing it. It may be a pressure situation, but it's not the end of the world. Be loose, be excited, and be interesting. Don't clam up and sound, no pun intended, robotic. If you're not excited about what your team accomplished and confident about your chances, why would the judges be?