[liviuchircu]

I completely understand this. Being an open-source software developer, I've constantly had to deliver technical talks in front of crowds of experienced, seasoned professionals at various conferences, of up to 300 people in size. And although I went through the same panicky experience in the first years of doing this, I developed several techniques that have helped me grow into actually embracing and longing for these talks:

* "growth slides": challenge yourself to deliver a slide that scares you, but which is actually a great idea! Examples: a fun, refreshing introductory story to break the ice, including your SO in the "about me" section and sneaking in the fact that you love them, a clever joke-slide at a random point that is SURELY a good idea, etc.

* writing down the difficult parts of the talk: a bit time-consuming, but writing down the exact content of the more challenging segments of the talk will help cool you off. Especially important if English is not your first language, as in my case.

* "box breathing": a US Navy breathing technique that I would perform for 10 minutes leading into the presentation, stabilizing my breathing, brain and emotions.