[Bungleau]

There's also a cultural element... in some cultures, looking someone in the eye is important. In others, it's offensive. And in others, not doing it can be offensive. I don't know what it's like in Estonia [img]smile.gif[/img]

I beg to differ that it's really a catch-22. Yes, your performance is better if you are focused more on what you're saying than on how you're saying it; IOW, if you don't care about your performance. However, what makes a performance better, in my opinion, is not that it goes through perfectly and smoothly, but that if something does go wrong, you can acknowledge it (if needed), move on, and continue what you were doing.

An inexperienced speaker will draw attention to what's going wrong -- sorry I don't have all my materials, sorry I'm late, whoops I've lost where I am, and so on. An experienced speaker will simply go on, and the audience will not know that you're missing materials, that you're late, that you've lost your place, or whatever. They will simply know that your message has gotten across.

What practice gets you is not peak performance, but the comfortable knowledge that if something goes wrong, you can handle it. You're already prepared for it.