The first and most obvious tip about presenting on your laptop is to prepare your slides. We will definitely need to prepare those PowerPoint slides and make sure the content is correct. Give yourself ample time to create, revise and endorse the slide contents.
 

Giving a laptop presentation should not be difficult ...

The next tip is to ensure you have a meeting room with a video projector hooked up. Book that room way in advance to ensure you have all the equipment you need on the day of the presentation. I've seen many situations where rooms were not booked in time and the presentation had to be cancelled or just done on hardcopy slides - not an ideal situation.

On the day of the presentation, make sure you give yourself at least 15 to 20 minutes to set up and prepare in the meeting room. As a meeting attendee, I hate it when the presenter goes 'Give us 10 more minutes while we sort out the projector issue'. Folks' time is precious - make sure you sort all the technical presentation equipment way before the presentation starts.
 

Make sure you set up the equipment early
 

In particular (having done countless presentations in my job as a consultant) - I know that many video projectors have got set up problems. No matter what you do, the video screen somehow just does not show what's on your laptop. Make sure you have someone knowledgeable about the video projector around you on the day of the presentation.

One great tip is to learn PowerPoint software properly. If you know the various shortcuts in PowerPoint, it will make you presentation go that much more smoothly. For example, did you know that you can press 'A' to hide the pointer in the slideshow. Or that you can press 'W' to display a white screen during the presentation. These are important tips to learn and know about.

I find that when presenting stuff to other folks, it helps to have a sidekick with you who can take meeting notes. It is tough to be presenting and also noting down action points or notes. It's best to have an aide who can help you out.