How to Deliver Amazing, Successful and Effective Presentations
Good Presentation Skills are Essential in Today's Competitive World
Today, it’s not just what you know that counts but how you present your knowledge to the world. In this guide, we'll look at how to deliver a professional, winning presentation to an audience.
Delivering accomplished presentations is a vital skill in anyone's armory whether you're a student just starting out or the head of a large organization. You want your presentations to be impressive and persuasive.
Here are sometips and techniques for preparing successful presentations and how to get your points across.
Even if you don’t normally give presentations as part of your day-job, one day you'll need to address a hobby group or a community organisation so it pays to prepare and develop those skills now.
These days, public speaking and business presentations are also often a key part of the recruitment and selection process, particularly in education, consultancy or marketing.
These days, public speaking and business presentations are also often a key part of the recruitment and selection process, particularly in education, consultancy or marketing.
What Do We Mean By a Presentation?
Here are a few examples:
A design review
A project brief to colleagues (peer review)
A pitch to potential customers or senior executives
A business presentation
A paper at a conference or exhibition
Sharing a few tips with fellow hobbyists - for example, other pet owners
How Do I Begin?
1. Body Language helps you get your ideas across
First decide what you want to say and how much time is available to do it. If it is a conference or seminar then you will probably be allocated a fixed period of time; typically 15-30 minutes, plus time for questions. In our case you have 8 minutes to present with 2 minutes allocated for questions.
Technical people, in particular, often need to focus on a great deal of detail in their everyday work, so the most common mistake when giving a presentation is to include too much information.
The golden rule is, ‘Keep It Simple’. Think of a presentation as designing an advertisement. You should focus on a few key themes and benefits. You don't fill an advert or a presentation with detail such as circuit diagrams or technical data sheets.
How often have you sat through a presentation where there was so much information on the screen you just couldn't read it all before the slide disappeared from the screen? Remember how it made you feel?
Make Your Presentation Entertaining!
PowerPoint -
A Good Presentation
A good presentation needs an introduction, followed by the main body and an ending with some conclusions. It is also helpful if the main body breaks into about three key themes. You can leave the detail either for inclusion in your written paper or to be dealt with during question time.
How Many Slides?
As a general rule, have about one slide or less for each minute of elapsed time. Most people, when first attempting a 10-minute talk, will find themselves speaking for well over 20 minutes. Remember you are talking about something that is of great personal interest so you will find you have far more to say than you expect.
Winning Presentations: Pictures, Colours, Shapes and Graphs are generally better than bulleted word lists!
A good presentation needs an introduction, followed by the main body and an ending with some conclusions. It is also helpful if the main body breaks into about three key themes. You can leave the detail either for inclusion in your written paper or to be dealt with during question time.
How Many Slides?
As a general rule, have about one slide or less for each minute of elapsed time. Most people, when first attempting a 10-minute talk, will find themselves speaking for well over 20 minutes. Remember you are talking about something that is of great personal interest so you will find you have far more to say than you expect.
Winning Presentations: Pictures, Colours, Shapes and Graphs are generally better than bulleted word lists!
MAKE SURE YOUR PRESENTATION IS ON A THUMB DRIVE.
What Should Go on the Slides?
Select a large, readable font. Make sure the colours you choose work well on a big screen. White on a blue background is a safe choice.
What Should Go on the Slides?
Select a large, readable font. Make sure the colours you choose work well on a big screen. White on a blue background is a safe choice.
Keep the number of words to a minimum. If you do use bullet points then keep the number of bullets to a minimum. Avoid 'Death By Powerpoint' (presentations where the audience switches off because of page after page of bulleted text).
Introduce visual information - A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words. For example, if you are talking about a lovable pet then a photo can say far more than words ever can.
If the diagram is more complicated then animate the presentation so it builds gradually (controlled by mouse clicks) as you describe it.
You might also consider a short video clip. Even a 'sound bite' is a possibility to make your presentation different. Why not consider a relevant piece of music to start with?
Finally, avoid simply writing on the slide what you want to say and avoid too much detail. The slide should simply act as a visual cue to help you get your ideas across. It's not a script!
Catch Their Attention!
PRESENTATIONS: Wednesday, Friday and next Tuesday.
We are doing these in alphabethical order. So if your partner's surename is ahead of yours, that is when you will present. There are no in class make-ups. These will take place after school on Thursday 13 October only. With the exception of those using a prezi program, all mateial neeeds to be on your thumb drive.
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