Presentation_Skills_Tips

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Presentation Skills

PRESENTATION SKILLS TIPS

Presentation Skills Summary

CONTENT

?

Should be relevant to the audience

?

Main points should be expressed 3

DELIVERY

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Eye contact

[make frequent eye contact with the

times

?

Know what your know - Present what

you know

[don’t try to bullshit your way

through a topic]

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

AUDIENCE

?

Size

[different presentation to a large than a

?

?

?

?

?

?

small audience

–

better to have a full small

room than a mostly empty large room]

Experience

[What experience does the

audience have with the topic]

Interest in the topic

Needs

Gender balance

[content and delivery may

change in a mixed gender audience]

Age range

Culture/religion

[are there any cultural or

religious factors that may influence the content

or delivery]

audience

–

pick two or three people seated in different

places and look at them]

Timing

[time of day/time in relation to other topics/timing of

specific remarks - silence can be powerful]

Duration

[try not to be over 20 minutes]

Pace

KISS

[Keep It Short and Simple]

Voice

[volume, tone modulation]

Humour

[is you are not sure that what is funny to you will

be funny others

–don’t try to be funny]

Language

[avoid jargon]

Gestures

[some are better than none

–

too many detract]

VISUAL AIDS

?

KISS

[Keep It Short and Simple]

?

Should support and not detract from the

?

?

?

?

?

VENUE

?

Location

[geographic]

?

Access

[physical - to the facility and to the

presentation

SAVI

–

Sure All View It

Card and chart

OHT

Flipcharts

PowerPoint

[don’t be cute]

CHOREOGRAPHY

?

OHT

[difficult dance partner

–

when not is use remove it

?

?

?

?

?

room

–

it is better for the entrance of the room

to be at the back]

Lighting

[adequate for all to see you]

The stage “set”

[remove distractions

–

any

materials from previous sessions should be

removed]

Size of the room

Seating

Temperature

[cool is better than warm]

from the stage or fold down the mirror]

?

Flip chart stands

[Right handed-stage left/left handed-

stage right]

?

PowerPoint

[very difficult dance partner - must be

stationery and you have to deal with electronic spaghetti -

several cords]

?

A Co-presenter

[Clarify roles and responsibilities

–

follow

plan!]

November 2005

Participant Handout

Page 1 of 4

Emergency Field Coordination Training

Presentation Skills

Things to Think About

Oral Communication is different from Written Communication

--

Listeners have one chance to hear your

talk and can't

on the same day. Being clear is particularly important if the audience can't ask questions during the talk.

There are two well-know ways to communicate your points effectively. Focus on getting one to three key

points across. Think about how much you remember from a talk last week. Second, repeat key insights:

tell them what you're going to tell them

[Forecast]

, tell them, and tell them what you told them

[Summary]

.

Think about your Audience --

Most audiences should be addressed in layers: some are experts in your

sub- area,

some

are

experts

in

the

general

area,

and

others

know

little

or

nothing.

Who

is

most

important to you? Can you still leave others with something? For example, pitch the body to experts,

but make the forecast and summary accessible to all.

Think about your Rhetorical Goals --

For conference or training talks, for example, two rhetorical goals

will be enough: leave your audience with a clear picture of the gist of your contribution, and make them

want

to

read

your

paper.

Your

presentation

should

not

replace

your

paper,

but

rather

whet

the

audience appetite for it. Thus, it is commonly useful to allude to information in the paper that can't be

covered adequately in the presentation.

Preparation

--

Prepare the structure of your talk carefully and logically, just as you would for a written

report. Think about:

?

the objectives of the talk

?

the main points you want to make

… and make a list of these two things as your starting point.

Write out the presentation in rough, just like a first draft of a written report. Review the draft. You will

find

things

that

are

irrelevant

or

superfluous

-

delete

them.

Check

the

story

is

consistent and

flows

smoothly.

If

there

are

things

you

cannot

easily

express,

possibly

because

of

doubt

about

your

understanding, it is better to leave them unsaid.

Never

read from a script. It is also unwise to have the talk written out in detail as a prompt sheet

- the

chances are you will not locate the thing you want to say amongst all the other text. You should know

most

of

what

you

want

to

say -

if

you

don't

then

you

should

not be

giving

the

talk!

So

prepare

cue

cards,

which have key words and phrases

[and possibly sketches]

on them. Postcards are ideal for this.

Don't forget to number the cards

in case you drop them.

Remember

to

mark

on

your

cards the

visual

aids

that

go

with

them

so

that

the right OHP

or

slide

is

shown at the right time.

Rehearse

your

presentation

-

to

yourself

at

first

and

then

in

front

of

some

colleagues.

The

initial

rehearsal should consider how the words and the sequence of visual aids go together. How

will you

make effective use of your visual aids?

Making the Presentation

Greet the audience and tell them who you are. Good presentations then follow this formula:

?

tell the audience what you are going to tell them;

?

then tell them; and

?

at the end tell them what you have told them.

Keep to the time allowed. If you can, keep it short. It's better to under-run than over-run. As a rule of

thumb, allow 2 minutes for each

general

overhead transparency or PowerPoint slide you use, but longer

for any that you want to use for developing specific points. The audience will get bored with something on

the

screen

for

more

than

5

minutes,

especially

if

you

are

not actively

talking

about

it.

So

switch

the

display off, or replace the slide with some form of 'wallpaper' such as an image related to your talk.

Stick to the plan for the presentation, don't be tempted to digress - you will eat up time and could end

up in a dead-end with no escape!

November 2005

Participant Handout

Page 2 of 4