Dr Dan Alex Petrovici,

Senior Lecturer in Marketing, Kent Business School

Employability Week, 3-7 November 2014

� Discuss presentation techniques

� Appreciate the role of voice in presentations

� Importance of structure

� Landmarks

� Introduction and first impression

� Summary (key points, keep it simple)

� Importance of structure

� Landmarks

� Introduction and first impression

� Summary (key points, keep it simple)

� Stage presence (or absence)

� Spatial & Time Awareness

� Technique of enhancing Attention (alternate, Pace, Volume, Range, pregnant pause)

� Energy

� Form, Gestures

� Voice, text and Imagery!

� Visual & Analytical processing styles

� Voice can trigger emotions/imagery, which will be easily retrieved from long-term memory

� The vibrating air of our voice:

� Travels through space

� Can be shaped, directed similar to the body movement in choreography

� STAGE Space—How is the space/room utilized?

Are the spacing and patterns symmetrical or asymmetrical? Is clarity in the spacing? Does the room layout/fabric of furnishings absorb or amplify sound? What is the spatial relationship with the audience? How do you travel through space? Is a microphone available?

Topography: still vs. various degrees of movement

� Use movement (cautiously) to increase attention� Repetitive movements can be captivating, hypnotic or annoying

� Body language

� Dress code

� Body posture

FLAT sentence NO emotion

Sentence WITH emotion, NO Body

movement

Sentence WITH emotion AND Body

movement

� Body posture

� Neck

� Jaw

� Throat & shoulders

� Chest

� Spine – balanced

� Head – forward facing

� Feet – feel rooted

� Breathing

� Liberate our voice from the pressure of habits, tensions

� Connect to what you say in this very moment

� You can rehearse several times, but spontaneity is very important

� The amount of breath should match the thought and feeling

� Individual personality & Individual sound can produce endless combinations of meaning

� PACE:

� Rhythm

� Speed

� Slowing down can emphasise points

� Pick up

� Tighten (take out pauses between words)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2403933/Top-10-sports-commentators-pundits-time-John-Motson-tops-list.html

� VOLUME

� Soft/intimate vs. Loud/aggressive

� Loudness: whisper vs. shout

“We Shall Fight on the Beaches”

� RANGE: adjust the pitch of the voice to create interest

� Accent

� Emphasis for effect: Billboarding “It is what you are looking for”

� Musicality

� Intonation

� ATTITUDE:

� Working within your inner self

� Believe in what you are saying

� Rhythm, tempo, phrasing, accent and duration

� Tempo: How slow or fast is your presentation/ movement

� Accent: An emphasis placed on a particular note or movement

� Duration: The length of time of a work, phrase, message, movement, or gesture.

� Make up a lead in line

� Develop transitions in the text-landmarks

� Change in attitudes, movement, delivery, facial expressions

Ways of organizing movement sequences/phrases into larger concepts within a complete work:

� AB Binary: Establishing a main theme (A) and then a contrasting theme (e.g. success vs failure)

� ABCA: Establishing an idea, introducing two separate new ideas and then repeating the first one‘.

� ABC – focus attention on 3 key points/ideas.

Source: Compiled from Alburger (2002) Porter (2008)

� Accumulation: A form of development that a message is followed by a second message and then followed by the next etc. The repetition adds weights to the initial argument.

� Beware: don’t stretch the attention span too much!

� Amplification: A body movement, shape or idea that is created by a sequence of small to large, slow to fast and/or soft to loud.

Source: Porter (2008)

� 1/4 of European adults are smokers (World Health Organisation, 2007)

� 50% of all lifetime tobacco users will die from smoking related diseases (Miller et al. 2007).

� 6% of 11-14 year olds are regular smokers in the UK.

� Further 32% of 11-14 year olds experiment in smoking each week.*

� In the US an estimated 6000 adolescents experiment with smoking every day (Miller et al. 2007).

� 2/3 of long term smokers start before 18 years old.

� One in three adolescent smokers will die from smoking related causes. (Norwich Union life cover ads)

� BOTTOM-up/Inferential approach: Small relevant facts, converging towards a stronger/bigger story

� TOP-Down approach: Big statements (universal truth) – High impact followed by a narrative (smaller scale facts linking to your niche topic, solution)

� Harvard Business Review

� “Children and young adults have long been recognized asrepresenting an important demographic in consumer markets. As aconsequence, it is estimated that children are exposed to more than40,000 commercials per year (Kunkel et al., 2004), and teens whowatch 16 to 17 h of television per week (Strasburger and Donnerstein,1999) are likely to see even more commercials. � But children and teens are also an important audience for social

marketers, since they are faced with difficult choices regarding behaviors such as smoking and drinking.

� Accordingly, more than 21 U.S. states ran paid anti-smokingads targeted at youths in 2002 (Pechmann et al., 2003). Still, it isbelieved that many of the social marketing efforts aimed at informing teens and discouraging risky behaviors have failed or have produced unintended consequences (Hastings et al., 2004).” (Thakorand Goneau-Lessard, p.1342). …

� ACTION = Flow + Form

� FORM = elements of structure

� FLOW = choices made throughout the performance, here & now.

Without flow, a form is an empty activity, without form, flow is unarticulated & incomprehensible (Brehens, 2012)

� When you approach a presentation search for units of meaning, punctuation, tempo-rhythm

� The form is typically pre-established, while the flow must be generated on the spot

� Your status as presenter

� Audiences expectations, expertise, concerns & interests

� Clarity

� Simplicity

� Organisation

� Connect with audience

� Address their concerns

� Know your speech, facts

� Be lively, energetic, confident, positive

� Passion & Authenticity

� Practice & Prepare notes

� Anticipate audience thoughts and reactions

� Albury, R.J. (2002) The art of voice acting, London, Focal Press.

� Bradbury, A. (2000) Successful presentation skills, London: KoganPage.

� Brehens, E. (2012) Vocal Action: channelling impulse through form in training towards performance, PhD Thesis, University of Kent.

� Porter, J. (2008) Choreography Dictionary and Resource for Theatre on Ice (TOI).

� Rodenburg, P. (2005) The right to speak, London: Methuen Drama.

� Zellner, B. (1994) Pauses and the temporal structure of speech, in E. Keller (Ed.) Fundamentals of speech synthesis and speech recognition. (pp. 41-62). Chichester: John Wiley.