SpeechPresentations

Tips

What is a presentation?

Speakers (teachers) often rely heavily on presentations for conveying information, describing concepts, stablishing definitions, and other crucial educative tasks. Many of these presentations are pieced together at the last minute as simple talking points for a meeting or lesson.

While it's tempting to take the easy route when you throw together a presentation, putting just a little more effort into creating and delivering a strong presentation can save you time and money in the long run. You may end up having to give only one compelling presentation to get results instead of repeating your points in following sessions. Your audience may learn in one explanation instead of three.

Following are some key points for creating and delivering more compelling presentations. Although some of these tips seem obvious, many of these guidelines get lost in the rush to throw together a presentation at the last minute. If you keep these simple pointers in mind, you'll find your presentations more effective in getting the results you want.

Presentation• Contents• Design• Delivery

Know your audience

One presentation does not fit all. Tailoring your presentation for your specific audience will help ensure success. Research your target audience to determine what they need to know to take immediate action. If you are presenting to teens, for example, make sure you provide strong motivational data to back up your case according to their needs and desires. If your audience is the board of teachers, clearly convey how your project will increase knowledge or promote participation.

Identify your goal

What do you want your audience to do after they have seen your presentation? Change their behaviour towards something? Shift their work emphasis? Understand the society's financial outlook and how it relates to individual citizens? If you start with your end goal in mind, it will be much easier to focus only on essential information.

Start with an outline

Don't jump into slide development too quickly. Instead, think through your presentation and decide how it should flow. Determine what key points you want to make and in which order they should be delivered for maximum effect. Begin developing the slides only after you are happy with the presentation flow.

Use a strong opener

First impressions are very important. Start your presentation with a strong opening statement, a compelling story or an unknown and important data point or fact. If you hook your audience on the first slide, you are much more likely to keep their attention and respect throughout the presentation.

Avoid known information

While it is occasionally helpful to include background information in your presentation, steer clear of spending too much time going over what your audience already knows. Background information or nonessential data should only be included if necessary to give context.

Use data to persuade

Well-chosen facts and figures can help support your point. This information is often best presented as a graphic--a bar graph or pie chart, for example.

Design to fit your audience

A unique background design can help set your presentation apart. Make sure your pattern fits your intended audience and presentation tone. A presentation for a children's explanation might benefit from a background of bright-colored balloons--but the same design would be out of place for a research project. Create a few elegant and eye-catching designs that incorporate your school or company logo, these can be used at the beginning or last minute for any presentation.

Keep a presentation library

Develop a presentation library that includes presentation templates and photos, graphics, illustrations, and any other materials that might be useful for presentation creation. Keep the library available so that everyone can access this information quickly.

Add graphic appeal

In addition to charts and graphs, photographs and other graphics can give a presentation sparkle. A digital camera makes it easy to add candid shots -a photo of the audience for a new stage of the presentation, or photos of a proposed new lab space, for instance. Make sure your photos are not extremely detailed, since they will be hard to see from the back of the room.

Avoid clutter While graphic elements can help add life

to your presentation, avoid overcrowding your slides with illustrations, graphs, and photos. Stick with one or two easy-to-see graphics per slide. It is also best to keep to a few colors per slide--too many colors distract from your content and make the slide too busy.

Design for your delivery method

Most presentations end up on a projection screen in front of an audience. Consider this final delivery when choosing fonts and colors for your presentation. Font sizes that look fine on your computer screen may be too small to read from far away. Stick with large, easy-to-read fonts and avoid crowding each slide with text. Pay attention to font and graphic colors as well--light colors on a white background will be difficult to see unless your projection room is very dark. Stick to high-contrast color combinations.

If possible, try your presentation in different situations--see how it looks in a darkened room, in a room where you can't shutter the windows, etc. If you're not sure what your presentation space will be like, adjust your design to take all possibilities into account.

Delivery tips

Set yourself up for success

The best way to get your audience on your side is to respect them and their time.

A few pointers: Be prepared and ready to go a few minutes

before your actual presentation time Be organized - bring your own equipment, if

appropriate, and have everything ready to go Dress appropriately to your audience, whether it

requires a suit or a more casual look Have neat, professional looking handouts Introduce yourself and your team members Take only your allocated time, including saving

some time for Q&A Bring a printed set of slide transparencies in

case the projector does not work

More pointers

take control on your audience. stablish eye contact and physical if

possible. show yourself as a secure person. tone of voice is determinant. smile when appropiated. move around the able space. co-evaluate the presentation.

Personalize your presentation

If appropriate to your audience and subject matter, personalize your presentation. Incorporate stories, fun transitions, humor or analogies that will help warm up your audience and give your presentation a more personal feel.

Get to know names

Whenever possible, call the audience members by name. Treat them as individuals. This too will make them more comfortable with you

What do you believe Verito?

Be prepared for change

Design your presentation so you can easily make last-minute changes. If possible, travel with a laptop stocked with the software you need to change your presentation. It also helps to have a few pre-designed templates and graphics you can use in case of changes.

Know your presentation space

Check out your presentation room well before the presentation itself. Spend some time familiarizing yourself with the lighting and seating arrangements. See how dark you can make the room--pull down the shades, close the door, and turn the lights off. Set up your projector and computer early so you can adjust the projection or deal with technical problems before your audience arrives. This is especially important if you're using a microphone--test it early, preferably with someone sitting in the back to give you feedback on your volume.

Practice

Your audience did not come to watch you read your slides. You need to be familiar with your content so you can focus on eye contact with your audience--rather than eye contact with your slides.

Transitions

Take the time to practice your transitions from slide to slide. In some cases, you'll want to jump straight into the next round of information, but often transitions can give you the chance to warm up and add a personal story.

Pace yourself

Learn to deliver your presentation at a pace that is slow enough to understand, but fast enough to convey all your points and leave some time for a question & answer session. If possible, rehearse your presentation far enough in advance so you can cut content to fit your allotted time.

Quality handouts

If your budget allows, print color handouts of your slides on high-quality paper instead of handing out photocopied slides. Better-quality handouts can be especially effective in persuading economical support or investors to contact you afterwards. Clip a business card to each handout as well.