[Laurus Nobilis]

Recently I've found the post with the help regarding the presentation skills. This inspired me to write article on my sites about the presentation skills. Here are some tips for successful presenting.

• You need to have a minimum of expertise in the area of presentation. This means that you cannot just learn your lines that you will say during the every slide, but you also need to be prepared to answer to potential questions from the audience. Simply, you need to have at least the basic knowledge on the subject presented.

• Make concept for your presentation ( intro, main part, conclusion ). Your presentation needs to have meaningful flow. It should have a theme, the message and learning for your audience. Set up learning goals for your audience and check the results at the end. Longer presentation should have detailed agenda developed.

• Use aids ( power point or flip chart ), but remember that you are still one who is presenting, not the slides. Do not exaggerate with the presentation aids. They should assist you, instead you assist to them.

• Use not more 3-4 lines of text on presentation slides, with maybe 1 photo. If you put too many details, nobody will read it. Average audience is not reading the content of the slide, in case that there are too many details on it. Slides should be clear in content, visible for everybody in your audience, with graphic and color that will not distract audience, or make them difficult to read.
  

• Exercise your presentation, so that you get a feeling about it. Check all slides before presentation. Check the video beamer, cables, remote control, room lights and other technicalities before beginning of presentation. Check the colors and readability, since video beamer can present colors in different way than your computer screen. Distorted colors can make reading difficult or impossible.

• Assess the time needed for you presentation and check the timing during your rehearsals. If your presentation is longer, divide it in sections ( e.g. 45 min ) with breaks ( e.g. 10 min ). Time management is critical during the presentation, since audience might start to feel bored if presentation is too long.
  

• Try to move around during your presentation. Use your body language. If you just stand still in one place, you will become invisible soon to you audience and their eyes and mind might start to wander around. By moving your self and using your body language, in accordance the dynamic of the subject presented, you are keeping the audience alerted.

• Use examples for your statements. That can be your experience or something you read. If you are using somebody’s examples, quote source of information. You can even say a short story or saying, if you find it suitable for supporting your presentation.

• Use humor in your presentation. This can be planned or spontaneous, but within limits that will not change normal flow of presentation.

• Ask questions to the audience. Ask for volunteers, or pick someone to answer. This will help you to keep the audience alert. They will pay more attention to your presentation, since they know that you might ask them later on. Asking questions will make your presentation more interactive, more interesting to the audience and easier for you, since you will animate people to participate.

• Do not say something like "Sorry about my presentation" or "I am nervous". I remember some of my friends that used to say something like that during the presentation. I found that to be wrong, since their presentations were actually good and I wouldn't ever guess that they are nervous or unprepared, if they didn't say something like that. If you state that you apologize because you are not a good presenter, you are ruining your credibility before you even started.

If you have something to add up, please.

[learningfast]

Originally Posted by Laurus Nobilis

Use not more 3-4 lines of text on presentation slides, with maybe 1 photo. If you put too many details, nobody will read it.

I'm afraid I disagree with your reasoning there. The audience WILL read a longer slide. In fact they will try to read the slide and not listen to the presenter. The reason for keeping slides short is so that the audience doesn't get distracted and continues to listen to the presenter.

Originally Posted by Laurus Nobilis

Average audience is not reading the content of the slide, in case that there are too many details on it.

I don't think you mean that. The audience won't know if there are too many details unless they read the slide.

Also, it is really important to get someone to proofread your presentation. If you make too many spelling or grammatical errors, people like me who get bored will sit there picking out the mistakes. I well remember attending a really boring business presentation when I first became self-employed and sitting next to someone else who was also picking out the spelling errors. We enjoyed the presentation, but for all the wrong reasons.

[Indizine]

I would add that the points covered above ar for presentations and should not be confused with learning/training sessions.

[FOSVA]

Some good points Laura. If anyone wants to learn in person, then why not come on one of our courses and be taught how to present by a qualified CIPD trainer. Special for October buy one get one half price on all courses (except train the trainer). PM me for more details as no urls allowed in my posts!

[Cracking Media]

One thing I think is important for a presentation is for it to have 3 main sections:

A short opening where you tell your audience what you going to tell them.

The main bit, where you tell them (in more detail).

The close where you recap (in brief) by telling them what you told them.

Using this technique will help your audience to feel more comfortable from the outset as to where you are taking them.

The positive for this means that (hopefully, spelling mistakes accepted!) they will listen more attentively to what you are saying.

And by recapping at the end you have will have been able to make your main points known 3 times without feeling like you are labouring your points, meaning that your audience should remember more of what you told them.

Peter