Best practice for presenting
From Best Practices
Contents |
Introduction
In the following list of speeches, which one correspond to your situation?
- Manager of a company, you have to speak in front of your employees to motivate them.
- Project manager, you have to present the issues to your project team.
- Sales manager, you have to suggest interest to your customers for a new product or service.
- Teacher, you would like your lesson to be captivating.
- Student, you have to present the result of your work or viewpoint to your class and teacher.
- President of an association, you have to present the result or performance since last meeting to other members
- Etc.
In other words, when you speak to an audience: Be clear, create interest and convince them.
You will find below a few advices to prepare your speech or presentations.
Define your priorities
In this first step, you define the priorities:
What is the audience you will speak to?
- How many people will be there?
- What are the profiles of the audience?
- What is the level of their knowledge?
- What are their expecations?
Why have you to do this speech ?
- What is the goal of your speech ? Explain, Inform, Convince, etc.
Each speech has its own style.
How are you going to proceed?
Which approach do you want to have for your speech? conference, discussion, meeting, training?
How much time do you have?
The amount of message and its importance depends on the time you have at your disposal. Don’t try to explain an very complex scientific problem to uninitiated people in 10 minutes.
Where and how ?
- Where will be the presentation? If you don’t know the place, try to visit it before or ask for a drawing.
- Decide how you will proceed, make a drawing if necessary, and transmit it to the organizer.
Which equipment (room, beamer, etc) do you have at your disposal?
- Beamer
- Paper board
- White/black board
Always check and test the equipment in advanced.
When these points will have been solved, you will be able to work on the content of the presentation.
Preparation
Define the scope of your presentation
You know the subject or your speech, and it is in you know the subject. In defining the scope of your presentation, keep in mind the two following points:
- The less you say, the more will be remembered
- The less the audience hear, the more they will remember
In addition, your time is limited: 10 minutes of speech is not a lot. Be focused on your subject and nothing else.
Now, you know the limits as well as your subject, build good arguments:
- Rational: concepts, ideas, logique, etc.
- Emotional : motivation, interest, values, etc.
- Factual : facts, actions, experience
Prepare your presentation
Identify the strong underlying idea and build arguments. Try to limit yourself only to the best three: the mind of average audience is capable to memorize this much during a presentation.
If you use slides (transparency or on computer) as an aid to your presentation, try to keep three main lines on them. Overloaded slides are not readable, and audience may lose attention.
Maintain eye contact with your audience when presenting, and avoid reading your speech. If you look at your slides or notes, your audience will soon become bored and disinterested
A good way to help you is to write keywords on a paper or small cards. If you have a support during the presentation, a sheet of paper with some keywords in chronological order will be sufficient. If you have to move during the presentation, a good way is to have small cards in your hand. Number them to avoid unuseful stress if you let them fall.
Repeat your presentation several times: try to put yourself in the real situation or even visit the place in advance to get a feel of the place.
Presenting
The day for presenting has arrived. You prepared everything, you know your audience and you know your subject. Come in advance to “feel” the place and relax. During the presentation, be yourself.
While presenting
- Try to maintain eye contact to the entire group to make it effective.
- Speak slowly and distinctly: you have time.
- Keep an eye on you watch to avoid overpassing your allocated time. Even better, nominate a time keeper who will warns you 15, 10, 5, 2 and 1 minutes before the end of your speech.
