Making Effective Presentations

1. Making Effective Presentations

2. Good presenters engage their audiences with • Skillful delivery • Effective strategy • Interesting, well-organized content • Effective visuals • Preparation

3. Skillful delivery – Creating a Connection

4. Sustained eye contact • Make 3-5 seconds contact • Do not read notes or the screen • Face the audience, not the screen

5. Skillful Delivery • Pleasant facial expression – smile! • Effective gestures to emphasize meaning • Preparation and good timing

6. Strong voice • Volume • Speak to the back of the room • Variation • Vary your pitch and volume • Pauses • Pause to emphasize

7. Skillful delivery Professional Q&A • Ask for questions • Be receptive to questions • Wait for questions • Group presentations – decide as a team who will answer the question

8. Skillful delivery Professional Q&A • Repeat questions to • Confirm you understand • Make sure everyone hears the question • Give yourself time to formulate an answer • If you don’t know the answer to a question, say so!

9. Effective Strategy • Audience • Who is my audience or audiences? • What do they already know? • What is their attitude? • What are their needs, interests, concerns?

10. Effective Strategy • Objectives • What do I want to achieve? • What do I want the audience to know, do, or feel?

11. Audience strategy • Who is my audience? • What do they already know?

12. Audience strategy • How interested are they? • Their needs, interests, concerns

13. Objectives strategy I want the audience to • Understand elements of a successful presentation • Know & practice techniques for improvement • Feel they can improve their skills • Think that the workshop is useful • Give better presentations

14. Interesting, well-organized content • Introduction • Hook • PIP – purpose, importance, preview • Body • For receptive audience • Main point/recommendation, analysis, benefits • For unreceptive audience • Analysis, benefits, main point/recommendation

15. Interesting, well-organized content • Ending • Recommendation & benefits • Next steps for action • Summary (for longer presentations) • Ineffective • “That’s all.” • “That’s all I have time for.”

16. How will you make it interesting for your audience?

17. Effective Slides • Why use visuals? • Emphasize key points for audience & presenter • Present information clearly, concisely, vividly • Types of visuals • Text, chart, concept

18. Effective slides • Use slides to structure your presentation • Use an agenda slide • Use slide titles that create logical connections between the agenda slide & subsequent slides

19. Effective slides • Use design principles • Create slides that focus attention on the message • Avoid elements that distract from your message

20. Effective slides • Slides are ineffective when they • Are difficult to read • Do not have a clear message • Present too much information • Use a distracting design or animation • Use too many colors

21. Preparation – rehearse, rehearse, rehearse • Time your presentation – early • Get comfortable with content • Do not memorize • Practice • good delivery skills • with slides • with teammates for group presentation • in room where you will present

22. Managing nervousness

23. Preparation – managing nervousness • Prepare, prepare, prepare • Prepare your introduction the most so you are entirely comfortable with it • Stretch & take deep breaths to relax • Find friendly faces in the audience • Look your best • Anticipate difficult questions & be ready to answer them

24. Managing nervousness • Your nervousness is not usually noticeable to your audience • Your audience will not notice if you forget to say something—pause and continue

25. Summary • Skillful delivery • Effective strategy • Interesting, well-organized content • Effective visuals • Preparation