How to Efficiently Present a Topic when Facing (Scary) People?

1. How to Efficiently Present a Topic when Facing (Scary) People? by Christophe Basso

2. Agenda • What do You Present? • Do I Really Speak English? • Slides Content • Shapes and Electrical Diagrams • Making the Speech a Success – Key Points • Conclusion

3. Agenda • What do You Present? • Do I Really Speak English? • Slides Content • Shapes and Electrical Diagrams • Making the Speech a Success – Key Points • Conclusion

4. You are a professional engineer in your field, the documents you present must reflect this! What do You Present? • Communicate a message, show/comment data, an idea etc. • People should see your professionalism in what you show • Perception will depend on different factors: • ease of expression, message clarity, compactness… • tailor the message to the audience: engineers, finance etc. ? • mesmerize the audience and maintain contact with it • make each slide with care, nice drawings, well-commented curves…

5. Agenda • What do You Present? • Do I Really Speak English? • Slides Content • Shapes and Electrical Diagrams • Making the Speech a Success – Key Points • Conclusion

6. Do I Really Speak English? • You may have foreigners in your audience, "polish" your language! • A lot of people, including myself, learn British English at school • Most of us do not understand the meaning of sports expressions: • Full-court press (maintain pressure), home run (complete success), to be on par with (meet similar standard, results etc.), ballpark (base-ball field): don't use too many of them! • Slang is also a limiting factor when you speak. Avoid colloquial expressions. In other terms… • Chase and get rid of "euh, eem..." • insert a pause, a blank instead Keep It Simple Sweet heart!

7. Agenda • What do You Present? • Do I Really Speak English? • Slides Content • Shapes and Electrical Diagrams • Making the Speech a Success – Key Points • Conclusion

8. Good Too heavy! Slides Content • Write soberly, do not overload slides with long sentences • If you put a long text, you will end-up reading the content • NEVER read the slides: disastrous and soporific effect guaranteed!

9. or Slides Content • When you present technical data, be rigorous in your style • Respect standards such as IEEE's: • Insert a space between the value and the unit: 3 µF not 3uF, 1 mA… • You write: dc-dc or ac-dc converters. Not DC/DC or AC/DC • Zener and Schottky are proper nouns, capitalize! • Keep lowercases for rms, k (kV or kHz), ac analysis • Insert an hyphen: a capacitor of 3 µF  a 3-µF capacitor, a 2-mA current • Avoid abbreviations : A or amperes not "amps", "scope", "puff" • Unit names are not to be capitalized: ampere, volt… • Use International System units: no ounces, inches or circular mills! • "I own the heaviest dog in the world: 10 stones" (63.5 kg)

10. Agenda • What do You Present? • Do I Really Speak English? • Slides Content • Shapes and Electrical Diagrams • Making the Speech a Success – Key Points • Conclusion

11. italic normal space Shapes and Electrical Diagrams • Do you include equations? Use the right tool: R1=-b+/-sqrt(b^2-4ac)/2a • In equations, respect standards : normal http://www.dessci.com/en/products/mathtype/

12. Vcb Ie Vbeon Shapes and Electrical Diagrams • Do you present electrical schematics: don't use PPT to draw! • There is a plethora of free schematic capture demos you can use • OrCAD (Cadence), SpiceNET (Intusoft), LTSpice (LTC) etc. A quality schematic strengthens your credibility

13. Agenda • What do You Present? • Do I Really Speak English? • Slide Content • Shapes and Electrical Diagrams • Making Your Speech a Success – Key Points • Conclusion

14. Don't turn your back! Making Your Speech a Success A few points to respect in order to succeed • Put an agenda in place and briefly explain what you will cover • Rehearse your presentation and respect your time slot • PPT illustrates your speech and not the opposite: do not read! • Work the transitions to make the presentation fluid • Draw transparencies soberly, do not overload them • Keep visual contact with the audience: • Identify "friendly" people in the room and look at them regularly. Move in the room while you speak. Keep people awake!

15. Making Your Speech a Success • Personalize your presentation depending on the audience • Insert known people pictures, local references - Paul Hogan in Australia, Benny Hill UK, some funny guys in the US: ) • Breathe, force yourself to speak slowly, insist on key words • Engage with the audience, ask questions, make it a living presentation • During the presentation, no bubble-gum, hand(s) in the pocket… • Watch the laser pointer, do not play in another swashbuckler • Keep time for questions/answers, roughly 5-10 mn • Before answering a question, repeat it for the back of the room

16. Conclusion • Always end the speech with a conclusion: • come back on key points • reinforce an idea or salient points of your speech • thank people for their presence • wave your hand to initiate the Q&A session and smile! Pardon my French!