Making Effective Technical Presentations

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Making Effective Technical Presentations

• Rob Kremer
• Adapted from original slides byDavid Maulsby

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Why Presentations?

• Incite decisions
• Achieve closure
• Motivate, educate
• Build relationships

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Why Be a Presenter?

• Make contacts
• Promote yourself
• Promote your organization
• Master your subject

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Planning a Presentation
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The Presentation Process
Preparation
Presentation
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Understanding the Audience
Research Audience
Select Material
Prepare Visuals
Write Text
Rehearse
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Audience Composition

• The Chair
• The Head Honcho
• The Critic
• Your Champion
• The Masses

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The Chair

• Their Role
• Keeps the meeting on track
• Protects the speaker
• You
• Establish your relationship
• Refer problems to the chair

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The Head Honcho

• Role
• Decision-maker
• You
• Make sure s/he understands
• Marshall the audience to help you

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The Critic

• Their Role
• To debunk your story
• You
• Anticipate objections in your talk
• Have extra slides ready
• Rehearse questions and answers
• Counteract with yourchampion

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Your Champion

• Their Role
• Advocate for you
• You
• Identify your champion
• Attentive, nodding, interested questions
• Get his/her endorsement
• Third-party more believable

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The Masses

• Their Role
• A. Keen to learn, validate
• B. There on orders, bored
• You
• Acknowledge them
• Earn their trust
• Appeal to their experience

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Understanding the Audience

• What do they know about the topic?
• What do they know about you?
• Why are they in thismeeting?

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Understanding the Audience

• Aim to discover your champion
• Teach the audience something new
• Reflect their intelligence
• Keep it simple
• Challenge but dont overwhelm

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Respecting the Audience
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Dress Code

• Dress to flatter your audience
• For peers, dress up a little
• For management, business casual
• For customers, dress for success
• Jacket and tie
• Youre judged by your shoes

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Dress Code

• But Im a poor student, I only have T-shirts!
• So what would you wear to a wedding?
• Or a funeral?

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Clothing Communiqué

• Clothing sends messages
• What you wear
• How you wear it
• Manners and gestures

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Professional Deportment

• Watch your language
• No slang
• Avoid grandiloquent sesquipedalian
  circumlocutions
• Watch your body language
• Relaxed, not sloppy

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The Best Proof of Respect

• Be prepared !
• You studied your topic
• You researched the audience
• You rehearsed your presentation

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Selecting Material
Research Audience
Select Material
Prepare Visuals
Write Text
Rehearse
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Selecting the Content

• Help your audience reach their objectives
• Understand an issue
• Answer a question
• Make a decision
• Focus on what they needto learn

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Organizing the Talk

• Acknowledge the objectives
• Yours and theirs
• Establish common ground
• From You and Them to We
• Provide a roadmap
• Outline / graphic
• Say what youre going tosay

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Organizing the Talk

• The storyline
• History, process, relationship
• The argument
• Thesis / antithethis / synthesis
• The contribution
• Problem / solution

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Visual Aids
Research Audience
Select Material
Prepare Visuals
Write Text
Rehearse
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Visual Aids

• Graphics reveal relationships

Introduce Speaker
Introduce Topic
Develop Ideas
Answer Questions
Draw Conclusions
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Visual Aids

• Introduce speaker
• Introduce topic
• Develop ideas
• Answer questions
• Draw conclusions

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Visual Aids
Introduce Speaker
Introduce Topic
Develop Ideas
Answer Questions
Draw Conclusions
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Color Schemes
Bad
Good
Too Little Contrast
Good Contrast
Good Contrast
Too Little Contrast
Good Contrast
Too Little Contrast
Complementary Colors
OK for AccentTiring
Too Many Colors
Best for Colorful Diags

• Use very dark or very light background
• High contrast
• Avoid red, green

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Color Connotations
Formal and methodical
Cool and rational
Mysterious and intriguing
Exciting marketing message
Another exciting message
The plain old facts
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Special Effects
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Uses of Special Effects

• Wake up the audience
• Turn on imagination
• Illustrate an idea
• Drive home your point
• Demonstrate your prowess

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Special Effects

• Decoration
• Animation
• Sound
• Video
• Demo /scenario

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Effects

• Illustrate relationships, processes
• Favorite of

s
l
e
m
n
s
a
e

• Demos make effects unnecessary

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Effects
Alice
Bob

• Use to build up complex ideas/diagrams

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The Text
Research Audience
Select Material
Prepare Visuals
Write Text
Rehearse
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Slide Formatting

• Number your slides!
• One topic per slide
• Minimal text
• Graphics where possible
• 3 points

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Using the Web

• Archive and distribute material
• Elaborate slide content
• PowerPoint is much easier to maintain

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Rehearsal
Research Audience
Select Material
Prepare Visuals
Write Text
Rehearse
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Practice, Practice, Practice

• Rehearse to a live audience
• Once is not enough!
• Practice the mechanics
• Set up
• Roles and signals
• Introducer, speaker, slidecontroller
• Handoffs

Research Audience
Select Material
Prepare Visuals
Write Text
Rehearse
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Giving the Presentation
Research Audience
Select Material
Prepare Visuals
Write Text
Rehearse
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Remember

• Youve been granted the privilege of speaking
• Your audience is spending a lot of valuable time
  on you
• The speaker is remembered long after what s/he
  says isforgotten

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The Speaker
Introduce Speaker
Introduce Speaker
Research Audience
Introduce Topic
Introduce Topic
Select Material
Develop Ideas
Develop Ideas
Prepare Visuals
Answer Questions
Answer Questions
Write Text
Draw Conclusions
Draw Conclusions
Rehearse
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Introductions

• Have the chair introduce you
• Implicit endorsement
• Greet and acknowledge the audience
• Introduce your team
• Your qualifications

Introduce Speaker
Introduce Topic
Develop Ideas
Answer Questions
Draw Conclusions
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Presenting Yourself

• You are an authority
• You inspire others
• You can act on what you say

Introduce Speaker
Introduce Topic
Develop Ideas
Answer Questions
Draw Conclusions
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Presenting Yourself

• Speak up!
• Self-confidence
• Speak smoothly
• Hesitation, nervousness implies incompetence
• Eye contact
• Honesty, trust

Introduce Speaker
Introduce Topic
Develop Ideas
Answer Questions
Draw Conclusions
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Coping with Nerves

• Shake em off
• Be well prepared
• Nothing new
• Backups
• Thank the audience
• Find a friend
• Stand tall

Introduce Speaker
Introduce Topic
Develop Ideas
Answer Questions
Draw Conclusions
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Inspiring Others

• Project enthusiasm
• Demonstrate teamwork
• Wake up the audience

Introduce Speaker
Introduce Topic
Develop Ideas
Answer Questions
Draw Conclusions
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Walk the Talk

• Mention your track record
• Demo!
• Propose action, incite decision

Introduce Speaker
Introduce Topic
Develop Ideas
Answer Questions
Draw Conclusions
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The Topic
Introduce Speaker
Research Audience
Introduce Topic
Select Material
Develop Ideas
Prepare Visuals
Answer Questions
Write Text
Draw Conclusions
Rehearse
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Set the Agenda

• Desired outcome of this meeting?
• Why is this talk important NOW?
• Why are you the ideal presenter?

Introduce Speaker
Introduce Topic
Develop Ideas
Answer Questions
Draw Conclusions
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Provide a Roadmap

• Outline
• BRIEFLY
• Preview the argument
• Boldly state a controversial conclusion and
  promise to prove it

Introduce Speaker
Introduce Topic
Develop Ideas
Answer Questions
Draw Conclusions
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The Material
Introduce Speaker
Research Audience
Introduce Topic
Select Material
Develop Ideas
Prepare Visuals
Answer Questions
Write Text
Draw Conclusions
Rehearse
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Maintain the Pace

• Watch your remaining time
• Preserve time for questions
• Dont invite audience to interrupt you
• Skip rather than skim slides
• Dont talk too fast

Introduce Speaker
Introduce Topic
Develop Ideas
Answer Questions
Draw Conclusions
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Interactions
Introduce Speaker
Research Audience
Introduce Topic
Select Material
Develop Ideas
Prepare Visuals
Answer Questions
Write Text
Draw Conclusions
Rehearse
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Interaction Skills

• Dont block the slides
• Scan the audience (eye contact)
• Dont stare at your slides
• Move into the audience

Introduce Speaker
Introduce Topic
Develop Ideas
Answer Questions
Draw Conclusions
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Interaction Skills

• Vary your voice (level, pitch)
• Talk with your hands
• Gently
• Invite participation
• Leading questions

Introduce Speaker
Introduce Topic
Develop Ideas
Answer Questions
Draw Conclusions
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Questions

• What if nobody has any?
• Plant questions in your text
• Ask the audience
• Survey says
• Have answers on reserveslides

Introduce Speaker
Introduce Topic
Develop Ideas
Answer Questions
Draw Conclusions
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Difficult Questions

• What if you dont know the answer?
• Admit it
• Promise to follow-up
• Canvas the audience
• What if the question isirrelevant?
• Take it off-line

Introduce Speaker
Introduce Topic
Develop Ideas
Answer Questions
Draw Conclusions
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Coping with Trouble

• Walk-ons (latecomers)
• Greet them
• A speech from the floorA bulldog questioner
• Take it off-line
• Turn to the chair for help

Introduce Speaker
Introduce Topic
Develop Ideas
Answer Questions
Draw Conclusions
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Summing Up
Introduce Speaker
Research Audience
Introduce Topic
Select Material
Develop Ideas
Prepare Visuals
Answer Questions
Write Text
Draw Conclusions
Rehearse
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Presentation Strategies

• Profile your audience
• Define your presentation goalsand stick to them!
• Prepare to convince and impress
• No compromises!

Introduce Speaker
Introduce Topic
Develop Ideas
Answer Questions
Draw Conclusions
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Presentation Tactics

• Establish common ground
• Interact with audience
• Maintain control of the floor
• Show rather than tell
• Work toward a conclusion

Introduce Speaker
Introduce Topic
Develop Ideas
Answer Questions
Draw Conclusions
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Your Customer Presentation
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Planning Your Talk

• Who is the audience?
• What are their objectives?
• What are your objectives?
• What is the minimum you can say?
• What problems may arise?

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Giving Your Talk

• Who will you need onstage?
• How will you involve the audience?
• How many slides should you prepare?
• What visual aids can you use?

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Questions Welcomed!

• For more information, please contactRob
  Kremerkremer_at_cpsc.ucalgary.ca