Presentations to Impress

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Presentations to Impress

• Kate Smith
• Learning Teaching Development Unit
• kate.smith_at_brunel.ac.uk

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The Presentation Process
Identify the purpose objective
Structure your presentation
Consider your audience
Deliver the presentation
Practise the presentation
Prepare your notes visual aids
Evaluate your performance
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What is the PURPOSE/AIM of your presentation?

• What are you hoping to achieve with your
  presentation?
• Is the presentation to inform, train, persuade,
  entertain or demonstrate?
• Being clear about its purpose helps you decide
  what to include or omit and what approach to use.
  
• Did I achieve my aim?

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Whos your Audience?

• Who are the members of the audience and what do
  they do?
• What is the benefit to the audience of listening
  to your presentation?
• What do they already know about the subject?
• What is the relationship between yourself and the
  audience?
• What interests your audience?
• How will what you are going to say affect
  them?

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Failure to consider your audience

• alienated if you offend their value system
• insulted if you fail to recognise and
  acknowledge their existing knowledge and
  experience
• confused if you assume a level of knowledge or
  expertise that isnt there
• bored if you fail to relate to their needs
• patronised if you use an inappropriate style
• frustrated if they are not given the
  opportunity to question or contribute

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Learn from experience

• Consider a presentation that you have seen that
  was very effective. What made it so?
• Consider a presentation that you have seen that
  you thought was unsuccessful. What made it so?

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Signpost. Structure. Summary

• Tell them what youre going to tell them.
• Tell them.
• Tell them what you told them.

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Introduction

• Tell them who you are and why you are giving this
  presentation
• Tell them what the presentation is about
• Tell them what your objectives are
• Tell them what the background to the presentation
  is
• Tell them what's in it for them
• Opening attention grabber

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The Body

• Give details of your topic in a logical, smoothly
  linking order
• Take advantage of the primacy and recency effect
• Use anecdotes and real examples to illustrate
  your points
• Tell them how this information applies to them
• Back up all the claims that you made at the start

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The Conclusion

• Summarise your key points
• Remind them of the advantages of your position,
  solution, options, conclusions etc.
• Tell them what you want them to do next
• Tell them how to contact you
• Closing attention grabber
• Invite questions
• Try to end on a high. Avoid saying Thats it!

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How do you remember what you want to present?

• Memorising
• Reading from complete text
• Using notes
• Using visual aids as notes

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Audio-Visual Impact
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Using Visual Aids

• White board/chalk board
• Flipchart
• OHP
• Presentation software eg.PowerPoint
• Laptop and data projector
• Video

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• What makes a PowerPoint Presentation effective?

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Impact of Body Language
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Body Language to Avoid

• Continuous eye contact or staring
• Constantly rubbing an eye, nose or ear
• Keep clearing your throat
• Clenching your hands or pointing
• Crossing your arms or legs
• Shuffling your feet and swaying
• Smiling or raising your eyebrows in a way that
  suggests you dont value your audiences
  contribution!

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Engaging Body Language

• Stand up straight and face the audience head-on
• Hold your head up high, with your chin up
• Use your hands to emphasise and reinforce
• Vary your gestures
• Nod your head and smile to emphasise what you are
  saying
• Make proper eye contact - Z

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Why rehearse?

• To get the content order right
• To adjust timing
• To commit to memory
• To decide what to emphasise
• To practise variations in voice tone and body
  language
• To make sure visual aids are visible
• To check that you are confident with the
  equipment

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Handling Questions

• Tell the audience when you will be taking
  questions
• Listen carefully and paraphrase the question
  before you respond
• Look at the entire audience when answering
• Call on experts from the audience where
  appropriate
• Set a time limit to control hostile questioners
• Dont let individuals take over
• Dont pretend that you know the answer
• End the QA session with a strong closing remark

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Controlling Anxiety

• Avoid negative self-talk
• Dont run over your allocated time slot
• Prepare and practise
• Know your audience
• Visualise yourself succeeding
• Act confident to feel confident
• Dont stress what could have been or what
  should have been

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In summary

• Purpose - establish what it is
• Research your topic
• Experiment with visual aids
• Place what is it like?
• Audience know who they are
• Rehearse your performance
• Early arrive well in advance

• PREPARE!

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Where now?

• Review your own and others presentation
  performance
• Seek feedback from others
• Make use of resources
• Presentation Guidelines/Criteria
• BOLD Website http//intranet.brunel.ac.uk/ltdu/bol
  d/oralcom.html
• BOLD PDP Online
• http//www.brunel.ac.uk/webbased-learning/
• Valuing Diversity web-base
• Library based resources
• (Education section LB)