1. PRESENTATION SKILLS PART B 1

2. 1.KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE A presentation is a dialogue between you and your audience and they will judge your presentation on: 10% content 40% structure 50% delivery 2

3. THE HUMAN BRAIN There are many studies about how much information people can retain and as a rule of thumb in presenting, assume that: The average concentration span is 7 minutes Short term memory can retain 7 items (give or take). 3

4. 2. BEGINNING PREPARATION (10 minute talk) Introduction – grab attention – 1minute Section 1 – 1 key point (1-4 messages) – 3 minutes Section 2-1 key point (1-3 messages) – 3 minutes Section 3-1 key point (1-2 messages) – 2 minutes Summary – 1 minute 4

5. 3. BUILDING DEPTH AND DETAIL Step 1: set the tone What is the main message – what conclusion do you intend to draw? Who is the audience – how much do they already know about the subject? How long do I have to get the message across? What facilities will be available – can I use PowerPoint, flipcharts etc.? What time of day will I be speaking? You may have to work harder to maintain audience interest late in the day. 5

6. 3. BUILDING DEPTH AND DETAIL Step 2: Writing the presentation 1. Being selective 2. Breaking up the presentation 3. Bringing the presentation to life Liz Noffsinger / FreeDigitalPhotos.net 6

7. 3.BUILDING DEPTH AND DETAIL Step 3: Editing and revision Essential part of the process Are the key points clear? Is the required action obvious? Is any information missing? Is it possible to misinterpret any ideas? 7

8. 4. PREPARE YOURSELF Notes: there are a number of ways to make and use notes effectively Rehearsal Check out the Room in advance: where you will stand, lighting and acoustics (can the audience hear and see you), have you checked what AV/Projection equipment is there? Yourself! Dress code. There is a saying: ‘dress for the job you want, not the job you have.’ Dress for the grade you want too! 8

9. 5. PUTTING THE WHOLE PACKAGE TOGETHER Beginning the presentation Maintaining interest: vary tone, use language audience will understand, involve the audience Rounding off 9

10. 5. PUTTING THE WHOLE PACKAGE TOGETHER Humour – to joke or not to joke? Questions: here are some tips on dealing with questions: 1.Listen carefully to the question. 2.Repeat the question, or its main theme, at the start of your answer 3.Treat the questioner with courtesy 4.Slow your speech down 5.Keep your answer reasonably brief 6.Keep to the point 7.If you don’t know the answer, there are strategies to manage it 10

11. 6. VISUAL AIDS Pros: They are very useful for audience members who are visual learners They keep the audience’s attention They save time in that the speaker can demonstrate some ideas more quickly visually They help the speaker by avoiding having to go over ever figure and point They help people recall the points being made 11

12. 6. VISUAL AIDS Cons: If too detailed, the audience can simply read your talk and will do so. If they are too ‘busy’ then the audience can be confused by them. If you use both slides and text based hand-outs (i.e. hand-outs which are not simply copies of the slides), the audience has too much to look at and will leaf through your hand-outs rather than listen to you. 12

13. 6. VISUAL AIDS SLIDES Graphs Objects Flipchart Whiteboard Film and video 13

14. 6. VISUAL AIDS A word about slides – be careful of font, amount of content, colour What did you think of these slides? We will now look at the same slide in a number of designs so that you can see what works best – if any. We will take a vote on the most effective one! 14