Making Effective Presentations: Essential Techniques for Lectures, Conferences, and Job Talks Darren Schreiber CEU University of Exeter

Know your audience… …‘s brain.

Where we’re going … An introduction to your brain and how it learns. How to use this learning theory of the brain to make effective presentations.

Your Audience’s Brain We are not computers. We have brains that help us to survive threats and enable us to thrive socially. The human brain can be viewed as two systems: 1.Reflexive automatic, implicit, subconscious slow learning, fast processing 2.Reflective controlled, explicit, conscious fast learning, slow processing

What will help you to survive the tiger? Your brain evolved to automatically (X system) draw your attention (C system) to what is important. You need to draw your audience’s brain to what is important.

Blame the speaker

So … what is important? Your job is to signal to your audience what is important. – What is worth their attention? You need to know what is important. – What is the main thing they need to know? If you don’t know, they can’t know.

Seven Steps to Powerful Paper Writing 1. Brainstorm Gather all the things you know about the question Do not disregard ideas at this step! 2.Categorize How can each of the pieces of knowledge be grouped? What questions or new ideas do these groupings suggest? 3.Critique What would be the criticisms leveled by other perspectives? 4.Order What order could we put each of the groups into? 5.Outline 6.Write Sentences should average ten words in length. Paragraphs should range from three to five sentences 7.Edit

How do we know when something is important? Repetition – with intervals Variation – changing tone, speed, rhythm, etc.

How do we know when something is important? Problems – set up puzzles Solutions – solve the puzzles

How do we know when something is important? Structure – set expectations Surprise – violate expectations

How do we know when something is important? Emotion – humor, sadness, fear, anger, excitement, disgust, love Senses – images, sounds

How do we know when something is important? People – Who are the characters? Stories – What is their story?

Tell a story. Your dissertation in twenty words or less? Your book in six words?

When you tell a good story … minds meld. Speaker-listener neural coupling underlies successful communication. (Stephens et al. PNAS 2010)

Where we’ve been … A brief introduction to how the brain learns and what it learns. Some tips on how to use our understanding of the brain for making effective presentations.