Presenting or speaking to an audience often features in surveys of people’s top fears. A successful presentation comes from preparation and knowledge, as well as confidence and control.
Every presentation can be broken down into three manageable parts:
Preparing the Presentation
Preparation is vital for delivering a successful and engaging presentation. You need to remember when preparing your presentation, why are you presenting, what’s the purpose of the presentation and who are you presenting to?
Knowing your audience is important so you can shape the presentation around their needs, from delivering the information they want to hear as well as using language/terminology throughout your presentation that they will understand.
When you are clear on who your audience are you need to ensure you have enough expertise on the subject manner (“earning the right”) as well as how the product/service/message you are presenting on will benefit the audience.
Creating / Designing the Presentation
Sometimes people focus too heavily on what the presentation will look like and designing PowerPoint slides without doing the necessary preparation – you need to be clear on the content and the message before you can structure the presentation.
When designing your presentation plan the structure using the rule of three, the introduction, the middle and the close. Introduce what you are going to talk about, talk about it in the middle section and then summarise what you have talked about with key points and any calls to action.
When it comes to the actual design and using slides, don’t put everything you are going to say on the slide, as your audience will simply read this rather than listening to you. Use the slides to support what you are saying and provide visual explanations where needed.
Delivering the Presentation
You have done all your preparation and designed a presentation specifically for your audience, so relax! Some points to remember when you are speaking are to smile, be confident and remember to speak in your audience’s language, accentuate the positive and enjoy it!
For further information read our previous articles on the Pick of Icebreakers and Inspirational Presentations.
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