Well, the topic does raise the question on whether I am qualified to make this post- however, having attended quite a lot of presentations, I have qualified at least as an attentive (read- attempts at attention, often futile) listener.
Some people are born endowed with the gift of word, they can hold audience spell bound even while talking on the most mundane of subjects. However, this is not for those elite few- this is for the ones who are moderately good and would have the attention of the audience on their brilliant days.
Unless you are presenting on a topic like 'how to make a million in an hour', there may be few among the audience who would gladly sleep while you babble. Let us ignore them for the moment and concentrate on the ones who would have lent a ear if things werent so boring.
Some key points:
1. Make sure everybody knows the intention of the presentation. There may be somebody who is in the room by mistake, so this is the cue for them to slap their head and move out.
2. Keep the heading simple and not head-whirling. You arent here to pose a tongue twister to the audience. Keep it short and simple, yet capturing the key idea of your talk
3. When you begin, it would be a good gesture to give an outline of the presentation so that people would at least know if you are close to the finish line. If you put the page number on your slides as 'page a of b', you may almost hear their brains working, doing the math to gauge the distance from the current slide to the end.
4. An introduction would be very good, giving the lesser enlightened folks an opportunity to get a grip of whats going on. However, keep it short, otherwise the enlightened may get bored. Try to avoid huge definitions and theorems - those can always be looked up in the internet. Give a broad picture, and a gist of the stuff as concisely as possible and put a reference where they can look up the actual words.
5. A brief word about the colour scheme- if you dont want the people to watch your presentation with teary eyes, go for mild colours like light blue, green or brown. However, if you want to watch them cry, go all out for the fluorescent colours.
6. It would be fatal to put all that you intend to say on the slides and then read out from it- people can very well read on their own, some even faster than you can. A slide full of text is bad enough without someone reading aloud from it. Just write the key points on the slide- they need to make sense only when you elaborate- otherwise you wouldnt be needed there at all.
7. Stick to the time frame. If you are allotted half an hour for the presentation, dont prepare a 100 slides (unless you are those fellows who warn about the license agreements being subject to market risks) - you would end up having to skip all those or run through them.
8. Plan your presentation in advance. Before preparing the slides, think of all the things you want to put across- that forms the body of your presentation. Add introduction and conclusion to augment what you are going to say. If you are presenting for half an hour, allot 5 mins for the outline and intro, 15-20 mins for the body, and 5 mins for the conclusion so that you have ample time to take a few questions. Even if there are no questions, no one will hate you for winding it up early.
9. Even the best of plans go wrong. If somebody keeps interrupting you with questions, or carries on a question for too long a time, tell him/her politely that the questions can be answered offline as time is of essence.
10. Encourage questions- if you stare down your nose at anyone asking a question, people will keep mum. Adopt a pleasant attitude while speaking. That doesnt mean that you have to act the clown or smile as if you are being photographed- just keep a pleasant face and smile at people occasionally
11. Maintain eye contact. Dont keep staring at your own slides. Look at the audience, let your eye run through them- look at all sections of the audience, not just at the front where people whom you deem important sit. It is good to include all in your talk.
12. Humour is a good way to catch the attention, but go for it only if you are good at it and think it fail proof. No humour is better than a failed attempt at humour.
13. Talk slow- this isnt the place to show off your speed or accent. Speak in a way and speed such that it is understandable.
14. Dont get very excited and start shouting. Maintain a cool and calm attitude throughout. You may be nervous, but that shouldnt affect your voice modulation.
15. Try not to move all over the place. Some people have a habit of walking to and fro while speaking and people hurt their necks trying to follow the speaker with their gaze.
This is all that I could think of on the spur of the moment. Will keep adding. Have a nice time presenting.
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