Top tips on giving presentations
1 Present tense
Giving a presentation is close to the top of the list of stressful experiences. The prospect of being looked at and listened to by an audience disconcerts and worries most people. Even worse is the thought of standing in front of an audience that is clearly losing interest. That’s why visual aids are so popular – they take the attention away from you, providing support as well as an alternative focal point. And if they are relevant and informative they will help ensure success.
2 Picture power
Presentation software and projectors make it tempting to use too many visuals. Keep the number of words to a minimum, and make them big – this not only improves readability but ensures you can’t put too many words on a slide. Pictures can convey a message more effectively, with the words coming from you as the speaker. A cartoon can do wonders for capturing attention and engaging the audience. And video clips are great to help vary the pace and break up static text.
3 Take note
Too many words on screen and your audience will read and won’t listen. By the same token, don’t use slides as a script – at the most, treat them as a set of prompts. Keep things moving – slides lose value after approximately a minute so move on, or turn off. Use handouts for detailed information, but make sure you don’t give these out until after the presentation, otherwise your audience will be distracted, and will be reading while you are talking.