Presentation skills.
Introduction
Presentation skills are the skills you need in delivering effective and engaging presentations to a variety of audiences. These skills cover a variety of areas such as the ‘structure of your presentation, the design of your slides, the tone of your voice and the body language you convey’.
Structuring your Presentation
Structure is important because a well-organized presentation creates an impression that you know what you are talking about-you will gain the audience's trust and they will be more likely to listen to you. A structure provides a logical flow so that you can provide the information that the audience needs to follow your presentation. The structure will help you become more comfortable following this flow. There is a natural structure to presenting and the following structure formalizes this process.
- Purpose
To determine your purpose ask "What are the main points I want my audience to take away from my presentation"? This provides focus for you and the audience is clear on what they will gain listening to your presentation.
- Audience pre-assessment
It is important to identify the characteristics, knowledge and needs of your audience so that you are delivering the 'right' presentation to the 'right' audience. Know who your audience is, what they want/need to know and what is their background. This step is done before the presentation or throughout.
- Opening your Presentation/Bridge
This is also known as the hook. It is designed to grab the audience's attention and provide them with a reason to be interested in the presentation.
- Body of Presentation
This is the major portion of the presentation. It is necessary that it connects directly to your purpose or bridge. Cover enough points to achieve your purpose (no more) and be sure to support your points clearly and concisely.
- Closing your Presentation
This is the final impression that you will leave with your audience-make sure it is a strong one. Connect back to your purpose and let them know where you have been. Leave your audience with a clear understanding of your points.
Rule of 10-20-30
Guy Kawasaki (2005), a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley introduced the rule of thumb in making great presentations. Focusing on conciseness and visibility, he suggested the rule of 10-20-30
- 10 Slides
By having a limit of 10 slides, you will be managing the cognitive load for your audiences. They can easily follow the flow of your presentations. It also challenges you to design your presentations well: choose what's important and leave out what's unnecessary
- 20 Minutes
By giving yourself limited time on your presentation, you are challenging yourself to leave out unnecessary details and focus on the important stories that will convey your message. Even if your session has been allotted with more time, you can devote the remaining minutes to discussions, questions or any technique that involves audiences with your presentation.
- 30-size Font
Depending on the room and screen size, most audiences will be able to see text that are at least 30-size font. When designing your presentation, keep in mind that anything you show must be visible to everybody in attendance, especially those in the back.
If you are concerned about fitting more text in a slide, always remember they do not necessarily make a better presentation.
NOTE: Keep in mind that these rules are very subjective and each situation is unique. Apply them as a good rule of thumb to guide you in planning your presentations. Other circumstances may come and you need to be flexible however, have your visible and concise presentations.
Tools for Presentation
1. Slide share offers users the ability to upload and share publicly or privately PowerPoint presentations, Word documents and Adobe PDF Portfolio.
2. Slide Rocket is a rich internet application (RIA) that provides for every part of the presentation life cycle. It integrates authoring, asset management, delivery and analytics tools in a single hosted environment that allows you to quickly create great looking presentations, store, tag and search your assets, collaborate with your colleagues, securely share your slides in person or remotely and measure the results.
3. Prezi is a free online Zoom browser tool that can be used to create and share presentations.
4. Visual Aid Using visual aids to represent your ideas are a great way to engage your audiences with your presentation. Your thoughts and examples might get lost in a sea of text where audiences might have a challenging time what to remember or take note of. Take some time to challenge yourself with using visual aids such as images, videos, and illustrations.