I had a big presentation recently and I was quite apprehensive about it. I've probably done a lot of presentations during the course of my career, and more if you count the ones I conducted as a student politician in my university days, but each presentation never fails to give me the jitters.
It's even more difficult when the material you're presenting is not exactly yours...
This apprehension was quite evident to my circle of buddies and they were kind enough to offer tips. I can't say what worked because you never truly know how successful you are at achieving the goals of the presentation until much later, but listed below are some tips from friends and my personal observations:
1. If faced with a tense situation, don't flinch. The audience can smell fear, and it'll just lead to a feeding frenzy.
2. Assess the audience vs the material and predict the kind of questions they'll ask or issues that may surface because of the material.
3. Have a backup plan. Most presentations are done by a team, even if there is only one presenter. Kau tim with your team mates and your superior so that you can do a tag-team on the Q&A.
4. Know your material. This is stating the obvious, but some presenters take the gift of the gab for granted and end up lacking the in-depth knowledge to say things with conviction, let alone back it up with points that are not on the screen.
5. Do not read the text on the slides. In some cases, it's possible to keep the slides to concise and brief points. This keeps the audience's attention on the presenter. However, in some cases, it may be necessary to be a bit more verbose. In this sense, an assessment of the type of audience will tell you which method is better. But of course, if the presenter has a short attention span, reading the text off the slides may be the only option... ;-)
6. Take some time to indulge in witty banter with your audience. Getting to know them allows you to calm yourself down, and the presentation becomes a mere extension of your conversation.
That's the gist of it. As you can see, it's not exactly 'winging it' - there is considerable effort required in doing a presentation (something YOU TECHIES always belittle.. =P).
Feel free to dispute, comment or suggest other tips.
Posted by Najah Nasseri at 2003年12月16日 17:44 | TrackBackNajah,
I agree on all ur points...i've done plenty of presentations in my life.
Another tip is to cool it with the sound effects and flashy GIFs and WMFs, its very distracting and sometimes very irritating.
Another one would be to limit animation to transition of slides rather than EVERY single item on the slide (Subjective to materials presented)
And for me, I always take a nice WARM drink (tea, milo but NOT COFFEE!), it helps calm nerves and settle your blood pressure.
Hey, even winging it comes with preparation!
Take care now!
Nicholas
i remember reading this or watched this somewhere
well not sure if it helps to cool us down or not, at least i think it can shift our focus from matter at hand ...hehehe
Imagine the audience are all naked!
to me still the number 1 tip is to know your subject matter very well . By doing that u're actually on the attack rather than being on the defensive side of the presentation. And we all know attacking is the best form of defence.they ask u question , u ask them question back laa..hehehe.
But then again sometimes i notice, especially during my Petronas days, ppl when they are trying too hard to do well in presentation by being on the attack are not being honest. There are times when suggestions or comments from the audience are valid points which we have to give credits to
"point taken, we'll work on that"
"ahh yes, very good question"
"hmm...i wonder why we didn't think of that before ..duh!(which perhaps create laughter to ease the tension)...some ppl might just think u're plain stupid hahahaha...
After 2 years of doing solid presentations to all sorts of customer, I picked up a few useful pointers that maybe I could shared with you.
First, doing a presentation is like telling a story. It has to be informal, and told while bearing a smile on your face. Language must be non-foced and everything must me at a conversation level. Audience eye contact is crucial to clam nerves. Half of the times the audiences has is a total virgin to the subject matter discussed (tis the reason why they are listening to you). This makes it easier for you to manage the floor.
Posted by: fade0 at 2003年12月17日 02:16There seems to be already good collection of tips here. I would just like to share one.
The subject matter should match the audience. Else they will drift. I also find that a pitch and a presentation is so very different. It reqires you to take different stances.
In a pitch, you need to be confident and ready for anything that comes your way. Dress well, it helps, the sense of perception helps set the mood. A show of effort and respect for the people you present to goes a long way. Be thoughtful, dont force it down their throats. Give handouts, so that you can skim and touch only the important points. Handouts should also be accompanied by company profiles.
Presentations, can be more informal. Take a light stab at things, but people forget like a hungry pack of wolves, the audience CAN smell fear and most importantly incompetence. Remember, people make time to hear you speak. Make it worth their while. Prepare before hand. In certain situations, "winging it" can be dangerous.
Posted by: Gabriel at 2003年12月17日 11:27cool. thanks najah. another one for the hard drive. save as...
Posted by: faren at 2003年12月18日 00:56hmm but winging it is only an art when done by fluke - with no preparation, backup plan etc. That's why it's called winging it..
Posted by: prema at 2003年12月23日 12:07