2. Don’t Memorize:
This is, after all, a presentation, not a recital. Every presentation needs two major components — life and energy. Recite from memory and your presentation will be sadly lacking both of these factors. Not only will you lose your audience, but you will be hard pressed to adapt to unexpected events that may throw you off your mental script.
12. Have a Backup Plan:
What if your projector dies? Or the computer crashes? Or the CD drive doesn’t work? Or your CD gets stepped on? For the first two, you may have no choice but to go with an AV free presentation, so have a printed copy of your notes with you. For the last two, carry a backup of your presentation on a USB flash drive or email yourself a copy, or better yet, do both.
5. Know the Room:
Be familiar with the place in which you will speak. Arrive ahead of time, walk around the speaking area, and sit in the seats. Seeing the setup from your audience’s perspective will help you decide where to stand, what direction to face, and how loudly you will need to speak.
6. Know the Equipment:
If you are using a microphone, make sure it works. The same goes for the projector. If it’s your projector, carry a spare bulb. Also, check to see if the projector is bright enough to overpower the room’s lighting. If not, find out how to dim the lights.
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The four tips above are excerpts from an article by Wendy Russell titled “12 Tips for Delivering a Knockout Business Presentation”. These four tips are among the most important in my opinion. #4 and #12 go together in the sense that you need to be prepared for the unexpected. If you memorize exactly what you are going to say, then you will be in trouble if anything unexpected occurs. Rather, if you prepare to share certain content (instead of memorizing specific sentences) you will be able to speak more confidently and clearly.
#5 and #6 pertain to each other as well and can be summarized as such: know your surroundings. Your presentation should be catered to your audience instead of a cookie cutter generic presentation. Additionally, knowing the equipment you will use allows you to be even more comfortable and adaptable incase anything unexpected happens.
I think number 5) Know the Room can be interpreted in another way as well. Not only is it important to be familiar with the room layout and setup, but it’s also equally, if not more important, to “know the room” in regards to the audience (which you briefly touch on in your summary). Presentations should not be applied in a cookie cutter, one size fits all fashion. It is critical to know the audience you are presenting to so that you can tailor your presentation to their interests and needs – whether that means adding more anecdotal information vs. quantifiable data in your presentation. I find this to be very relevant in my job as I am constantly presenting to different audiences on a daily basis (i.e. prospective students, parents, counselors, fellow colleagues).
Thanks for sharing! Provides some good pointers that we should all keep in mind to improve our presentation skills and to help account for things we may not foresee happening.
Thanks, Greg! I agree with Sarah on the above, and I also personally feel pretty strongly about #2, Don’t Memorize. You can usually tell when someone has done so. Additionally, these are often the people that “freeze” mid presentation, because they lose their spot and can’t rebound quickly. You can almost see people going through the presentation again in their head to find their place. People are typically more natural and create a better connection when they use bullets to form their story, but speak in the moment.
I absolutely agree with everyone’s comments on #2 Don’t Memorize. When you are preparing and are too focus on the exact wording, you lose any sort of flexibility in your presentation. This can actually cause more anxiety for people than just knowing main points you want to cover from the slide. For those who struggle to give a presentation without creating a scripted dialogue, just remember that the audience doesn’t know what you did or didn’t cover; you don’t have to say everything. And if you did miss a big point in your presentation, the audience will be sure to ask you a question to fill in the gaps.
#6 happened to us today for our MP Presentations. The screen was not showing the proper resolution and it took several people this first 20 minutes to fix the issue. When in doubt, rebooting solves almost anything (except a burned out bulb, of course!).
#2 is hard for me because I don’t have much experience in presentations. I agree that memorizing a speech line for line isn’t any good, but winging it, for me, would be even worse. I doubt that’s what you’re suggesting we do, but because I’m so out of my element giving a presentation, I practice many times and do include some memorization in my prep. Rather than memorize paragraphs, however, I memorize bulleted points I need to make for each slide. For example, “Remember to mention 3 ways this will negatively impact clients and describe a worst case scenario for the company” might be something I memorize for a slide. If however, I have 3 very specific things in mind and try to memorize them, I find I’ll get two and then um and uh until the third one meanders into my mind. Not the best plan…