• Lesley McGowan in Presentation Skills

    What's the best method/technique when preparing for a presentation?
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    • Alex Winlow
      Alex Winlow
      Many tools can help your presentation and key messages to stand out from the crowd and engage your audience. In order to make sure that your verbal messages are clearly understood, you need to be prepared, keep the message simple and concise, be dynamic and natural. To insure success, preparation comes first, and weeks in advance. A disorganised presentation will result in less impact, fail in the message delivery and look unprofessional.

      Presentations are most of the time informative, and the best way to support facts and ideas are with visuals and not lots of text. Indeed, visuals catch the audience’s attention and make the presentation more interesting! Nowadays, most of the presentations rely on programs like PowerPoint or Prezi.com; you can support your arguments with pictures, videos, charts and many other visuals.

      The best way to ensure a well prepared presentation is to ask yourself the 5Ws#!

      Who? Who is the audience? What are their common interests?
      What? What are you going to talk about? What are the main arguments? What is the best way to communicate effectively what’s on my mind?
      How? How to deliver my message? What is the best way to communicate with my audience? How can I make my presentation more attractive? Verbal and non verbal skills are really important, plan what you have to say in advance to avoid a disorganised presentation.
      When? Try to manage your time according to the given schedule. Being able to develop a sense of timing will make your presentation more professional. Keep time for questions.
      Where? Try to come early to visit the site, test the audio /visual aids...
      Why? Ask yourself why should your audience listen to you?

      Finally, for a successful presentation be very clear and concise about your key message. In order to catch the audience’s attention, work on your verbal and non verbal communication skills. Use eye contact, control the rhythm and tone of your voice, pay attention to your body language and have an appropriate use of language. Be confident, Remember that you are the expert and never forget to remain calm, to look at the audience and smile.
    • Silvana Rangel
      Silvana Rangel
      Remembering key words in relation to your topic and raising questions which can prompt debate among your audience or "get them thinking" are usually the main things I try to remember when preparing a presentation. It's also important to explore both sides of the subject to have more than just the one opinion. Also, keep your hands to your side, fidgeting never makes for a good presentation!
    • Sumit Gupta
      Sumit Gupta
      I would recommend Prezi.com to create stunning presentations, rather that powerpoint.