Presentation Skills Blog

 Presentation Skills Blog

Here are FIVE really important skills when you are presenting a presentation.

The first one is to remember to project your voice. This is a very common mistake. Whether you have a naturally loud or naturally muted voice, you must remember to control your volume in order to make sure everyone can hear you clearly and easily. You don't need to yell, but also remember you can't just talk normally - no one will hear you and everyone will see you are nervous!

The second point is to remember to be gesticular. This may seem counter-intuative because you want to draw attention to the presentation you have created, but being gesticular and being an engaging speaker is SO essential to teaching what you are there to teach. You can have the best presentation in the world but if you are boring to listen to, then you will damage the quality of your overall teaching.

The third point would be to always include the audeince. At the end of the day, a presentation is very much a performance and a lot of the time including your audience engages them and helps them learn. Ask questions, play games or take moments to ponder on things together as a unit. This will help make your audeince feel intergrated into what is going on and increase learning.

The fourht point is to create a visually engaging and appropriate presentation to go alongside (the last 3 points) your speaking. If you are just reading off a very basic, black and white text-based presentation then you will not engage your audeince at all. Having interesting and maybe even fun slides can help engage your audeince and increase learning. Remember to always make it colourful and fun if it needs it, that doesn't mean go over the top with colour and visuals, but try to include images and visual ques and examples that are relevant.

The fifth point is to not make it last for too long! Nothing is worse than sitting through a presentation which is obviously too long and is now making everyone bored and resenting the person giving the presentation. If you remember to remain engaging and interesting and keep your points sharp and relevant you can teach so well and in a SHORT time. This all comes with practice but try not to talk about things that are totally irrelevant. This is not important and will waste time.

4 Presentation Types

There are, interestingly, several types of presentations. One type is the storytelling type. This type uses anecdotes and emotive storytelling to take us through a series of events or guide us from one starting point to the end. The teaching comes from the things we learn and subconsciously relate to during the journey.

This is a mildly more informal style as you won't be mentioning numbers or exact strategies or talking in present tense. You are taking it easy and trying to build a relationship and make your audience relate to you on a deeper level.

Another style of presentation type is the type we usually see. The visual style. This is always accompanied with visuals or 'slides'. This is such a commonly used method because the visuals can always complement whatever style you are using currently.

Make sure you use slides that are relevant for your presentation and add to your presentation instead of take away from what you're talking about. Remain consistent and focused.

A third example would be the Freeform style of presentation. This usually requires no visual aids and purely relies on your improvisational skills and public speaking ability. This works well for people who are confident in front of audiences, are well-versed in the talking subject and have a short amount of time. You can make a huge impact and the presentation will come across very raw and impressive.

A fourth and final example would be the coaching style. This is the most imperative and direct (straight-talking) method. This is usually best for very charismatic speakers who are trying to seal a sale on a product they are pitching. With this style, you are dominating the room by letting your audience know you are in control and they can trust you with their best interests. 

 

What is formal and what is informal?

The three ways you could deliver a formal presentation are as follows: The first way is to ensure you are clear and straight-forward with what your goal is behind the presentation and other clear details. An informal presentation would perhaps not mention it or subtly reveal what it is throughout the presentation. Another thing you could include would be how you are going to make your presentation flow. If you choose a linear and logical sequence, then you would be inclined to deliver a straight-forward formal presentation. But if you were to leave more space for discussion and detours, then your presentation would be considered more informal.

Your presentation could also be considered formal if you used correct language, did not indulge in comedy or emotion - therefore you remain hyper focused on delivering the facts and the product. Your presentation would be considered much more informal if you indulged in comedy or used emotional language or in general - emotion. If you used emotion it would be considered an informal presentation.

The final element that could determine if your presentation would be formal or informal would be whether you include your audience in your presentation. If you are focused on just delivering a well-prepared and organized presentation, you would want to just relay the information in an engaging, but straight-forward way. You may ask for questions at the end, but there would be no real discussion. An informal presentation would feel more like you are generating a discussion with questions to your audience or allow questions to be cut in during the presentation.