Treasure Trove presentation

During class, we had to give a 5-minute powerpoint presentation about presenting tips. Each of us had to choose one article from 'The Treasure Trove Of Articles'. During the presentation, we had to inform each other about presentation techniques. I chose the article 'Presentation Tips For Public Speaking' which you can read below.


Presentation tips for public speaking

- Know the needs of your audience and match your content to their needs

- Know your material thoroughly. This means that you have to practice your presentation at home in front of a mirror or in front of your family or roommates. I prefer practicing in front of people, because they can give you feedback, and with this feedback  you can improve your presentation skills.

- Know what your strong and weak points are. When you are presenting, you’re like an actor on stage. How you are being perceived by the audience is very important. So  dress appropriately (don’t wear any training suits for instance). Remain calm, that’s very important. Don’t show your nerves to the audience. And when you remain calm you speak very clear and slow enough so everyone knows what you’re saying. And speak with conviction as if you really believe in what you are saying, because then, your audience will listen more carefully and they will maintain interested.

Body language

Body language is very important. Using hand gestures and facial expressions is much better than standing still of even sitting down and reading from your notes. You may glance at your notes infrequently, but don’t stare at them for a long time, because then you’ll start reading them and you’ll stay with your face to the ground during your presentation. And that’s obviously not very interesting for your audience! If you behave naturally, like when talking to friends, your audience will remain enthusiastic at listening to your presentation.

Eye contact

Always maintain eye contact with your audience. There is a 3 second method. This means that you have to look straight into a person’s eyes for 3 seconds at a time. Use this method for a number of people, and glance every now and then at the whole audience. This is very important, because than you make everyone feel involved.

Communication

You have to speak to your audience, listen to their questions and respond to their reactions. This means that there has to be interaction between the presenter and the audience. Because when there is interaction, everyone feels involved just like with eye contact. Interaction makes your presentation alive.

Humor

Add humor whenever appropriate. Because you have to keep your audience interested throughout the entire presentation. And interesting presentation makes time fly, but a boring one is too long to endure, even if the presentation time is the same. So use for instance funny cartoons, or funny short video’s.

Stop

And last but not least, you have to know when to stop talking! Don’t bore your audience with repetitious or unnecessary words in your presentation. Terminate your presentation with an interesting comment or an appropriate punch line. It is important to leave the audience with a positive impression and a sense of completion.