Guest Post: Kiran Karbhajan

Kiran is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. Here he writes about real-world presentations.

“PRESENTATION.” A big word right? Brings all those business meetings and serious discussions in front of our eyes, doesn’t it? But it’s amusing how we keep making “presentations” to others all.the.time, without even realizing it. Everything is a presentation. How, you ask? Remember when you made your first ever friends? You presented yourself – yes, your introduction. That was your first ever presentation. Similarly, most conversations you have with different people are nothing but presentations. Presentations that talk about you and the point you are trying to convey to the recipients.

Picture this.

You certainly don’t want your presentations to end up like this one here right? The presenter is talking about something audience has no interest in whatsoever and the presenter himself also doesn’t seem to care! All in all, a big mess!

We all want to look smart and presentable when we address an audience right? It’s not so difficult, though it needs bit of preparation and practice. Let’s have a look at some simple things you can do to do a little better in your presentations:

Preparation:
1. Be sure about your topic and try to generate interest in it (if you already don’t have any!)
2. Preparation is the key. Most failed presentations are the result of inadequate preparation before coming out in front of the audience. Take your time, prepare notes, concise them as much as possible and ensure you have only the excerpt points on your slides.
3. Know who’s your audience? Know their backgrounds and their needs. What are they looking for from this presentation? A good presenter knows his audience and delivers exactly what they need to know.
4. Keep your slide pack easy to read. Include just headers to give the audience only an idea about the topic. Intrigue the audience: that’ll generate some curiosity resulting in more attention. Don’t give too much information otherwise they will lose interest in what you are talking about.
5. Rehearsal is important. If possible, video record yourself giving a presentation to your mirror. Watching recorded clips can tell you more than anything else. How do you look and sound when you deliver a presentation? You’ll be surprised how much you learn about yourself this way.

Delivery:
1. Get comfortable with the logistics. Understand how to use microphones, how to use projectors and so forth so that these things don’t hamper the flow of your presentation.
2. PowerPoint slides are NOT the presentation. If that were the case, you wouldn’t be needed on the stage. The audience can just happily read the slides right? Remember YOU are the presentation – frankly, the audience pays more attention to HOW you present the topic than what you are really talking about.
3. KNOW your topic. Further, you might know what you are talking about, but more importantly does your audience know what you are talking about? – You need to ensure you tell them about your topic in simple language, maybe with the help of pictures and discrete text points.
4. Do not lose focus. It’s easy to lose track of the main idea of the presentation. Make sure you always stay close to conveying the central idea.
5. Watch your tone. Audiences love voice modulation. Monotonous speeches are almost guaranteed to put your audience to sleep. Ensure you have variation in your tone to appeal to the audience’s emotions. Use pauses to emphasize so that the audience anticipates something important coming up. When you take a short pause, the audience also realizes “OK! Something important is coming up!”
6. Make sure you support your claims with facts and, if possible, personal experiences. Nothing appeals more than a personal story.
7. Be entertaining. People can easily relate to you if the things you are saying are lighter to absorb, funny at times. They make the presentation easy to follow.
8. Don’t try to convey too much information. You know your topic. You are an expert at your topic. Others are not. They need time to learn what they need to know. No jargon. The point is to ensure people take a note of your idea not get overwhelmed by it.
9. Make some eye contact to numerous individuals to give them a feeling that you are presenting to them “individually.” This makes people reciprocate.
10. Try to involve the audience by asking questions in between, telling a joke, asking them to comment on any relevant fact.
11. Conclude well: Let the audience know that you are wrapping up. This part is the most important since it will decide if your presentation was a success or not. Remember it’s not easy to get others to pay attention to you, let alone them remembering the “point” you made in some presentation! However, if you are able to convey the concluding point clearly, there’s more chance people will remember that you presented a “point” in the first place.

And most importantly, Make sure you are relaxed! This goes a long way in helping you and the audience and sets the stage for the presentation to flow. All in all, if you could follow these things, you’ll most likely end up delivering an effective presentation. Hope this helps!