Guest Post: Miao Liu

Miao is one of Chris' Fall 2011 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here she writes about real-world presentations.

In my opinion, real-world presentations are those presentations given outside the classroom. For examples, president Obama's national speech, Steve Jobs’ s presentation on new product release, Jay Leno's television show, etc. In our daily life, we deliver presentations at work, usually for team/boss or clients; we are also exposed to all kinds of presentations such as sales reps' persuasive pitch.

Human are social species, we need communication. Presentation is a effective way to exchange information, deliver ideas, inform public and inspire/motivate people.

I had an internship with OCLC before, and I was asked to give a presentation on my project before I left. This was a real-world presentation. I presented in front of our department director, managers and whole sales and marketing team. My project was developing a central billing database for sales reps. Other than how I designed and implemented the database, I also gave instruments on how to use the database to perform data analysis and pull reports. After the presentation, the primary users of the database had a good knowledge of handling the new tool for their business.

How to achieve a good presentation? The most important element is knowing your audience. If you know well what your audience want, it is possible to give an effective and meaningful presentation. Second, the purpose of presentation must be clear. If your audience don't take an action after listening to you, your presentation fails. Third, you need to well-prepared and structure your presentation creatively. Lead people into your presentation by allowing interaction and participation. In a word, making the presentation useful for others is the ultimate goal.