Guest Post: Si Tri Pham

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

All of us have to give a presentation at some point in our life and career, be it for a company meeting, a group project, or simply to convince other people about something. Presentations can take many forms, thus many times we don’t formally realize we are doing it. Nonetheless, there are certain key elements that make the success of any presentations. Knowing and mastering those elements would serve you very well in the long run in your life and career.

A successful and effective presentation relies on good content, design, and delivery. Content is what your message is; design is the form in which you present your message; and delivery is how you address it.

A good presentation should have a solid structure that can be easily identified by the audience. You, the presenter, must know the structure in and out to be able to fluidly convey it. If you can’t pinpoint the organization of your presentation, neither can the listeners. Know what you are talking about, and know it well. Doing so clearly states that you have the knowledge and authority to be talking. The opposite holds true as well because if you can’t prove you are knowledgeable of the topic, it really hurts your credibility. Therefore, doing your research and creating a strong structure is crucial to any presentations you might give in the future.

While a good content shows that you are passionate about the topic, a good design communicates that you care and understand your audience. It means you have put time and effort into creating something worth your audience’s time and, sometimes, money. When you show you respect your audience, you are effectively steering their perception about you in the good direction. 99% of the presentations are bad: they are full of text, with no images, no visual aids, etc. Don’t fall in those 99%, even a few hours of designing your presentation can make a significant difference.

Last, but certainly not least, is how you deliver your well-structured content and awesome design. After all, your “listeners” are there to listen to what you have to say. Therefore, how you say it makes the success or failure of your presentation. Pay extra attention on who you deliver to and why are you doing it. It never works completely the very first time, so rehearse, edit, and rehearse more. Getting feedback can be constructive as well. The more you rehearse, the more naturally you will present it.

Follow those simple rules and you will find yourself among the 1% good presentations nowadays.