So I read a guest post by Alda at TwentySet today in the morning about presentations. I felt compelled right away to write a comment, since presentation is what I do. Then I was thinking that I kind of do know about presentations way more than I knew when I was in school. Even though I thought I am an amazing presenter when I was in school. So here is a bigger list of tips from me:

 

Keep in mind – they won’t trust you in the beginning, they don’t have to sit there and you have to earn their attention even though they are physically in the room.

 

Know your topic – this is imperative, you have to know everything about the subject you are talking about. Not only it will help in answering side questions, but it will create an impression to people that you know what you are talking about. It is especially important when you are a young person and the people are presenting too are all older than you are.

 

Prepare your presentation – even though you might know everything about the topic you need to structure it and put in the form that can be easily absorbed. You need a logic flow and couple of simple concise ideas to drive your point.

 

What’s in it for them – I personally don’t use cheesy ice breakers, about the weather or recent news. I start with what my audience will get from the presentation. The key is to know what keeps them awake at night and speak about that.

  

Ask Questions – I mentioned that in my comments, for me this is my favorite technique. The trick though is to ask right questions, you don’t want put yourself in a bad spot with the answer you don’t expect.  For example I start my presentations with “Anyone here doesn’t believe in advertising?” I know for sure that there will be at least a couple of people who will be happy to say that advertising doesn’t work – and that is all I am waiting for. However, audience doesn’t know that with my questions and their answers I am bringing them to the place where I want them to be. Audience think they got  there themselves, while I am actually in control.

 

Allow Questions – I prefer the presentation to be a conversation, so I always allow questions in the middle. Since, I am confident in my topic and prepared I don’t mind people interrupting me.

 

Move – when you move people start to pay attention to you. Walk in the room, move closer to the audience. Obviously, make an eye contact.

 

Tone of your voice – don’t be monotone, that puts your audience to sleep, change you voice sometimes.

 

Remember the bottom line – in real life the success of the presentation is not measure by people clapping and you professor saying “Good Job” it is measure by people who you presented to taking an action you wanted.

 

Any other tips? Leave in the comments