Presentations

There are three main elements of communication: speaker, audience, and message. Think through all of them before each presentation.

Speaker

• Vocal behaviors:
  • project - adjust volume according to audience size and message
  • tempo - choose a comfortable pace. Don't rush
  • pause - include purposeful pauses for emphasis, anticipation, and reflection
  • vocal variety - avoid a monotone pattern of speaking
  • vitality - be alive and enthusiastic
• Body behaviors:
  • be relaxed, but alert
  • convey confidence
  • substitute purposeful activity for random nervous movements
  • orient shoulders to the audience; keep eyes off the screen and on the audience
  • eye contact establishes and maintains communication channel between people. It also relaxes the speaker and reduces the feeling of isolation. However, don't stare at any one person (no more than 1-3 seconds at a time)
• Never, ever read text from your slides word for word!

Audience

• Presentation is not mere information transfer; it also communicates attitudes and feelings
• Adapt to your audience. This includes considering: audience size, knowledge of topic, beliefs regarding the topic, age, gender, economic status, attitude toward you, educational level, social standing, needs and wants
• Bring your audience into the presentations: ask for a specific response, make references to the audience using the word "you", ask an occasional rhetorical question
• Choose the objective of a presentation: informational (you want audience to learn something), persuasive (you want the audience to do something), or somewhere in between. An informational talk should focus on clarity of information, while a persuasive one - on the acceptance of ideas
• Don't be afraid to finish early if you had enough time to make your point. Leave your audience wanting more

Message

• Types of information presentation in the order of increasing ease of understanding, engagement, and remembering:

  • text
  • bullet points
  • graphics
  • video
  • story

  Try to go down this list as far as you can when preparing your presentations

• Cut out extraneous material: too much slide information overloads people's cognitive systems

• Your graphics should be understood in 3 seconds

• Think of your whole presentation as a story with interesting beginning, engaging content, and clear conclusion

• Good ways to start a presentation: statement of the central idea, rhetorical question, summary of main points, familiar example, striking facts, short story

• Good ways to end a presentation: summary, highlighting the main point, appeal for action, restatement of the opening, personal commitment

• Leave plenty of "white space" or "negative space" on your slides

• Limit object builds (animations) and slide transitions. If you use them, stick to the most subtle and professional. Sometimes, revealing parts of the slides in parts with pauses in between can make the points clearer

• Use high quality graphics including photographs, but avoid cheesy clip art and other cartoonish line art

• Develop a graphical theme for your slides but avoid standard templates

• Select color combinations which have high contrast (to be visible on a projector from far away), yet not too "flashy"

• Add video and audio clips if possible and appropriate. They provide a nice change of pace and immediately engage an audience

Other

• Consider room arrangement:
  • try to have only as many seats as people in the audience; otherwise, ask people to move closer to you
  • make sure you are not competing for visual attention with the projected image
  • don't hide behind the lectern
  • have plenty of lighting in a room
  • arrive early to get acclimated to a room, solve any unexpected problems, and greet people who have come to hear you
• Practice giving your presentation at least once to remember the flow of ideas and check timing

Other good resources

• speaking.io