Good Presentations (imho)
Written on Monday, April 16, 2007 by Unknown
Ah..interesting subject, specially in this particular moment when there are loads of presentations for the different modules..
The very obvious question : WHAT MAKE A GOOD PRESENTATION??
I ain't a great presenter..nor teacher..but..i do have some views which i might perhaps share..up to u to judge whther to use them, or not..
Before considering what makes a good presentation..let's see what makes a bad presentation, specially in our context at uni..
- The presenter isn't clear enough in his/her oral delivery - ie, perhaps he/she has a low tone voice, or speaks weirdly..put straight, u cant understand what he/she is saying due to the way he/she speaks.
- The presenter has too many things to say - this happens often when the presenter tries to speaks about everything in the allocated time.
- The presenter is reading rather than presenting smtg - this happens either because the presenter doesn't know his subject, or is too shy to face his audience, and hides behind some large pages of notes.
- Lack of eye contact with the audience - coz he/she is busy reading of course..
- Too bulky slides - way too many information presented on the slides, and are often just read by the presenter or the presenter just say exactly word to word without reading it (as if to say "hey watch me..i can memorise this HUGE slide by heart")
- The presentation is boring - due to all the above points
Now we know what we shouldn't do..so let's c what we should do??
(Disclaimer : these are my views..they might work..or not..bt it seemed that they worked for me..till now..i'll confirm when i get the marks for my presentations)
- Be relaxed. Take it easy its only a presentation. No one will eat u. Try to probe ur audience if possible. To know who you are up to.
- Speak nicely. Even if u don't have a perfect English or French, make urself heard and understood. Don't speak to low,and please don't chew a gum while presenting..it's freaking rude..and we can't freaking understand u!!!
- Body language. It not all about the content of ur presentation, but also how you present it. Walk, smile, gesticulate and make eye contact with ur audience.
- Its ok if u dnt speak about everything, atleast have a plan, jot down the most important things to discuss, and discuss them. If there are some less important thing, skip it, most probably some1 will ask about them during the question time, if not, it means it really was unimportant to them.
- Know ur subject well. This will give prevent u from reading pages and pages of documentation.The plan i was talking about in the previous point will help u know what to talk next.
- Don't bore ur audience with too technical details..unless u really have to..but u always can avoid it.
- Don't use slides if u dnt need them. And if u do need them, don't flood them with too much information, use pictorials, use some main points, keywords..these have a better impact.
- Don't Be Boring!!! It so easy not to be boring, crack some jokes (not too much), share an anecdote. If u happen to make a mistake at some point, stress on it and make it sound funny, but don't make fun of urself.. Interact with ur audience, ask them their opinions, don't make it a monologue.and ya, be spontaneous..
- "Make everything as simple as possible, not simpler". (by Albert Einstein)
- Presentations are fun, enjoy them!!!
Those were some of my point of views, and what i actually do in presentations. What do u think abt it??
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Weps, N good iniative de to part.
:)
Ur absolutely right dude. I would just add being self-confident plays also a major role....however to be able to be self-confident, one must really knows his topic (preparation) and must believe in
himself (or herself).
As we say "practice makes perfect" ...so we must keep practicing...even actors so that.
Btw ur presentation for OS was nice and at some point I even thought whether u were sponsored by Apple..lol
Good stuff. Perhaps practice. I mean you can get the theory but everything needs practice. Doing a lot of presentations helps.
Considering the practice, you got em all right.
huh mone dza fini fer comms skills
mo dza konne tousa
and i think we all know about how to make a good presentation...
get creative man!
hehe nice post its been a while i didn't have an oral presentation..
pe penC mem ki capave ajouT.. mais pas pe trouve narnien la.. :)
we shouldnot fear presentations, at worse what can happen?? we make fun of ourselves..lol
I think youve noticed. Its "Considering the theory, you got em all right."
@ Anonymous (sa ki mo pas sipporter kan kikene pas met ID..atleast met ene nick do!!)
li drole kifer malgrer ki tot zeleve CSE inn fr comms skills to gagne ene tas dimoune ki pas ressi fr ban that good presentation..mais if u say u r good..then u r good..
nice and useful post u got there. dun really know what to say. i hate presentations and speaking in front of a crowd scares the hell out of me. a friend of mine uses a great technique though: she visualizes herself in her room while being in front of the whole class and it does seem to work for her. last year during my presentation i tried all sort of stuff to be more relaxed, like singing before it started or even joking here and there, but it went so bad...perhaps your do's might help me this time, i hope so!! :)bon mone pass 20minit stuggle pou post sa comment la!!! :S
nice post.., mem si mo dza 1 star en terme de presentation!! hihi
guess u got it all right down there..
being poised, self confident and knowing wat u want from ur audience.. is half of the hard work done..
i presentation cav fun tou come li cav i mari epreuve pou certain..
lol ek mo dax ek toi abt comms skill
sa pa veut dir nothing.. mais si tone maitrise li dats a diferent story mais bon confidence is good mais over ..pa tro :)
Fantastic guidelines 4 a nice presentation...but one important thing u 4got 2 add among em sundeep..its 2 have good listenin skills from ur audience and speaker during questions part of the presentation...wat u say..lolz...so that u answer 2 em appropriately...dat will make ur presentation a success...hav fun!!!!
U're right about what makes a good presentation... btw, if people feel too stressed or whatever before a presentation, prend ene 2 ou 3 cans la biere ou ene ti fort mem... rouler mem sa... everything will go fine then... :P
P.S. Mo pane try moi... Mais mone witness... :P
Nice tips.
Doing a presentation is a communication exercise. If the emitter (you) and the message are good enough then the receiver(s) will be receptive. That's why eye contact and good preparation are both important. It is futile to prepare fantastic Powerpoint slides if you don't communicate properly...
whoaa tone passe to letemp donne nou ban conseils..dats good! next time to kav largue nou ban timing genre how to kick off ur ass and start revising for ur test instead of checking people's blog at 2 a.m and leaving comments everywhere..huh!
Depends for what is the presentation.
Something worse then just making fun of yourself can happen ... like ruin your graduation because things are not ok during the presentation of your thesis or dissertation.
For those who fear a presentation because of different reasons: practice in front of the person who knows you THE BEST in the world, 100% as you REALLY ARE, and with who you are one and 100% connected. That person will know exactly how to distract you the most, test and analyze your reactions and give you the right feedback.
I did this for somebody who some of you might fear of now ... ;-) and the result was a complete success for that person in an extremely difficult situation.
If you want your presentation to be a success, you have to be like Napoleon: do more things at the same time. This means presenting, feeling the audience, analyzing the feedback and make immediately the necessary adjustments.
Thanks all for ur responses, as avinash mention, a presentation is a communication exercise, hence, we need to communicate properly
@Irina
nice tips, yes indeed practicing in front of ppl u know..and who know u best can be helpful.
in any case, being tensed for a presentation ruins it. need to be relaxed. last week i was some1 a bit tensed for a presentation, coz i was to present in front of a class i knew only a few ppl, yet when i started talking,i immediately tried to feel a ease with them..and i think it worked.
and ya i also agree with Irina when she says to be like napoleon.
And ya practice makes perfect..
I bet this will be useful in the near future. Thanks mate! :D
me pu consider to ban points 4 my nxt presentations aster coz i fink ur tips are really worthwhile.. :)
Mo gagne cauchemar avec presentation...Pff
hmmm, i guess sundeep pretty much summarised it all...
i've got the chance to share some common presentation with sun, and up to now, we've been quite successful i should say.
some more things i'll like to point out, when you do an expose, the first thing to overcome, is the fear of the audience, my technique is to imagine that all members of the audience are funny characters.
next, try to be relax about it... don't learn things by heart, try to understand what you're talking about first. if you can't understand something, it'll be kinda hard explaining it...
then, try not to be boring... smile, speak to your audience in the same manner as you would explain something to a friend.
and finally i guess, the major problem for us, mauritians, is that we try to think in creole and then translate in another language, overcome this issue and you will notice that you start speaking fluently.
well thats what i think, maybe am wrong... maybe am right... but up to now, this has worked for me... maybe it will for you too...
and btw, happy birthday sundeep:) to pli vier ki mwa:> demain nu aranz toi cocasse cot bassin:p
(Disclaimer : these are my views..they might work..or not..bt it seemed that they worked for me..till now..i'll confirm when i get the marks for my presentations)
disclaimer pa suposer en gro characters sa kifer to met li en ti let toi to peur gagne bater ... :D