Presentation skills – what I expect.

Almost a year ago, during ET (Emerging Technologies) presentations I really felt this writing was necessary. But because of busy schedule and other constraints I never completed it. Recently after Sunny’s post here, I decided to rewrite and post it.

Though Sunny’s post is thorough on the subject I would like to add what I expect specially if it’s a technical presentation and as a critic attendee. I feel I must remind all those students who presented their research work in ET, if it would have been my decision almost all of you failed. The only reason you passed was a lenient management policy of not to fail anyone unless absolutely necessary.

Pardon any inconsistency in the post because half of the things written here were written almost a year ago.



Dress well

It is not just the topic you present, you present yourself. If you don’t look good, your presentation doesn’t look good too. When I say dress well I don’t mean dress expensive or wear designer cloths, but something decent and appropriate.


Communicate

Presentation is communication; it is not just plain radio. Communicate with your audience using your gestures, body language, eye contact and voice. Be friendly, give away some smiles, and interact with them.


Body language.

Your audience not only listens to you, they watch you as well. And like the phrase goes, a picture is worth thousand words. What they see gives a far stronger impression than what you have to say. Studies show 55% of communication is done by the body language. If you look annoyed or uninterested for your presentation do you think you will convince anyone else to be interested in? Think about it, here are some suggestions.

• We often do things we shouldn’t be doing during presentation and some time we don’t even realize we are doing it because those are part of our personality – our habits. For example putting both hands in your pockets for too long or setting your hair with your hand. I always suggest to rehearse in front of mirror, so you can see what your audience will see. If you don’t like what you see in the mirror, chances are, others won’t too. You can also try recording yourself.

• Smile is a powerful tool. It gives a message of friendliness, ease and comfort. Use it. (Not a chuckle or laughter)

• Use your eye contact to regulate the flow of communication. Remember you present to audience and not the computer, wall, objects etc. Don’t keep your gazes to one person for too long as well, every one is equally important.

• Use the correct gestures, be lively.

Voice Command

• Like I mentioned 55% of communication depends on body language, your actual words that you use have only 7% impact. 38% is your tone, I can tell you, you are an idiot and stupid and you will smile or I can make you angry saying the exact same words, using different tone and body language. You can emphasize on important points, tell how serious the matter is all by your tone. Vary your tone, depending on the importance of what you are saying.

• Avoid long pauses – pauses are important and do use them, to get the attention, to raise the curiosity but make sure the timing is perfect. I will say don’t use any pause longer than 3 or max, 5 seconds. If you are setting up an equipment, writing on board etc don’t stay silent. If there is nothing else to say share an experience, tell a joke but a silence of a complete minute is a Big NO

• Use your volume, lower your volume to show a concern or raise it to show the importance, after all, presentation is all about acting. Same goes with the pace

• Don’t give me language excuse; your language skill has nothing to do with a good presentation. Language is only a tool, use it like a tool, if you lack one ability use others. One trick is, if you are out of vocabulary, shift back to your language without hesitation for a sentence or two, as it was intended to. Or you can be more formal and use something like “... Like we say in malay/urdu” and you make a transition.

Prepare the presentation.

• And before you do, you should very well know what tools will be available? For example a projector. Prepare backup as well, if plan A doesn’t work what will be the plan B

• Time is important, use it wisely. Make sure you use your facts in your time, cut down or add up information depending on the available time. Rehearse to make sure it will be within the time frame.

• Play with your words, add humor, ask questions but don’t force your audience to give you an answer, if they don’t, instead you give them an answer. The trick is ask questions which only have a 1 or 2 answers, and prepare yourself how you will continue from either answer.

• In your slides (if you have any) use bullets instead of long sentences. List down points not the complete explanations. Use graphs, charts etc. Don’t use words you don’t know the meaning of. If you can’t explain properly some technical part don’t add it up.

• The flow of your presentation should be something like this, you present the problem (yes you can exaggerate a bit, emphasize on why it really is such a big deal) once done, you suggest a solution and finally you will give benefits of solution.

• Oh and Never – I mean NEVER EVER READ from your slides.

Hope it helps.