What are some good presentation tips?

Understanding your audience is a great place to start. You have to know what is important to them. Aside from that, knowing how to "toe the line" between main ideas and the right amount of detail is also very important. Too little detail and you might lose credibility, too much and you might lose people's attention.

Audience attentiveness during a business presentation follows a predictable pattern called the "hammock". If you do not know what a hammock is, look it up and pay attention to the shape of how it hangs. Attentiveness is highest at the beginning and end of a presentation, but it dips in the middle, just like a hammock. A good speaker with "spike" their presentations in the middle with interesting stories or visuals to regain audience attention.

For examples from some of the worlds best speakers, I suggest you look up TedTalks on youtube. Also use your experience. Pay attention to presentations that excited you and presentations that bore you. What is the difference? Is it the speaker? The material? Is it relevant to you? Then, emulate those things.

I always start my sales presentations with a handful of questions to help me direct my talk track. Once I have some basic questions answered (customer pain points, likes and dislikes, their vision of the future) then I can tailor the conversation to their needs. I am not a "death by PowerPoint" person, so the fewer slides the better, and Brian is right, less text on the slides the better. I try to use images and charts to make most of my points if I can. The last thing you want your audience to do is read your slides while you are trying to talk. Lastly, confidence is key, so practice your presentation over and over. The more you do it, the more confident you will be, and the better you will be received.

Hi Rachel,

Public Speaking Tips

Know the needs of your audience and match your contents to their needs. Know your material thoroughly. Put what you have to say in a logical sequence. Ensure your speech will be captivating to your audience as well as worth their time and attention. Practice and rehearse your speech at home or where you can be at ease and comfortable, in front of a mirror, your family, friends or colleagues. Use a tape-recorder and listen to yourself. Videotape your presentation and analyze it. Know what your strong and weak points are. Emphasize your strong points during your presentation.

When you are presenting in front of an audience, you are performing as an actor is on stage. How you are being perceived is very important. Dress appropriately for the occasion. Be solemn if your topic is serious. Present the desired image to your audience. Look pleasant, enthusiastic, confident, proud, but not arrogant. Remain calm. Appear relaxed, even if you feel nervous. Speak slowly, enunciate clearly, and show appropriate emotion and feeling relating to your topic. Establish rapport with your audience. Speak to the person farthest away from you to ensure your voice is loud enough to project to the back of the room. Vary the tone of your voice and dramatize if necessary. If a microphone is available, adjust and adapt your voice accordingly.

Body language is important. Standing, walking or moving about with appropriate hand gesture or facial expression is preferred to sitting down or standing still with head down and reading from a prepared speech. Use audio-visual aids or props for enhancement if appropriate and necessary. Master the use of presentation software such as PowerPoint well before your presentation. Do not over-dazzle your audience with excessive use of animation, sound clips, or gaudy colors which are inappropriate for your topic. Do not torture your audience by putting a lengthy document in tiny print on an overhead and reading it out to them.

Speak with conviction as if you really believe in what you are saying. Persuade your audience effectively. The material you present orally should have the same ingredients as that which are required for a written research paper, i.e. a logical progression from INTRODUCTION (Thesis statement) to BODY (strong supporting arguments, accurate and up-to-date information) to CONCLUSION (re-state thesis, summary, and logical conclusion).

Do not read from notes for any extended length of time although it is quite acceptable to glance at your notes infrequently. Speak loudly and clearly. Sound confident. Do not mumble. If you made an error, correct it, and continue. No need to make excuses or apologize profusely.

Maintain sincere eye contact with your audience. Use the 3-second method, e.g. look straight into the eyes of a person in the audience for 3 seconds at a time. Have direct eye contact with a number of people in the audience, and every now and then glance at the whole audience while speaking. Use your eye contact to make everyone in your audience feel involved.

Speak to your audience, listen to their questions, respond to their reactions, adjust and adapt. If what you have prepared is obviously not getting across to your audience, change your strategy mid-stream if you are well prepared to do so. Remember that communication is the key to a successful presentation. If you are short of time, know what can be safely left out. If you have extra time, know what could be effectively added. Always be prepared for the unexpected.

Pause. Allow yourself and your audience a little time to reflect and think. Don't race through your presentation and leave your audience, as well as yourself, feeling out of breath.

Add humor whenever appropriate and possible. Keep audience interested throughout your entire presentation. Remember that an interesting speech makes time fly, but a boring speech is always too long to endure even if the presentation time is the same.

When using audio-visual aids to enhance your presentation, be sure all necessary equipment is set up and in good working order prior to the presentation. If possible, have an emergency backup system readily available. Check out the location ahead of time to ensure seating arrangements for audience, whiteboard, blackboard, lighting, location of projection screen, sound system, etc. are suitable for your presentation.

Have handouts ready and give them out at the appropriate time. Tell audience ahead of time that you will be giving out an outline of your presentation so that they will not waste time taking unnecessary notes during your presentation.

Know when to STOP talking. Use a timer or the microwave oven clock to time your presentation when preparing it at home. Just as you don't use unnecessary words in your written paper, you don't bore your audience with repetitious or unnecessary words in your oral presentation. To end your presentation, summarize your main points in the same way as you normally do in the CONCLUSION of a written paper.

Remember, however, that there is a difference between spoken words appropriate for the ear and formally written words intended for reading. Terminate your presentation with an interesting remark or an appropriate punch line. Leave your listeners with a positive impression and a sense of completion. Do not belabor your closing remarks. Thank your audience and sit down.

Source: http://www.aresearchguide.com/3tips.html

Best!

Great question, I would recommend the following:

• know your audience
• ice breaker in the beginning/that ties into why you are presenting
• Practice your posture, smiling, avoid filler words such as: Um, Like, you know. (This can be difficult and practicing with someone who is honest, but kind will help you overcome this)
• If you have a presentation clear/explain your slide before speaking to it. Your audience will only see the visual if you don’t and will not hear your message
• change the pace periodically (ask the audience, tie in story related to who the audience is aware of etc...)
• work the room and make eye contact with everyone
• keep it to the point and make sure it summarizes with the WIFM (what’s in it for me). You want everyone to feel as if truly they gained something valuable

Speaking does not come natural for all. Practice helps, but not too much. Expect your first couple speaking engagements to not hit on perfection. Good feedback and experience will help you improve each time and be yourself.

Hope that helps and wish you the best

Best practices for presentations, particularly PowerPoint will be to not have too many words with your slides.  Each slide should have an objective and when you speak on each slide it is best to memorize.  Walk the floor while making eye contact with your audience, but beware not to walk in front of the projector screen.  Also, be careful with adding humor in your presentation, this can be a bit risky.  I always like to tell a bit about myself before the presentation begins and I like adding a quote or 2 into the presentation.  Whenever you are dealing with metrics, be sure to have a valid source to where you are getting results from.  There are audiences that will try to fact check you.