Day 14 #blogjune - Presenting to an audience

Yesterday I wrote about my thoughts on students being taught presentation skills; today I thought I would cover what I learned in the process of teaching myself how to present.

I had to learn presentation skills myself.  I was accepted to give a presentation at a national conference and, after I was accepted, realised the magnitude of what I had let myself in for.  I had never presented, never really observed anyone present and had only been to 1 or 2 conferences.  To say I was overwhelmed was an understatement.

I set myself some tasks on how to actually present well to an audience (well, I hope I succeeded here!) and started to observe how people engaged with others.  This was internally (staff meetings etc), externally (board meetings, forums, seminars etc) and so on.  I found I didn't have to actually go to a conference to learn what engaged people and what made them lose interest.  Some of my key recommendations are summarised below:

Think about what is important to you when giving your presentation. Is it:

• Engaging with the audience?
• Reading your paper out loud?
• Stimulating discussion and debate?
• Being remembered?

Observe presenters.  Look at:

• how they speak
• their style
• their interaction with the audience
• what you like/don't like

Engage with the audience

• Poll them at the start
• Speak TO them, not AT them

Ideally, your presentation, if it is formal, should contain 3 parts:

1. paper for publication
2. presentation notes
3. Slideshow

These suggestions have helped me prepare for over 50 presentations, so they do work.  Hopefully they can help you as well :)