Preparation. Plan your presentation carefully

Planning

Plan your presentation carefully. Thorough preparation will make you more confident and help you to overcome your nervousness.

Objectives

Never compose your presentation without an "end in mind", that is think about what you want to achieve. Are you aiming to inform, persuade, train or entertain your audience?

Audience

Know your audience. Find out whom exactly you will be addressing and how many people will be attending? Gather information about your audience's needs, wants, anxieties, "personality..." and what they already know about the topic. Ask yourself: "What's in my presentation for THEM in terms of content and approach?" Remember to "see, taste, and hear" your presentation as if you are a member of your own audience. You wouldn't make the same presentation about a new software package to engineers, accountants and top managers. The engineers want to know about the tool's whizzes and whirrs – what it can do for them and why it beats competing products. The accountants want to know what it will cost and how it will save them money. Top management wants to know how it will boost productivity and give the company an edge over the competition. So adjust your pitch as needed.

Content

Brainstorm your ideas first. Then decide which are most relevant and appropriate
to your audience and to your objectives and carry out any research that is necessary. Be selective! Don't try to cram too much into your presentation.

Approach

A good rule of thumb is to 'tell your audience what you're going to say, say it,
then tell the audience what you've said'. You must make the audience sure that your presentation is really worth listening, so at the beginning of your presentation tell them: 1) "You need to know this because...," 2) "Knowing this will help you too..." and 3) "Here's what you need to know..."

Try to develop your key points in an interesting and varied way, drawing on relevant examples, figures etc. for support as appropriate. You might also like to include one or two anecdotes for additional variety and humour.

Дата добавления: 2015-07-20