This week our lecture was on presenting and what to do and what not to do for our presentation pitch in week twelve. This lecture really helped me to understand whats important when presenting and how to layout and design my slide deck as the presentation is something that im worried I would’ve messed up if we didn’t have help with how to present.
I found an article online called “Presentation skills: 16 tips for effective presentations” here are the sixteen that they list in the article:
1: Maintain eye contact, To make the audience feel personally addressed eye contact is key and it helps you connect with your audience. Don’t look at the floor or screen, don’t look at index cards and don’t just look at your laptop.
2: Use of gestures and facial expressions, to avoid coming across awkward in the presentation you should avoid crossed arms, hands behind your back and hands in your pockets. Facial expressions should be friendly and open while presenting.
3: Avoid distractions, to avoid distractions try not to use tools to help you present, keep your hands free so that you can use gestures instead to get your point across.
4: Be prepared: practice makes perfect, to prepare: rehearse before hand, take notes, experiment, time yourself and record yourself.
5: Be confident
6: Effective beginning/end, studies show that if you can capture the interest of the audience straight away then there’s a good chance that they’ll stay engaged throughout. How you end it is just as important, a good ending will motivate the audience and will leave it on a positive note.
7: Speak freely, To keep the presentation lively, you should avoid reading it off. If you plan to use cue cards, make sure you write down bullet points instead of paragraphs of text.
8: Avoid filler words
9: Bring along something to share
10: Use different types of media
11: Use effective pauses, give the audience time to read and digest the information on the slides. A pause that’s used correctly can add a lot to your presentation, pause before, during or after saying something that you want to emphasize**.**
12: Speak the language of the audience, Use appropriate language, use strong and meaningful words in short sentences to avoid losing the audience.
13: Engage with the audience
14: Don’t fight the stage fright and take deep breaths
15: Choose the right angle on standing during the presentation
16: Create something with the whiteboard