How to Slay Your Presentation?

Schools, colleges or work, chances are you might be asked to present something in front of others. For the first few times some people might experience stage fear and others may not. Whatever might be the reason, most people go on the dais kill the good presentation they wanted to deliver. Many of my friends complimented me for presenting as one of the best in my class. So, I thought I should write what I do or follow to give a good presentation.

With most presentations, you are asked to present a slideshow, or "ppt" as informally referred to a widely used Microsoft product. These slideshows are like a black pen, it makes good handwriting look better and bad handwriting worse. So, it is required that you take enough care while making the presentation. First, you are supposed to know the topic you're about to present. Learn it if you do not know it. Decide on what you where you want to lay stress on. Finally, the last step should be making your slideshow.

Use of images instead of bullet points at Google I/O

Remember that your slideshow is supposed to aid your presentation, not dominate it. This is what happens in a lot of cases. People, especially take a lot of text from web sources and paste it on the presentation. The problem is that, when the slide comes up, people are busy reading it instead of listening to you. So you are lost. Less text is more text. Always speak instead of reading bullet points.

Use images instead of text or bullet points unless inevitable. Human brain is seeing images since your vision got good enough and is trained very well to capture data from an image than through text. It is of this very reason, data visualisation plays a very vital role for data scientists. Make sure your images are relevant to your topic. Find appropriate ones or edit one for you, none of them is difficult.

Transition animations look cool when you make your slideshow but when you are on the stage, you will know that the half a second animation is like ten minutes. Inspite of that, it is distracting for your audience. It would be a lot better to stick to no animation and watch the slides switch seamlessly.

Interacting with the audience at "Today At Apple"

Know your audience well in advance to your talk. You cannot speak the same way to undergraduates and professional employees with experience. You have to prepare your speech according to the audience as well. You must put in time to phrase the sentences. No matter how comfortable you are on the dais, chances are you might say something which should have been put in some other appropriate way. The unfortunate fact is that, the one sentence you ruined will make a big impact.

It is always nice to engage with the audience, provided that you engage with all. If not stay upto yourself. This can be possible when the audience is limited like a classroom or a conference. When you ask questions, make sure you don't hurt someone's interest. That will bring a negative impression from them. Don't make your seminar too interactive. It should be a seminar, not a workshop. Three or four relevant questions should be enough.

Simon Sinek's body posture makes an impact along with his talk

Body posture makes an impact because they see you while listening. You need to maintain eye contact with your audience. Some people look up and down and speak something they have by hearted. Make sure you don't lean on the wall. If you feel your hand shivering or any such nervousness, hold on to a marker or your remote, but never put your hands in your pocket. It would look better if your posture reflects what you are trying to say. It takes a bit of practice and you need to get comfortable on the dais to do so. But you can always act smart and confident even if you aren't and people won't be able to tell the difference.

Create your own style. You needn't spend time to think and create it. As you give seminars and presentations you make it yourself. Make changes such that its not as boring as a regular one but is well within the limits. Make sure you keep it interesting, a small joke to a sleeping class is accepted.

So, this time, you step on to the dais, remember that people are going to listen to you. The room is under your control for the moment. Seize it. Be confident, clean slideshow, a little interaction, and make sure your presence makes an impact.