Presentation Skills

Time to imagine everyone in their underwear and talk to yourself in the mirror, because today I'm talking about everyone's favourite potential panic attack, presentations. So, I'm going to cover some useful skills for upping your game, talk about some different styles of presentation, and also give you some examples of distinct types of presentation. First of all, here are some important skills and considerations when preparing for a presentation.

• Tone of Voice: Addressing your audience with the correct tone is essential if you want to be taken seriously. First off, speak clearly and confidently, or your message and the attention of the audience will be lost. Secondly, match your tone to the type of audience and topic - you don't want a bouncy, excited tone when delivering crime statistics.
• First Impression: Making a good first impression gets the audience on your side and prevents them from getting frustrated. Show up on time, greet your audience with respect and keep your aesthetics in line with the event, and you'll pass this tricky first hurdle with no problem
• Body Language: Standing still twiddling your thumbs isn't exactly attention-grabbing. So when presenting, don't just present with your voice, present with your whole body. Use gestures, move around (but not too much, this isn't interpretive dance), and stand confidently. Not only will this make your presentation more engaging, but will also boost your confidence.
• Time Keeping: Keep things rolling smoothly by setting a decent pace in your preparation. Don't linger on slides or talking points for longer than you need to. And don't overrun, there's no quicker way to lose the faith of your audience than by being perceived as wasting their time.
• Humour: This one has always served me well, but it definitely isn't a catch-all technique. In some situations, there's just no way you'll pull off being funny without seeming crass or insensitive. However, if you're fortunate enough to be working with a topic where using humor is appropriate, consider these three points: Dryness (being non-emotive with your delivery will help sell the joke, and the contrast helps the audience understand your intention), Demographic (there are still going to be some topics that just can't be touched on depending on your audience), and Language (try to keep it clean, your not trying to offend or challenge people, you're trying to hold their attention).

Here's a rundown of a few styles of presentation. This isn't an exhaustive list, but it'll hopefully give you some direction as to what feel you want your next one to have.

• Visual: All about approaching a large audience with broad interests. Uses clear images and information, along with an informal tone and accessible language without too much depth into the nitty-gritty of your topic. Steve Jobs was excellent at this style, with the reveal of the original iPhone being an excellent example.
• Storytelling: A great way to hold the audience's attention. Using anecdotes and examples, or a consistent narrative allows the audience to feel integrated into the presentation even without interactivity, by allowing them to see things through your eyes. Keeping your anecdotes relatable and holding a good pace also really helps add to this effect.
• The Connector: Speaking of keeping stuff relatable, that's the entire goal of this style. The objective is to highlight similarities between yourself and your audience. This is an extremely effective choice if you need audience participation or feedback.
• The Instructor: Kind of the opposite of The Connector, The Instructor seeks to display their authority and wealth of knowledge on the subject material. Using metaphors, figures of speech, lots of data or content, and quotes round out this style.

So, presentations can be roughly grouped into two classes, informal and formal, and their usage and application are very context dependant.

• Formal Presentations are rigidly structured. They are scripted, with the goal to inform not interact. They rely on carefully selected slides and require a smart appearance as well as an authoritative tone. Here are three examples of formal presentations.

1. Lecture: Any former uni students will know where I'm coming from. Lectures are rigidly planned, long presentations that are designed to educate and inform. While there can be some interactivity in the form of Q&A sessions within a lecture, they are still very much focused on fulfilling the outline of a lesson plan
2. Product Launch: While the style of these presentations can be quite casual and friendly, they are still very much formal presentations. They focus on giving a guided tour or overview of a new product or service, and for the sake of good first impressions, they are extremely scripted.
3. Video Essay: Presentations need not be presented live, they can also be pre-recorded. Video essays are pretty self-descriptive, they're large chunks of researched information, delivered by a presenter through the medium of video. Because of their nature, they can also blur the line between theatre and documentary, by using visual effects, soundtracks, artistic cuts, and shot compositions to highlight their content.

• Informal Presentations are far less focused on structure and are far more encouraging of interactivity. You can ask questions to the audience or vice versa, or even ask them for examples or anecdotes to add to your point. They have a less strict dress code than formal presentations, and presenters can speak far more casually. Here are three examples of informal presentations.

1. Board Meeting: While board meetings seem quite formal based on their name and nature, they are in fact informal presentations. This is due to the fact that they are focused on interactions between board members to share information and improve collective understanding.
2. Seminar: The lecture's chilled out cousin. Seminars fulfill a similar purpose to a lecture, but the goal is to share knowledge through interactivity in form of conversations and activities set out by the one presenting.
3. Debate: A debate is the absolute definition of an informal presentation. Not only are you presenting to an audience, but also another presenter whose sole goal is to counter your presentation. They are extremely interactive and unstructured, as each presenter responds to the other in an attempt to win over the audience.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope this has given you a bit of direction and confidence for your next presentation. Stick around for more of my various ramblings.