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Effective Presentations

COSC2P50

John Levay

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Presentations

• University of Minnesota study– standing vs. sitting– standing adds value

• Visual aids– University of Wisconsin– Harvard, Columbia– University of Pennsylvania

• Read, hear and see statistics

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Presentation Principles

• Present only enough to persuade– avoid too much information– people deal with too much information

• Make people remember– use tools– attention spans– 2 out of 10 people remember a portion– goals - memorable and keep people listening– boredom breeds discontent

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Troublemakers in Presentations

• Hostile

• Know-it-all

• Loudmouth

• Interrupter

• Interpreter

• Gossiper

• Whisperer

• Silent

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Troublemakers in Presentations continued

• Busy-Busy

• Latecomer

• Early leaver

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Presentation Principles - continued

• Presenting NOT public speaking– presenting focuses on the audience– presenting provides value– public speaking is speaker oriented

• example - politicians

• Purpose is persuading or enlightenment– think about what people should do in response

to your presentation

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Presentation Principles - continued

• Audience perception of you matters– bad perception make you ineffective– rarely “what” matters more than “who”– marketing is ineffective– practice, practice, practice

• 4 Criteria to be satisfied– Attention getting– meaningful– memorable– activating

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Presentation Rules

• Have something to say

• Say it clearly

• Say it like you mean it

• Technology can’t help you

• ten truths about multimedia presentations

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8 Points to Develop Presentations

1. Setting objectives– what are you doing the presentation for?– focus on why not how

2. Know your audience– who are they– what are their needs– request lists of attendees– study background of audience– talk to some people ahead of time– talk to others who have spoken to same group

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8 Points to Develop Presentations - cont

3. State main ideas– what do I want people to remember– limit content– maximum 1 idea every 15 minutes– main ideas must

• state conclusions

• accomplish objectives

• be interesting and memorable

• be few in number

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8 Points to Develop Presentations - cont

4. Choose supporting information for main ideas– where do you get this

• inside organization

• outside organization

• research

• personal insights

– start a file of “stuff” for presentations

5. Create an opening– objectives of an opener

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8 Points to Develop Presentations - cont

– Other things to include in opening• attention getting statement

• main ideas

• benefits to audience

– appropriate words and body language– Read opening and ask yourself

• why are we here

• why is this important

• what’s in it for the audience

• how will the audience be affected

• what will the audience get out of this

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8 Points to Develop Presentations - cont

6. Develop transitions– natural flow– tie presentation together– help audience follow along– short – can be questions– can be pauses

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8 Points to Develop Presentations - cont

7. Structure main body– contains key points– logical– force people to remember– logical sequences– spice it up

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8 Points to Develop Presentations - cont

8. Prepare close - most important part– possibly prepare first– summary of main ideas– review purpose– appeal for desired action– many ways to close– choose words carefully

• 12 most persuasive English words - Yale

• Most powerful English word combinations

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Seven Deadly Sins in Presentations

1. Organization charts

2. Would you pay to listen to this?

3. Right presentation -wrong target

4. Too much

5. Lights out

6. Slides too detailed

7. Just try to wing it

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Presentation Tips - Visuals

• Fonts– one, thick, san-serif (Verdana or Arial)

• Titles

• Consistency

• Big fonts– I use 40/32 bold– sign painters law– if it doesn’t fit then it’s too much!

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Presentation Tips - Visuals - cont

• Colour– background, text, accents– red/green

• Colour sets– dark vs. light

• Colour is light on a screen

• Bright or dim room?

• Emotions of colours

• Transitions

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Presentation Tips - Visuals - cont

• Designing visuals use KISS– Summary– Review

• Maximum 6 bullets to a slide

• Left to right, top to bottom

• Graphics

• White space

• Other things

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Presentation Tips - Visuals - cont

• Support message with visuals

• Pie, Line, Bar charts– use only 3 lines

• Hand out complicated charts– never pack numbers into tables

• Resolution of projector– less is more

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Presentation Tips - Presentations

• Notes

• Printed summary

• try it– video– time it– know the technology– try equipment– lights– mouse

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Presentation Tips - Presentations - cont

• Backup copy of everything

• Arrival

• Remember your audience– pay attention to them

• How to end the presentation– black slide– questions slide– email, company logo

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Technology verses Overheads

• Update

• Notes for users

• Navigation

• Graphics

• Sound, motion, movies

• Overheads as backup

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In the End

• Fun

• Nervous

• Use technology properly

• Confidence through review

• Low tech verses high tech

• Be kind to presenters - it may be you someday!

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The End

Questions?