Speaking to an audience can be fun and exciting. However, lack of preparation or not clearly defining the presentation’s goals and its audience can make even the best-intended presentation a complete disaster.Preparation – The Key to Successful Speaking...
To ensure your presentation is effective, first determine your objective. Ask yourself:
* Why am I giving the presentation?
* What do I want the audience to take away from the presentation?
Second, determine your audience. Their familiarity with the presentation topic will determine the level at which you present your speech.
How to Structure Your Presentation
Once you have determined your presentation’s objective and overall goal, as well as the audience, it’s time to structure your presentation. You will need to start this process by determining the length of the presentation.#
Take the allotted time and break it into smaller segments, with each segment tackling a specific task (all of which reflect the overall objective of the presentation). For example, the fist segment should be the presentation introduction. In this segment, you should give an overview of your presentation, or a short summary of your speech, explaining the topic, why you are covering this topic, and what you hope to accomplish.
The next segment should tackle the first item on your agenda, with the following segment tackling the following item on your agenda, and so on.
Once you have developed the introduction and outlined the following segments, spend some time thinking about the conclusion of the presentation. The introduction of the presentation and the conclusion of the presentation are the most important parts and should have the strongest impact.
Achieving Clarity and Impact
Keep your presentation short and simple. Your audience will not remember every point of your presentation, so highlight the most important parts. The longer the presentation, the higher the risk of boredom.
When in doubt, use the “tell ‘em” structure:
* Tell them what you are going to tell them (For instance, “In this presentation I will show you…”).
* Tell them the key points, expanding and illustrating each one, clearly and concisely.
* Tell them what you have told them (For instance, “In closing…” or “In summary…”) and conclude.
