5 Essential Tips When Giving Presentations
Intro
Giving a presentation can be scary, but it's a part of life and it's something we all have to do. From pitching a brand new TV Show to a network, prepping a client on some work you’ve done for them or showing the quarterly projections. Giving a good Presentation is an important life skill to learn. So here’s some important tips to help you out.Eye Contact
Start confident here. If you stand in front of a crowd to tell them how amazing the brand new Zoomey Zoomey Vacuum 6000, but avoid every single one of them. It’s going to make your product look less appealing. Because if you visually lack confidence when presenting, it signals you lack confidence in the contents of your presentation.Don’t glare at people though, just balance it out, making sure that you give people a roughly equal amount of attention, just not to creepy levels, but this also leads up onto our next point.Don’t Worry About Being Confident
I know, this sounds contradictory. But seriously, don’t worry about how you sound. If it's your first, second, third, or even tenth time presenting, you're gonna sound nervous. I’ve presented many times in my life for University, Work and many other scenarios. I still find my voice a little shaky until I get into the swing of things.It’s not something to be mad at yourself over. You can be confident and nervous, those two things are entirely compatible and an entirely human reaction. You're entitled to nerves, so don’t worry, focus on the presentation and things will work out. This also leads us onto the next section.Don’t Panic If Things Go Wrong
The World Is A Wild Place. Sometimes, you're gonna forget to press save on that important bullet point list that ties up your powerpoint. Sometimes you won’t be able to plug into a projector. Sometimes something will go wrong.This isn’t a moment to fall to the floor, curl into a ball and begin crying. This is a moment to bring out your back up plan. You're giving a presentation in the middle of a windy, rainy, field? Yes I’ve had to do that. Pull out your bullet pointed notes and focus more on body language, move around more, keep everyone interested.Keeping calm and having a plan b or even c is the key to success when it comes to presenting. There will be small things that go wrong and some of those things you can’t fix like being late. Worrying about them helps no one, pushing forward helps everyone.Bullet Points
A common mistake people make when making presentations is just filling the screen with text. This is less because it just looks awful visually. It’s more because it becomes an immediate temptation to then read from the presentation. This obviously means you're not giving eye contact, do not seem confident and give the impression you don’t understand the topic you're talking about. It does also put people off visually but it is an incredibly easy fix. Just use bullet points. Use these as a springboard and hide more in depth notes in a hat which you can pull down, pretending to scratch your head. Or simply hide them on a podium. Visuals
Now we briefly looked over Visuals in the last section. And they are actually fairly important. You want to pull in an audience, be it a client, a board meeting, a lecture hall or gaming convention. Your audience needs to be captivated. Visuals are the best way to draw them in.Animated text, animated pictures or just pictures on their own. Make use of VISUALS. You can use Visuals to bring in some comedy, add a serious tone or reinforce your point. Visuals are your most versatile tool in a presentation and are not limited to just the presentation on the screen.You can use holograms, wear merchandise, use windows and lighting. This is the fun tip, the bit where you can get creative, so go on, get creative!Outro
And that’s a wrap, hopefully you found these tips helpful and who knows, perhaps I’ll get to see you use them one day!