Know Your Audience

Know your audience. In order for your delivery to have a true impact value and influence your audience there are four questions you must be able to answer: How many people will there be in the audience? What re their expectations and what do they want from my presentation? What is their background and What is their knowledge base. Answering these ensures that your visual aids are appropriate, your room and venue are conducive and that you pitch your delivery at the right level. Too 'High brow' and fill of technical or industry abbreviations will not make you look important and knowledgeable, it will turn the audience off. Conversely pitch your delivery too low and you won't keep the audience interested or engaged.

Flip charts

Today I am going to share my tips on using flip charts. Many people including myself like technology including iannotate for iPad, smart boards etc. But, the flip chart isn't dead and can be really useful with a smaller audience. My flip chart tips are: Try not to fall over it! - we've all done it and probable more than once If you have writing that slants up or down then draw very faint lines in pencil - no one will see and everything stays horizontal If you know the titles of what you will be discussing you can pre write them neatly in advance. Just make sure the writing doesn't 'bleed through' to the page below. I put piece of card between when I write If you have less than perfect writing it often looks neater if you form each letter with separate lines. For example when writing the letter 'd' do the l first followed by the 'c' My most favourite tip of all is to pre write in faint pencil the points you need to cover or bring out during a discussion along the very top of the paper. This means you don't have to hold notes, or be apprehensive about not covering all the points. The audience will I promise you not be able to see the notes and you look as thought you know your subject matter inside and out Goog luck and remember for more great tips see my $99 cents/ 77p ebook 'How to create and deliver effective presentations' by Sarah Simpson

Presentation quote

I love this quite by Alain de Botton 'I passionately believe that it's not just what you say that counts, it's also how you say it. The success of your argument critically depends on your manner of presenting it'. We with all have been in the audience and been left feeling that the presenter must have known their stuff but 'could have out it better'. We need to really care how our delivery makes our audience feel. No one wants to feel that they wasted their time coming to one of your presentations. More if my favourite quotes to follow later.....

Fonts, fonts, fonts

Ok, so let's talk about fonts. How often have you heard a presenter start a sentence with the words 'for those of you that can't see this slide it says.....! In my opinion this should never happen. He are my rules for slide fonts (power point, Prezi, keynote) Use sans serif fonts (the ones without the 'tails' and 'feet' eg ariel, Tahoma and verdana as opposed to serif fonts such as bookman, palatino and time new roman Avoid stift fonts eg John handy, staccato Title font should be between 36 and 44 points Body font should be between 24 and 32 points Stay away from BOLD as this is considered shouting Underlining now means a hyperlink so again stay away from this Italic and shadow are also hard to read Please, please, please don't have lots of letter and word effects eg flying and disintegrating letters. It's not pleasant for the audience and they will switch off to the message you are delivering. Bullet points - keep them consistent and remember a space between the bullet and the first word http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0081KT2FA Www.dragontoothtraining.co.uk

e book link - the best 99cents (77p) you'll ever spend!

oops forgot to put the ebook link duh! http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0081KT2FA

How to Create & Deliver Effective Presentations

Hi all, Just wanted to give you all a flavor of my new ebook as well as pass on some invaluable presenting advise

Creating & Delivering an Effective Presentation

Presenting is easy isn't it? You stand up and give a fabulous, witty, engaging delivery which the audience loves and you can’t wait to do again....No?

Everyone at some point will have to prepare and deliver a presentation. This could range from a workplace meeting or demonstration up to an international conference and they can all be just as intimidating. Just as the venue and presentation type changes so do how a person reacts - I have seen everything from 'bring it on' to paralyzing fear.

  

So, why should you be a great presenter? Surely your material will speak for itself, right?... Wrong. A well planned, practiced and executed presentation will increase the impact of your message, add to your professional reputation and credibility and ensure your key objectives are met.

“I passionately believe that's it's not just what you say that counts, it's also how you say it - that the success of your argument critically depends on your manner of presenting it” (Alain de Botton)

We will all have encountered inspiring, motivational people whose presenting style and message leaves us feeling inspired and enthused. Conversely we will have experienced a lackluster style which is ineffective, de-motivating and sometimes painfully embarrassing. I call these two styles the 'Nails down the Blackboard' and 'Powerful Presenter'.

The Nails down the Blackboard

These will be delivered by presenters who lack confidence and preparation or who don't have the audiences’ interests at the centre. It’s the 'I've got a speech and I'm going to deliver it'. As a result the audience isn't engaged or motivated to listen and this style will often be accompanied by a monotone voice, cluttered or inappropriate visual aids, reading verbatim and a lack of enthusiasm or passion for the subject. Audience phrases will be unforgiving and examples include:

'I need a coffee'

'I didn't think that would ever end'

'Where did they get him/her from?'

'That was painful'

The Powerful Presenter

Unlike the style above these presenters tailor their delivery to the audience. Their visual and auditory aids are appropriate, they know the experience level and needs of the audience and deliver with an engaging, enthusiastic style which flows logically from one point or theme to the next.

Audience comments will be positive and they will appreciate that their time has been well spent in attending your event. Examples of positive audience comments include:

'That was great'

'I didn't know that'

'They really knew their stuff'

'I wonder when their going to do another one?'

Quite clearly we all want to deliver the second style but this doesn't happen by chance. You need to have; great planning, knowledge of your audience and venue, clear key objectives and appropriate visual and auditory aids. This can be challenging especially when you are gripped by shear panic and a desire to lock yourself in the bathroom and not come out!

The ‘Fear Factor'

When you ask people why they are apprehensive you get the same comments regardless of age, gender or industry.

I don't know where to start

I don't like people looking at me

I always loose where I am

My mouth goes dry and my brain goes blank

I can't stop my voice, legs and hands from shaking

They might laugh at me

Someone might ask me something I don't know the answer to

If any of these sound familiar you are certainly not alone and this apprehension comes from a desire to portray yourself, product or organisation in the best way possible.

When people prepare a presentation they often use the title e.g. 'Presentation Skills' as the frame on which to hang their points. However, the two main premises of any delivery is to i) tell the audience something they didn't know or ii) inspire them to take action. Therefore, your presentation should be built around that main objective. In the example above my main objective would be 'How to create and deliver effective presentations'.

In order that your presentation flows and has 'signposts' that the audience can follow its content should be designed around bite-sized chunks or themes. So, in my example my main themes would be; audience, content, presenter and venue. You can now add in the points that come under each theme. These should only be included if they support or add to your main objective, in order words they are essential. It is only if you have the luxury of time, or your presentation length is suddenly increased that you should add in points that are 'nice to have'. Each theme can now have its own introduction, main body and summary. So, that's it? Not quite! Every presentation no matter how small needs a powerful introduction, conclusion, Q&A section and if audience size and situation allows you should include a learning recap which acts as a check to ensure learning transfer.

An introduction; sets the scene, tells the audience why they should listen (what's in it for them) and tells them what your going to tell them. For many it is the initial getting up and introducing themselves that they find difficult. There are two main approaches you can take here. The 'play it safe' method e.g. 'good morning my name is Sarah I'd like to thank you for inviting me here today to talk to you about presentation skills'. Or, there is a 'hook' method 'good morning my name is Sarah and today I'm going to show you how to increase your professional reputation and make presenting an enjoyable experience'.

What about your conclusion? If you used the method above your theme summaries will form your conclusion. This is the 'tell them what you've told them bit'. The conclusion should not contain anything that has not been in the main presentation delivery.

The Q&A section should never be left out even if you find it uncomfortable. There are various methods and techniques for dealing with question concerns and many involve turning the question back to the audience. For example you are asked a question and don't know the answer. Admitting you don’t know the answer (after telling them what a great question they have asked) is always preferable to making something up, only to be found out later. However, another approach might be to ask the audience what they think e.g. 'Catherine has just asked a great question about A,B&C, what does anyone else think?'. This approach engages the audience and encourages participation.

Finally, a word about humour. Some people will feel more comfortable leaving humour and story telling to the stand-up comedian but this isn't to say you can't deliver in a unique way that breaks down barriers and builds rapport. There is a fantastic example of this available online of a lecture on high level physics in which the presenter uses scenes from the children's cartoon My Little Pony. It's captivating, engaging and he gets his key messages across perfectly.

Quite clearly creating and delivering a presentation requires much more than I can cover here. Other considerations include; the use of stories, metaphors and analogy, slide do's and don'ts, PowerPoint, keynote, and Prezi. As well as consideration of visual and auditory aids, contingency planning, tailoring, size considerations and venue and message.

I hope this has inspired you to try something different and start building your presenting reputation and experience. Remember the only ‘bad’ presentation is one you don't learn from and there is always a next time.

Sarah Simpson owns Dragontooth Training and Consultancy and is the author of 'How to Create and Deliver Effective Presentations'.www.dragontoothtraining.org.uk
read my latest eBook at   http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0081KT2FA