Presentation

Presentations and reports are ways of communicating ideas and information to a group. But unlike a report, a presentation carries the speaker's personality better and allows immediate interaction between all the participants. A good presentation has:

J  Content - It contains information that people need. But unlike reports, which are read at the reader's own pace, presentations must account for how much information the audience can absorb in one sitting.

J  Structure - It has a logical beginning, middle, and end. It must be sequenced and paced so that the audience can understand it. Where as reports have appendices and footnotes to guide the reader, the speaker must be careful not to loose the audience when wandering from the main point of the presentation.

J  Packaging - It must be well prepared. A report can be reread and portions skipped over, but with a presentation, the audience is at the mercy of a presenter.

J  Human Element - A good presentation will be remembered much more than a good report because it has a person attached to it. But you still need to analyze if the audience's needs would not be better met if a report was sent instead.

Presentation Tips:

§      Know Yourself: Strengths, Weaknesses, Talents, Feelings, Opinions, Nervousness, Motivation

§      Know Your Audience: Demographics, Purpose, Interests, Commonality, Individuality.

§      Know Your Stuff: Knowledge of Subject, Research, Personal Experience, Preparation, Rehearsal.   

§      Present Yourself: Dress, Posture, Voice, Gestures, Body Language, Confidence, Enthusiasm.

§      Present to Your Audience: Positive, Polite, Interesting, Informative, Thought-provoking.

§      Present Your Material: Organization, Clarity, Visuals, Language, Volume.

Simple Presentations

Introduction

(Good morning, afternoon, evening)

I'm happy to be here.

I'm glad to have this opportunity to . . .

Today, I'd like to talk (to you) about . . .

My topic today is . . .

The focus of my remarks is . . .

I'd like to share some thoughts on (topic)

Main points

Let me start by . . .

First, let me tell you about . . .

I've divided my topic into (three) parts: (They are . . .)

Giving examples

For example,

For instance,

Let me illustrate,

To illustrate,

Conclusion

In conclusion,

To conclude,

To summarize,

To sum up,

           

Describing Products

Tell me about (this product)

What can you tell me about (this product)?

Can you give me some information/details about this?

What is special/unique about this?

What are the specifications?

Let me tell you about . . .

This is our (newest) product.

This is one of our latest designs.

It is made of . . .

It can be used for . . .

You can use it to . . .

You can . . . with it

This has/contains . . .

This one features . . .

This comes with . . .

This is equipped with . . .

This particular model . . .

This is priced at . . .

This costs . . .

Sources:

www.eslgold.net

donclark@nwlink.com