Throughout the course we will study and practise some of the basic techniques of communication through presentations: * Use of the Body, Eye Contact and Voice
* Organisation of Topic
* Delivery
* Clarity of Message
* Use of Resources
* Response and Feedback
Eye ContactIn any presentation it is important to make eye contact with as many people in the audience as possible. During this course make a special effort to look at everyone in the group as you present.
If you keep eye contact there is a better chance that people will feel involved in your presentation and give a response.
Making good eye contact is not just about the eyes. You usually need to use your body too. Relax your shoulders when you present - this is the place where tension collects and makes your body rigid. Eye contact is greater when you are relaxed and able to freely move the top half of your body.
Try moving your eyes across an audience as you talk, or moving from right to left. Look out for transition points in your presentation - these are often good points to change your eye direction.
If you use notes, try not to read word-for-word but improvise within a prepared framework. This will ensure better and more varied eye contact. If you do need to read (e.g. a quotation) make sure that you look up before resuming your talk.
HandsBody language punctuates our conversation all the time. Just watch two people talking and see how much their bodies are 'talking' in combination with their voices.
In presenting, hands are particularly important. During the course try to use some 'open hand' gestures to emphasise points or to indicate transitions during your presentations. Avoid pointing at the audience. If you show visual material, use display gestures with your hands but only point if you are picking out detail.
If you naturally speak fast you might find that making more deliberate hand gestures will slow your delivery down. Hand movements are often used during pauses or when a speaker moves from one section to another.
Try to avoid touching your face in public presentations, especially if you are being filmed. Folding your arms for long periods of time when presenting can be off-putting for audiences. And when working with a screen, avoid actually touching the screen - use a pointer or laser if you wish to pick out detail.
As you observe others on the course, notice how hands are being used to communicate. And watch how experienced presenters such as Al Gore use their hands to get a message across.
VoiceThe human voice is infinitely varied and subtle. Your voice is part of your personality.
In presenting, try to exploit the power of your voice to vary the tone, pitch and rhythm of your speech. Variety is the key. But also speaking naturally as much as possible. In conversation we vary our voices all the time. Some of this conversational fluency is an asset in a presentation. This is why being too nervous does not help when you present: it can flatten your voice and prevent it from having variety.
Look out for marked opportunities to vary your voice. Questions, examples and transition points are all good places for voice change.
On the course be prepared to experiment with your voice.
Sequence and Transitions
It is easy to lose your way when presenting. You need some plan, however rough, of how your presentation will unfold. If you know where you are going an audience will probably follow you.
Organise your material into sections - for example, in a five-minute presentation you might have four or five sections - and make sure you pause between them when you actually present. In a longer presentation consider using a visual aid near the start to show your audience how your material will be structured.
Don't overdo this, however. In every presentation there needs to be an element of improvisation.
Remember that audiences need a 'lead in' to a topic, maybe an example or a short anecdote or a quotation which they will recognise.
Always bear in mind that although you may know a topic inside out, an audience may know nothing about it. Some audience research in advance can make a huge difference to how you plan and structure your material.
ClarityAudiences will not remember everything from a presentation. Instead, they will remember certain words and images. You need to organise your presentation so that the 'keywords' or 'headline ideas' are clear and memorable.
This can be done visually, using a slide for example. But frequent repetition of your keywords also helps. In the first workshop exercise, the keyword is a person's name. Using the name three or four times in different sentences (instead of 'he' or 'she') ensures maximum audience recall.
Back-references ('as we saw earlier', 'as I mentioned a few moments ago') can also be effective in creating clarity.
Summaries are another way of focusing audience attention on a limited number of ideas or facts. In a longer presentation consider giving a 'midway' summary ('let me sum up the three points I have made so far') as well as a summary at the end.
Examples
A good way of starting a presentation, and keeping interest during it, is to give an example or a concrete detail. Audiences may well remember this more than abstract words.
For example, instead of saying that someone 'enjoys photography' you could say that he or she owns five different cameras, or they have their own photo blog, or they enjoy photographing cities. Details often speak volumes. And an image can speak more than words - or in combination with words.
