So much is written about the problems of PowerPoint. There are so many lists of dos and don’ts for PowerPoint presentations. But in the end, the answer to producing an engaging, successful presentation actually does not originate in the use of PowerPoint itself. It originates in the speaking skills. Good PowerPoint presentations are presented by people who are good speakers first, and who apply those skills to their PowerPoint as well.
A good speaker does not allow PowerPoint to be a wall to put between themselves and the audience. She uses it as a visual aid to the words and the presentation style of the speech. It is not the dominating feature of her presentation. It has to be the speaker, who leaves the impact and the memories with the audience, not the PowerPoint slides, excellent though they may be. Her speaking skills will make the difference. PowerPoint simply supplements them.
With or without PowerPoint, a good speaker will respect his audience. He will prepare the speech so that he can give full attention to the audience and engage fully with them. If he is reading his slides, or using them as a memory prompt, then that respect is obviously diminished. Did he care so little for this audience and this occasion that he could not be bothered to fix his material in his head so that he could engage with them?
With or without PowerPoint, a good speaker will be able to engage with her audience using many techniques. Speaking is so much more than the words used. If it were not, then those words could be put on the slides and emailed or printed and posted. Making a presentation in person gives you a vastly increased chance of persuading, inspiring or affecting your audience with all sorts of vocal, content and presentation techniques that are completely impossible with words alone. So if you put all of the words on the slides, or many of the words, then the attention of the audience is focussed on those words and you waste the power of your presentation techniques.
With or without PowerPoint, a good speaker has the skills to maintain attention and engagement. This negates the need for flashy, distracting animation. It negates the need for multiple slides for each point. The slides should be unobtrusive and supportive of the spoken word, not the focal point of engagement and attention.
With or without PowerPoint, a good speaker is prepared. In PowerPoint, this means having words in a font size suitable to the room so that they can be read easily by anyone in the audience.
She knows how to use the equipment and has set it up and tested it, if at all possible before the presentation begins.
She can adapt her presentation to allow for audience interaction. The presentation is flexible so that she can respond to questions and obvious needs specific to this audience.
She has spent the time necessary to make the slides as effective as possible. This means giving time to design, ensuring all backgrounds, layouts and font are consistent. It means ensuring that the backgrounds are simple and do not create distraction from the main point and image. It means choosing images and words that support the message and no more. It also means choosing images that will appeal to this particular audience as well as establishing the brand and personal image that she chooses to represent. None of this can be done successfully by either putting the presentation together at the last minute or chopping pieces from other presentations that were not designed for this audience or situation.
All of these attributes of a good speaker – respect for an audience, being able to engage an audience, and being prepared – are also what make a PowerPoint presentation successful.
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(c) Bronwyn Ritchie
If you want to include this article in your publication. please do. but please include the following information with it:
Bronwyn Ritchie is a professional librarian, writer, award-winning speaker and trainer. She is a certified corporate trainer and speech contest judge with POWERtalk, a certified World Class Speaking coach, and has had 30 years experience speaking to audiences and training in public speaking. In just 6 months time, you could be well on the way to being confident, admired, successful, rehired. Click here for her 30 speaking tips FREE. Join now or go to http://www.30speakingtips.com
The 7 Principles of Public Speaking
Richard Zeoli
With The 7 Principles of Public Speaking, Richard Zeoli makes the common sense, gimmick-free program he’s offered to business leaders and political candidates available to everyone. => http://bit.ly/IjaYFJ
“No more than six words on a slide. Ever. There is no presentation so complex that this rule needs to be broken.”
– Seth Godin
Your audience knows whether you are speaking to them, of just presenting information. They will either feel the connection or tune out very quickly. With any conversation, whether it be informal or a formally presented speech or something in between, you keep that conversation going by choosing things to talk about that interest the other person, get them responding. So you need to know what interests your audience, what they will respond to.
This is what underlies the construction of most of your content.
It is the reason to talk about the benefits of a product instead of the features.
It is the reason to use language the audience understands. Look at your technical terms, and any jargon that they may not understand. Use examples, stories, quotes and other support material that has relevance to their lives and their interests. You will keep their attention and their interest.
And if your presentation has been advertised in media or in a conference program, the material in that advertising is what drew people to your session, so try to stick to it, or they will disengage very quickly.
So research you audience before you create your presentation if you can.
Find out as much as you can – their age range, gender, income levels, dreams, needs, wants, culture.
You can gain much from a registration form.
You can ask the event manager.
In your preparation routine, you can mingle with them before your speech.
Then you can use that information in constructing your speech. If you need to persuade, for example, you can use your knowledge of their interests and dreams.
You will choose language that they understand, and that is not irritating or offensive to them, and subject matter to suit that audience – themes, supports, anecdotes all will be tailored to them. Find out how best to dress, speak and what will meet their needs, or solve their problems and you have the first step to keeping their attention.
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(c) Bronwyn Ritchie
If you want to include this article in your publication. please do. but please include the following information with it:
Bronwyn Ritchie is a professional librarian. writer. award-winning speaker and trainer. She is a certified corporate trainer and speech contest judge with POWERtalk, a certified World Class Speaking coach, and has had 30 years experience speaking to audiences and training in public speaking. In just 6 months time, you could be well on the way to being confident, admired, successful, rehired. Click here for 30 speaking tips FREE. Join now or go to http://www.30speakingtips.com
Working the Room
by Nick Morgan
Through entertaining and insightful examples, Morgan illustrates a practical, three-part process—focusing on content development, rehearsal, and delivery—geared toward engaging an audience on every level: emotional, intellectual, and physical. Presenters from novices to seasoned orators will learn how to:
• Craft an “elevator speech” that concisely nails the key message.
• Prepare a compelling “story line.”
• Rehearse effectively.
• Involve the audience.
• Choreograph body language to reinforce the core idea.
• Channel nervousness into positive energy and passion.
• Master the technical details of voice, posture, gesture, and motion during delivery.
Whether speaking to a handful of employees or a keynote audience of hundreds, anyone can use these principles to give speeches that challenge minds, impassion hearts, and empower audiences to change the world, one idea at a time. http://bit.ly/IwOYLn
Secrets Of Superstar Speakers: Wisdom from the Greatest Motivators of Our Time
Lilly Walters
Top speakers such as Anthony Robbins and Lou Holtz reveal how they work their magic. Using the same winning formula that propelled her Secrets of Successful Speakers to sales of over 85,000 copies, best-selling author Lilly Walters examines what makes the cream-of-the-crop motivational speakers stand above the rest. She interviews or does detailed profiles 19 superstars–including Maya Angelou, Les Brown, Jack Canfield, Deepak Chopra, Stephen Covey, Sir Winston Leonard Spenser Churchill, Elizabeth Dole, Mark Victor Hansen, Lou Holtz, Vince Lombardi, Sr. and Jr., Earl Nightingale, Norman Vincent Peale, Christopher Reeve, Anita Roddick, Tony Robbins, Brian Tracy, Dottie Walters, and Zig Ziglar. Perhaps more importantly, she interviews hundreds whose lives have been changed when they heard the words of these superstar speakers.
Being put “on the spot” can be a challenge. And yet to some it seems so easy. They rise to the occasion, speak fluently, seemingly without preparation, and with such ease. We would all like to be able to emulate them – that effortless presentation of ideas, that seemingly impromptu connection with an audience, and an outcome that establishes them as credible and convincing.
In this article, let’s look at 6 techniques you can implement to build your fluency and confidence, so that you, too, can seemingly present with effortless ease.
1. Stand very deliberately and take time to begin. Pause. Smile if it is appropriate. Take a moment or two to think if you need to, and to ground yourself physically. Stand up straight to build confidence.
2. Do not apologise. You will have something to say even if it is about what you don’t know about the subject and why. Apologising ruins your confidence, deflates the audience’s confidence in you and is generally demoralising. It is also a waste of the opportunity to create a great attention-getting opening that leads into your ideas.
3. Begin with a strong opening and with confidence. Make a bold statement of your theme or to introduce what you want to say. It may be a challenge to the audience. It may be a strong statement of belief. The emphasis here is on the word strong. You convince your audience, and in the process, you convince yourself that you are confident and have a strong theme.
4. If necessary, repeat the topic out loud, either as an opening or following the strong opening. It gives you the feeling of gaining time, and it helps you develop your theme and tie it into the topic.
5. Scary though it may be, maintain eye contact. You and the audience are all in this together. Share the experience. Make the tone conversational so that you engage them in your material and presentation. Use words that you would use with them in conversation. If possible relate your material to someone in the audience or the organisation involved or to the geographical area.
6. Stick with your topic. Use your stories, examples and other support material to relate to that topic. Call back, if possible, to your opening statement. Stay focussed on your message.
7. Take questions and answers if there is time and/or opportunity, but not right at the end. Instead, finish strong. If nothing else, conclude with a reiteration of your opening statement rehashed in light of what you have said during the speech. If there is no need to thank anyone at the end, then a nod and/or smile is enough to finish, and can be far more powerful.
Add a dash of practise to this recipe. With experience you can build these techniques into habits so that they come to you more easily. With experience, and success, your confidence will grow. And with experience you will become more comfortable with not only speaking “on the spot”, but also interacting with your audience “on the spot” as well.
© Bronwyn Ritchie If you want to include this article in your publication, please do, but please include the following information with it:
Bronwyn Ritchie is a professional librarian, writer, award-winning speaker and trainer. She is a certified corporate trainer and speech contest judge with POWERtalk, a certified World Class Speaking coach, and has had 30 years experience speaking to audiences and training in public speaking. Get her 30 speaking tips FREE and boost your public speaking mastery over 30 weeks. Join now or go to http://www.30speakingtips.com
… a wonderful example of using a visual aid – Who needs PowerPoint?!! Watch the language he uses, and the use of pause
[Via Tom Antion]
“When speaking to a very small group of people you should be able to include an extremely large amount of customization. You should have researched the group and done your normal homework including phone interviews with the expected attendees (if it is a public event and you don’t know who is coming, be set up way early so you can greet and interview people as they arrive.) Jot down a note of why each person attended. Then, when a section of your talk applies to them, point it out and name them by name.
Example: “John, you told me you wanted to learn how to sell more to the people that visit your website. This section specifically addresses that, especially the part about the psychology of the sale.”
Don’t assume that people will perk up when you come to the part that specifically applies to them. Make a big deal to point it out to them. You will be adding an extreme amount of value which makes them realize that it was a good thing they attended. Oh and don’t forget they’ll love you for it.”
1. Encourage questions
I’m sure you have been to a seminar or presentation where the speaker asks for questions and there is an uncomfortable silence. It is embarrassing to say the least – for the presenter and for the audience. Perhaps it has happened to you. There are four ways to avoid this situation.
You can ask the audience to ask the person sitting next to them what they took away from the session. Some people ask for “ah-has”. Then you can ask for the outcomes of that discussion and extend that to comments and questions.
You can begin with a question yourself – say it is one that you are asked or have been asked in the past. Provide the answer and then ask who has the next question as though the audience were already alive with questions.
Before you begin your presentation, you can set up people to ask questions for you. Provide them with the questions if necessary. That way you can begin with something that will provoke more questions, or even set up for some humour to make people more relaxed and open to asking.
Avoid the danger of asking a closed-ended question. Rather than asking if there are any questions, ask “Who has the first/next question” or, more powerfully, “What are your questions?”
2. Create Impact
Answering questions is as much a speaking exercise as the presentation itself, so the sorts of techniques you use for success in your speaking will work here too.
Add impact to your answer by answering with a story. Making information interesting, relevant and memorable is just as important here.
While your whole presentation is a conversation, it is a public one. So treat the individual asker of the question with respect, and then answer to the group. That respect includes thanking the person. It includes avoiding sarcasm and giving the question its due. Repeat the question. This is partly to make sure everyone has heard it. It is also an opportunity to ensure you have understood the question thoroughly before you launch into your answer. It can give you, too, an opportunity to think about how you will respond. If you know that you always need this time to think, use pause here, to buy yourself that time. But make sure you pause for every question!
3. Be Prepared
Spend time anticipating the sorts of questions this audience will ask. It will give you a chance to prepare the best way to answer. It means getting to know the audience beforehand, which you will have done in the preparations for the presentation anyway. Talk to the event organiser, talk to other members of the organisation and if at all possible talk to the audience before you present. Not only will this give you an understanding of how the audience members think and what they need, and a foundation for preparing for their questions. It will also give you material you can use in your presentation and in your answers that are specifically customised to this audience and even to specific members.
You can also prepare some humour to use as well. You can inject humour into the answers to lighten the session and, if necessary, to deflect any discomfort.
Finally you can prepare cards on which you can ask people to write questions during breaks or before the session.
Being prepared is “half the battle” when it comes to any public speaking challenge and it applies just as much to your question and answer sessions. If you are prepared with ways to smooth the process, with an understanding of your audience and the questions they might ask, with a set of boundaries and with Plan B, C and D, then you can turn your Q&A from a fear-invoking challenge into a positive, powerful experience.
© Bronwyn Ritchie If you want to include this article in your publication, please do, but please include the following information with it:
Bronwyn Ritchie is a professional librarian, writer, award-winning speaker and trainer. She is a certified corporate trainer and speech contest judge with POWERtalk, a certified World Class Speaking coach, and has had 30 years experience speaking to audiences and training in public speaking. Get her 30 speaking tips FREE and boost your public speaking mastery over 30 weeks. Join now or go to http://www.30speakingtips.com