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Keeping
your audience awake
or
how
to avoid boring presentations
While presentation technology and software enables us to create
dynamic presentations that we could have only dreamed about 20 years
ago, most of the presentations we are forced to sit through still
consist of slides with bullet points or crammed full of text.
With
microphones, sophisticated projection equipment and a technician
on hand, many presentations still feature:
- dreary
presenters
- the
microphone that doesn't work
- the
phrase "can you hear me at the back?"
- the
fumbling of connections as one laptop is unplugged and another
plugged into the projector (with the PC desktop flashing up on
screen to ruin any sense of occasion)
- copies
of slides left on seats so that the entire audience can thumb
through a 20-minute presentation in 30 seconds and go to sleep
as the presenter starts to work his or her way through them
- and
- yes, we'll say it again - a technician on hand.
With
all the technology in the world, you cannot deliver an effective
presentation without planning and preparing both content and delivery.
An
enthusiastic speaker can enliven an audience purely through speaking
animatedly without the support of slides, bullet points, graphics,
animations and multimedia. That is not to say that these are not
useful supporting materials, but they should not be the main focus
of any presentation.
If
this all sounds too complicated, think again. Delivering an effective
presentation depends on sound planning and preparation. If you feel
nervous about making a presentation, these can build your confidence.
With
practice, you can present confidently and effectively; you can talk
enthusiastically about your specialist topics; you can entertain
an audience of 1 to 1,000.
Plan,
prepare and practise - and enjoy presenting.
Use
our free downloadable prompt sheet to help you produce and deliver
your presentations - choose Web
or PDF version.
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