Session 5 (July 19/20): Business Presentations

Presentations

Textbook support: Chapter 12

Presentation Parts
Opener
Introduction w/ Overview
3-4 Key Points (Signposts)
Summary
Conclusion

Planning a Strong Presentation
Points of emphasis
Interest audience and emphasize key points
Talk from notes
Write out opener and closer
Practice!

Four Strong Openers
Startling statement
“Unemployment is now 9.1%!...”
Narration or anecdote
“ While I was driving to work last week…”
Question
“Wow many of you view yourself as an effective public speaker?”
Quotation
“Shakespeare once said, ‘Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.’”

Introduction
Don’t forget to introduce yourself!
Give an overview of the presentation…
Key point #1
Key point #2
Key point #3
No need for details, just main points
Overview
Tell what you’ll cover…
first… second… third…
Helps audience know what to expect
Prepares audience for tracking and remembering your points
Offers clear signpost as you end each point
Clear Signposts
Key point #1
Supporting information
Supporting information
Key point #2
Supporting information
Supporting information
Key point #3
Supporting information
Supporting information

Summary & Conclusion
Summarize your presentation…
“We talked about…
Key point #1 …
Key point #2 …
Key point #3 …

Conclusion(s) and/or action(s), position, recommendations, etc.

Key Parts
Opener
Gain their interest…
Introduction w/ Overview
“Tell the audience what you are going to tell them . . .”
3-4 Key Points (Signposts)
“ . . . then tell them . . .” The body of your talk
Summary
“ . . . and then tell them what you have told them.”
Conclusion
Call to action – what do you want the audience to do?
Offer to answer questions

Overcoming Fear
Be prepared
Use only normal amount of caffeine
Avoid alcoholic beverages
Re-label your nerves

Effective Delivery: Notes
Put notes on cards or sturdy paper
Jot down details, examples you’ll use
Indicate where you’ll refer to visual
Look at notes rarely
Hold notes high

PowerPoint Design Tips*
The goal is improved learning
Be conservative – keep it simple
Use lots of white space
Use contrast (dark-on-light or light-on-dark)
Design from top left to bottom right
People see graphics first, then text
Use large font size – min 18 or 24 pts
Limit use of boldface, italics, and underlining
Don’t write in all upper case letters
Use common fonts (Verdana, Arial, etc,)
No more than two fonts on a screen
Be concise with text
One concept per slide
Plan on spending about 2 minutes per slide
Limit use of special effects
Use background patterns wisely
Use high quality original media
Edit files to a meaningful length

*Teaching Well with PowerPoint, University of Notre Dame, 2/6/2004, http://www.nd.edu/~learning/powerpoint/designtips.pdf

Things to work on…
Speak up…
Slow down… Don’t rush…
Speak clearly… articulate

Don’t lean on the podium…
Don’t read off the slides or cards…
Present TO your audience (not the screen)

Maintain eye contact…
PowerPoint must be readable…
Be confident…


Blog topic: briefly share your feelings and/or attitudes toward public speaking (fears, successes, failures, challenges, etc.)