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Presentation Skills Tips
Jim Ikuss

In 1938, actor Orson Wells was able to perpetrate a magnificent hoax with his radio version of author H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds. Back then, radio was an amazing technological advance in the field of communications. People would gather around the radio in their homes, and even though there was no visual aspect to it, they would sit transfixed as news, radio dramas etc., flowed from its speaker. Think about actor Wells trying the same thing today. He’d have to coordinate his hoax with CNN, the local news, network news, radio and the Internet to get people to the same level of belief as existed with his radio-only drama. No small feat! Well, as modern presenters, we face the same issue. Today’s audiences are used to dealing with an almost constant stream of information from cable TV, computers, E-mail, pagers, cell phones satellites and Palm Pilots! As presenters we need to design and deliver presentations that allow our message to stand out amongst all of that! However, if we invest the time to target our message to our audience, deliver it in an entertaining way, and support it with interesting visual aids, then will have a successful and memorable presentation.

Targeting and planning our presentations require us to spend time thinking about why we and our audience are there. We should be asking ourselves, “What are most important points that I need to make about my subject?”, “What is the most logical sequence to deliver them in?”, “How can I best support my ideas (stories, expert testimony, etc.)?”, “What level of understanding does my audience have, and what level do I want them to be at when they leave?” (Do I need to convey a surface-level understanding, or do they need an in-depth understanding?) By answering these questions, we can target our message to a level that will be appropriate for and better received by our audience.

Our delivery should be shaped as well by our audience. For instance, with a presentation to the Board of Directors, we are more likely to be very formal. Realistically, for most of the presentations that we do, we should be more animated and more relaxed. Remember, audiences today respond better to presenters who are more “real”. Audiences want to relate to a presenter on more of a personal level. The old standard teaching of “stand straight with you jacket buttoned, don’t move around, don’t gesture, and look up occasionally at your audience” just doesn’t work today. Remember, back in the 1930’s people were used to sitting and staring at a radio. Well, we don’t want to be a radio! We should deliver our presentation in a way in which we maximize our connection with our audience. Look at them frequently, just as you would in a one-on-one conversation. Use natural appropriate gestures to help people visualize what you are saying. Pause every now and then to give people time to digest what you are saying and to emphasize an important point that you are making. We also should be aware of both our body language and that of our audience. Our posture should convey a sense of interest and authority. We should constantly be watching our audience for signs of understanding and/or puzzlement. The ultimate goal is to use our physical delivery skills in ways that create interest and variety!

In addition to properly planning and targeting our message and delivering it in an interesting and entertaining way, we can enhance it further with the proper use of visual aids. Visual aids can be almost anything from flip charts, slides, overheads, props or PowerPoint slides on a laptop. The key is to using them is to understand that they exist only to support our message and not to overpower it! Audiences are there to hear what we have to say, and clouding our message with inappropriate or overwhelming visuals will interfere with that goal. No matter what we choose to use, we should use them properly. With flip charts, create them by hand and stand close and to the side when referring to them. With an overhead image, stand by the screen, not the projector. Make certain that you are not standing in anyone’s line-of-sight. If you are using PowerPoint, try to keep the lights as bright as possible. Whatever you do, do not stand off in a dark corner huddled over your laptop! The audience will quickly lose interest in what you are saying, and your presentation will fail. The bottom-line on any visual aids is that the need to support what we are saying and not overpower it!

In reading this article, you’d be right to conclude that much of the information is based upon common sense. However, the hard part is not reading about what to do, it’s getting up and remembering to do it in front of an audience. We’ve all been forced at one time or another to sit through horrible presentations in which the speaker did not use even the most basic skills. By practicing the basics and then remembering to apply them, we can create and present memorable presentations that are interesting to listen to, entertaining to watch and targeted to the right level for our audience. Oh, and by the way, it won't be coming from a radio!