Planning Your Presentation

A quick checklist:

1. Why do you want to speak to this audience?

2. What will they expect to get out of it?

3. What main points do you want to make?

4. What is the best order to present them in?

5. What sort of relationship do you wish to establish with your audience?

6. How would you like/expect them to react?

Preparing Your Presentation Five easy steps

1. Collect your material/ideas, jotting them down as they come to you on a piece of paper or a board. Be as wide-ranging as possible.

2. Select the points which seem most relevant for the situation you have defined.

3. Group the points which have some common thread, each group having a rough heading for the moment ('historical background’, 'features of the product', 'practical problems', etc.).

4. Sequence these groups into an order which will make most sense for the audience.

5. Consider ways of linking the groups together, by a common idea, an analogy, a visual.

Making and using notes

1. Consider placing your groups of information as headings arranged horizontally on the page, with the points listed vertically underneath. If the points are arranged in order of importance, this will allow omissions from the bottom of each column if time is short.

2. Make a note on the plan of the position of any audio-visual material, planned asides, anecdotes or questions. Use different symbols or colours.

3. Prepare any recordings or visual materials: overhead projection (OHP) transparencies, flipcharts, slides, samples. Make sure that visuals are visual, arrange them in such a way as to have visual impact.

4. Make a list of all the practical requirements (machinery, pens, number of sockets) you will have on the day, and make sure these are known by your host.

5. Decide what kind of notes you are going to work from on the day: none, headings, key phrases or substantial chunks. Use as few as possible. Use large writing, underlining and colours where suitable.

The introduction

1. Prepare your introduction. Include at least four pieces of information:

1. What you're going to talk about

2. How long you'll take

3. What your main groups or sections are

4. Whether you'd welcome questions during your talk, or only at the end.

This could take as little as 45 seconds, but it will give you time to establish contact with the audience. This is when they are at their most receptive, so don't only impress them by your organisation and obvious preparation, go out of your way to make some com­ment on the present situation (excellent lunch, weather, lack of time - anything which shows awareness of the world outside your subject). Beware of jokes, but make as much eye contact as possible. If necessary, give a few facts about yourself and the purpose or background of your talk.

2. When your talk is ready, practise speaking it into a tape recorder and listen to yourself.

On the day

1. Make sure all the facilities you require are available and ready: machinery, materials and notes. Then forget about them.

2. Brief your chairman/presenter about who you are, what you're going to talk about, how long you'll take, time for questions, etc. Ifs/he makes a mistake, refer to this later, light-heartedly, rather than straight away.

3. Assess the amount of room available for movement, change of posture, gesture. Consider the role of this, in view of your own style.

4. Have ready some final comment which will end on the right note, perhaps based on the immediate situation, such as weather, time, length of talk, quality of questions or what you yourself have learnt from your presentation.